Stuck in the Arcade
Max, a curious and mischievous boy, is magically pulled into an abandoned arcade. To escape, he must complete ten progressively challenging memory-based mini-games, each hidden inside a glowing cabinet. Every solved game reveals a clue about the arcade's origin — and about Max's own past — building toward a final puzzle that combines everything learned along the way. This was my MA in Game Development (Design) final project at Kingston University London.
- Visual identity Retro arcade theme, neon lighting, low-poly art — a bright, welcoming arcade-at-night look, mysterious rather than scary
- Structure Central hub world → 10 memory mini-games → final puzzle combining every clue → optional bonus treasure hunt
- Memory types trained Visual pattern recognition, audio sequence recall, spatial memory, and time-pressured decision-making
- Accessibility & ethics Fully offline, COPPA and GDPR-K compliant, no personal data collection, no monetization or loot boxes
- Tools Unity 3D, Autodesk Maya (assets), Mixamo (rigging), Trello (project management)
- Playtesting Structured sessions with 57 children across the target age range, plus parent feedback, measuring memory accuracy, completion time, and engagement
Ten completely different memory mechanics could easily feel like ten unrelated apps stitched together. The fix was structural, not visual: one shared control scheme and consistent interaction patterns across all ten, minimizing the interface-learning cognitive load so a young player's effort goes toward the memory challenge itself, not toward figuring out how each new cabinet works. Playtesting with 57 children confirmed it — participants navigated the hub and completed challenges without external guidance, and measurably improved at pattern recognition and recall under time pressure across sessions.
