DESIGN

Related Softwares: 

• GameMaker Studio 2 for building the game.

• GitHub for source control and data balancing.

• Procreate for sketching HUD layouts, cards, and icon design.

• Discord for design documentation.

Experiences: 

• Presented the original game idea and negotiated with team members to bring it to life.

• Investigated vitamin deficiencies and nutritional content of common groceries.

• Used these findings to design thematic enemies and card-based gameplay elements.

• Designed core gameplay loop, mechanics, and balancing of data from start to finish.

• Created and refined enemy and grocery designs, establishing counter-relationships between them.

• Developed paper prototypes to test the feasibility of the game loop before moving to digital implementation.

• Designed all UI elements, such as menus, tutorials, HUD, and an enemy dictionary (excluding character art).

• Significantly adjusted mechanics to make the game more instructive and engaging (see the section below for more details).

• Coordinated playtest sessions and integrated feedback to refine the game throughout development.

Challenges & Solutions:

During playtesting, I discovered that players could simply click cards at random and still win, which undermined the game’s educational intent. Initially, the game relied on two resources—a counting-down timer to encourage fast decisions and a card system that raised the probability of drawing the right card after mistakes. Enemies require a cumulative number of hits to be defeated. Unfortunately, this design unintentionally rewarded random selection over thoughtful choices.

To resolve this, I combined time and enemy health into a single progress bar. The bar gradually moves toward the player’s side to represent time pressure but can be pushed back toward the enemy’s side by selecting the correct card. Incorrect choices trigger escalating penalties to deter random clicks. I also introduced an enemy dictionary, guaranteed at least one correct card per draw, and removed the mechanic that increased the draw rate of correct cards. These changes streamlined the win conditions while promoting more deliberate engagement and reminding players to recall enemy weaknesses as the game intensified.

This process underscored the importance of iterative design and highlighted how critical it is to align mechanics with intended player behavior. By eliminating exploits and continually refining the gameplay, I learned how to create systems that uphold both educational and entertainment values.