Quest
An escape-room-style adventure spanning a board game, a video game and an animated series, built to renew kids' excitement about learning.
- Role
- Quest Creative Director
- Series
- Starforce (K–2), Seasons 1–3 and Apex Academy (3–5)
- Formats
- Animated series, game kits, digital game
- Tools
- Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro
- Years
- 2020–2026
The challenge
How do we deliver studio-quality animation on a school budget?
The solution
I proposed a hybrid: short bursts of hero animation for the big moments, and low-cost dialogue videos between them.
The impact
Quest became ProSolve's flagship program for summer and after-school, with over 9,000 students playing it, 95% of facilitators wanting to run it again, and kids asking for the next season.
The challenge
Blockbuster stories, school budget- Production window
- Three to five months per season
- Franchises
- Quest Seasons 1–3, Apex Academy and Starforce
- Runtime
- About an hour of animation per season, up to an hour and a half
- Team
- Up to nine artists, Heck animation studio and an in-house Unity developer
- Voice cast
- Up to 22 actors in a season
- Budget
- A fraction of a typical US studio budget, managed by me across the season
If Quest was going to truly engage students, the storytelling and the production value had to rise far above that, on a budget a school could actually pay for.
The solution
Quest's hybrid video modelStrong voice acting, custom music and sound design carry the production value in every scene, so the story feels big without a big animation budget.
Print materials made by me
Each season ships as a box set: a slip case, seven episode boxes and a teacher box. The structure stays the same every season, while the color, texture and art change with the story.
Each episode's story comes to a challenge that the players must complete to continue progressing the story, so players feel like they are part of it.
- ScriptI wrote every episode of Collapse, Glitch and Element.
- StoryboardI boarded each episode, then directed the artists who painted the art for it.
- ArtI managed up to nine remote artists: the art budget, schedule and due dates, assigning and reviewing work daily.
- VoiceI cast and directed the voice actors, 22+ of them, and picked the take for every line.
- AnimationI directed the animation and sound, working with an animation studio. I animated some key shots myself.
- Game and printI designed and directed the art for the Unity game, its interfaces, and the boards and cards printed overseas.
The impact
By the numbersNot what I was expecting at all. It's so much more!
Student
[QUEST] has made me feel like I have an imagination.
Student
This was so much fun! Can I take this game home to teach my family?
Student
They LOVED the challenges! They also thought the animations were so cool.
Teacher
The students LOVE QUEST, they ask to play every single day.
Teacher
QUEST has created a collaborative environment in my classroom. We paired students together who don't normally work together and it has created new friendships.
Facilitator, Montague
District count is ProSolve-wide. Summer figures come from ProSolve's own program reports.
Quest became ProSolve's flagship program for summer and after-school learning, and students asked for more.