Designed for the Oman Across Ages Museum, the exhibit occupies a central position in the Contemporary Oman gallery. The experience is structured around balancing multiple dimensions of the economy—including wellbeing, commerce, and culture—requiring users to coordinate inputs and respond to dynamic events that impact overall system stability. The interface is distributed across two coordinated layers:

• A multi-touch table — 250cm wide — allows four players to manage resources, professions, and infrastructure
• An overhead projected sphere, which reflects system-wide changes and amplifies the collective state

The island is the game's centrepiece — a coastline shaped like Oman's own geography, with buildings distributed across the land. Oil fields sit near the coast, the airport out at the edges, the hospital and school inland. The map had to read instantly from all four player positions — no single "front" side, no preferred viewing angle.

The visual language went through a full exploration before arriving at the final map. Early wireframes tested the spatial logic of the island, the position of the economy radar, and the placement of each player's card hand. The colour palette and illustration style were resolved in parallel — shifting from a muted, diagrammatic early direction to the vivid, character-driven world of the final game.

The game's core mechanic is the profession card. Each player holds a hand of cards representing real Omani occupations — Petroleum Engineers, Date Farmers, Fishers, Doctors, Teachers, Chefs, Pilots, Curators. Assign a card to a matching building and the bonus multiplies. Assign it to the wrong sector and it still contributes — inefficiency is modelled, not punished outright.

Nine building types anchor the island's economy. Each belongs to one of three sectors, and each develops through three tiers as players assign workers — from modest beginnings to flagship infrastructure. Every building was designed from real Omani architectural references: the proportions, colours, and characteristic features of real buildings across the country, abstracted into a flat illustration language that reads instantly on a touchscreen.

Development Logic

Each building develops through three layers and three levels — Layer 1 being the structural base, Layer 2 the architectural envelope, Layer 3 the details and signage. As workers are added, each layer renders progressively, giving the building a visible sense of growth and investment. The same logic applies across all nine building types.

The most dramatic moments in Econo Me are the event takeovers — full-screen animated interruptions that announce unexpected national events. These stop the game entirely: a large illustration fills the table, the event is described, and the economy adjusts. Good events are celebrated with colour and fireworks. Bad events bring the consequences immediately — a sandstorm halts daily life, oil prices drop, a drought hits the farming sector.

The events are drawn from Oman's real national calendar and economic history — Renaissance Day (commemorating Sultan Qaboos), seasonal sandstorms, fishing seasons, oil booms and dips. They teach not just mechanics but the rhythms of Omani life.

Takeovers

The final visual language resolves the illustrated world, the UI systems, and the event takeovers into a single coherent palette. Warm sand coast against deep navy ocean. Magenta, coral, and purple buildings against a clear horizon. Citizen characters sized for readability at arm's length. Every frame was designed to work simultaneously from four different orientations — and still hold together as a composition in its own right.

At full scale, the four-player composition shows the complete game state: four card hands arranged at the table edges, four citizen characters, the economy balance wheel, and the island at the centre. The final render tests the composition at all four orientations simultaneously — confirming that no single player gets a better or worse view, and that every element reads clearly from its own side.

Alongside the interactive table, a Pufferfish projection dome sits in the same gallery — a large spherical screen showing a looping ambient film of the Econo Me world. The dome functions as the exhibit's attractor: visible from across the gallery, it draws visitors toward the table before they know what they're about to play.

The film was storyboarded across the full curved surface — mapping the narrative of buildings growing, workers moving, and the economy coming to life onto a geometry that has no top, bottom, or sides. Every frame had to read as a complete composition when seen from any angle around the sphere.