Crispr Crunch
A Mobile Pattern-matching game about microbiology
Created on behalf of the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Game & Level Designer
3-months internship (2022) at Play Curious
Game & Level Designer
3-months internship (2022) at Play Curious
Game Pitch
Defend your bacteria against waves of attacking viruses, by matching their DNA sequences. CRISPR Crunch is a free-to-play mobile game that immerses you in the wondrous world of microbiology. The gameplay combines familiar tile-matching mechanics with an innovative scientific setting and story.
Working on the studio's major title, a mobile free-to-play game, challenged me by pushing me out of my comfort zone.
Game & Level Design
Ideas and Brainstorm As the start of my internship was focused on Neuroboost, my first experience with Crispr was sitting in brainstorming sessions with all of the team to decide the upcoming additions to the game, to give ideas and opinions about the design.
Documentation I wrote and updated a design document to help us define the next aspects of the game and to keep in mind all the decisions we took during reunions.
Monetization Research I helped find the right monetization practices and pricings for in-game money and resources by searching the market and making propositions.
Pacing and Progression My main mission on this game was finding a nice difficulty and interest curve during the course of the game by tweaking the different variables of each level (speed, number of tiles in the sequence, number of starting points...). I used both a Google Sheet file with all the variables and Typescript files.
Boss Design One of the exciting elements of the game was the bosses at the end of this world, but these levels were no different from the other ones. To solve this I had the idea of making the grid change with every wave of a boss. This was a cheap and effective way to make the bosses really meaningful.
Grid Design To make the game feel always new and interesting, I found it better to always have different grid shapes for each level. I made several of these shapes myself to create interesting situations.
QA Testing I helped the programmers to identify multiple bugs that appeared in certain game states.
Trailer