Word Flow: Game Design Breakdown

For my latest portfolio piece, I gave myself a two-week challenge: build a fun, playable mobile game prototype from scratch. My goal was to create a "vertical slice" that showed my approach to game design, from the core loop all the way to the systems that make it run.

The result is Word Flow, a casual word puzzle game. This is the story of how it came to be!

Note: I have also made a GDD if this prototype were to move into full production.

Finding the "Fun"

I started by looking at what makes the most successful mobile games tick. I studied the work of industry leaders and saw a clear pattern: casual puzzle and word games have a special kind of magic.

Instead of trying to invent a whole new genre, my strategy was to put together a formula people already love. This led me to the core concept for Word Merge: a game that blends the classic satisfaction of a word search with the fluid, swiping feel of a modern connect, puzzle-solver. This makes the game easy for anyone to pick up and play, but the interaction feels fresh and unique.

The Core Loop (Play, Earn, Decorate)

A great mobile game has a simple, satisfying rhythm. For Word Merge, I built the experience around a clear, three-step loop:

1. The Action: Players swipe through the letter grid to find and form words.

2. The Reward: Finding a word earns "Coins." Longer words mean bigger rewards.

3. The Goal: Players spend those Coins to buy furniture and decorations for their own personal, customizable room.

This creates a simple yet powerful cycle: Find Words > Earn Coins > Decorate Room > Repeat.

The decoration part is the "why" behind the "what." It gives players a real, long-term goal and a creative outlet. It turns a simple high score into a cozy room that they can be proud of, which is the key to making players want to come back day after day.

Building a "Smart Economy"

With the loop in place, I designed the game's economy. The system is straightforward but built to be easily expanded later.

• How Players Earn (The "Source"): The main way to earn Coins is by playing the core word game. The system is designed so that in the future, we could easily add new sources like daily challenges or bonuses for using rare letters.

• What Players Spend On (The "Sink"): To keep things focused, the only thing players spend Coins on is decorations. The prices are set to create a good pace, ensuring players always have a cool new item they're working towards.

Production & Lessons Learned

Building this prototype in two weeks was challenging, considering the fact that I was shifting flats, but it taught me a lot.

Sticking to a tight scope, the vertical slice, was the key to success. I focused all my energy on making the core "find word -> get coin" loop feel as good as possible, rather than getting distracted by a dozen half-finished features.

Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing. I ran into a stubborn bug where the grid wouldn't refill correctly. It forced me to go back and redesign the GridManager to be more robust. It was a powerful lesson: a little extra thought into building a clean code foundation upfront saves a massive headache later...

Conclusion & Future Work

This project successfully captures a full design and development cycle in a short sprint. It showcases a fun core loop, a long-term retention strategy, and the foundation for a healthy game economy.

If this were to move into full production, the next steps are clear. The focus would be on adding more content and deeper challenges:

• Expand the item catalog to give players a huge variety of furniture to build their dream room.

• Introduce challenges to the core word game, moving beyond simple word finding.

• Add purchasable utility items, like hints, to help players overcome tough levels.

• Implement rewarded ads as a way for players to earn extra coins, providing a monetization hook that respects the player's time.

Here's a rough Game Design Document that I made to move this game into full production.