Hidden Quest: From Picture Book to Playable Story – Animating a Children’s Tale in Unity
“What if your picture book could move?”
In this tutorial, I walk you through how I brought Hidden Quest — a short, original story — to life through simple 2D animation in Unity.
Hidden Quest is a four-scene tale designed like a children’s picture book. It follows Femi, a music-loving boy who stumbles upon a mysterious gallery hidden in a castle. Along the way, he unlocks forgotten treasures through the power of sound and curiosity.
The full app version is already built — with voiceovers, page navigation, and read-along text — but this tutorial focuses on just one key piece: the animation process.
👉 You can download the Hidden Quest APK for Android here. It only works on Android devices. Simply install it to your Android device once downloaded.
Whether you’re a children’s book author, illustrator, or storyteller, this guide is meant to help you explore the possibility of transforming your own static stories into interactive experiences — without needing to be a full-time game developer.
Watch the full tutorial video on YouTube by clicking here.
🧰 What You’ll Learn
Throughout the tutorial, I show you — step by step — how to animate story elements using Unity, from setting up your assets to building a character scene that moves and responds naturally.
Here’s a breakdown of the process:
📦 1. Preparing Assets from Adobe Illustrator
We start by exporting layered illustrations — including backgrounds, characters, and scene elements — as transparent PNGs. These are arranged in sprite sheets for easy use in Unity. Each image is carefully positioned to allow for animation later on.
Tip: When working with repeating elements like clouds or stars, you only need one or two variations — Unity lets you reuse and animate them easily.
🎨 2. Setting Up the Menu Scene in Unity
In the first scene, I build a Menu Page that serves as the gateway into the story. This includes:
- A static background
- Title text
- A custom Enter button with simple scale animation
The Menu Scene is built using Unity’s UI system, which allows for scalable design across different screen sizes.
🌥️ 3. Animating the Menu Scene: Clouds, Title Text & Enter Button
Next, I animate the enter button, clouds drifting across the screen using horizontal motion, and add gentle up-and-down movement to the title text for a tweening effect — subtle touches that make the world feel alive and inviting.
👦🏾 4. Building the Character: Assembling Femi
Using a sliced sprite sheet, I build the character Femi by layering his body parts (head, arms, legs, etc.) using Unity’s UI Image components. These are positioned with help from a semi-transparent reference image for accuracy.
The character is structured in a parent-child hierarchy, making it easier to animate specific limbs or groups of features.
🧩 5. Rigging & Pivot Setup
This step focuses on setting pivot points for accurate animation. For example, a rotated lower arm should pivot from the elbow — not its center.
I walk through how to customize pivot points directly in Unity’s Sprite Editor and why proper rigging is essential before animating anything.
🎼 6. Animating the Character
In the final section, we animate the character:
- The left hand rotating to mimic guitar strumming
- The right hand moving slightly for realism
- The guitar tilting gently for extra character
These animations are created using Unity’s built-in Animation window, with keyframes and frame rates adjusted for a smooth, natural effect.
🎁 Bonus: Free Blueprint for Book Creators
If you’re just getting started and curious how your own children’s book could be reimagined as an interactive storybook app, I’ve created a free resource for you:
👉 The Children’s Book Creator’s Blueprint to Story-Based Game Apps
This blueprint outlines 8 essential steps to go from print to playable — even if you’ve never touched Unity before.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Hidden Quest was born from the simple idea of giving motion to a story — and through tools like Unity, it’s more accessible than ever. You don’t need to know code. You just need creativity, patience, and a love for storytelling.
I hope this tutorial gives you the confidence to start exploring how your own stories can evolve into new formats. Whether you animate a full app or just one scene, you’re already taking the first step toward interactive storytelling.
Thanks for watching, reading, and imagining with me.
