Projects: Calumma Games

TRIPLE TREATS

Overview: Triple Treats is a relaxing, culinary-themed puzzle game where core tile-matching mechanics drive a long-term meta-progression system centered on building a bakery empire across a vibrant island world.

Genre: Puzzle, Match3, Casual
Role: Lead Software Engineer / Technical Game Designer
Engine: Unity 3D

Platform: Mobile (iOS / Android), WebGL

CONTRIBUTIONS SUMMARY

Core Development: Directed and executed the end-to-end development of the title, implementing all core match-3 mechanics, gameplay features, and multiple live-ops in-game events.

Systems & Pacing: Designed and balanced the complex map-based progression systems, ensuring spatial gameplay and level pacing cleanly matched the game's visual and narrative themes.

Art Direction & Technical Art: Provided high-level art direction to establish a cohesive visual style, managed cross-functional art teams to ensure seamless asset integration. Engineered custom world map shaders from scratch, controlled visual polish, and environmental storytelling.

Retention & Economy: Evaluated churn metrics during design discussions to pinpoint precise gameplay bottlenecks, and guiding the economy balance designs.

INTUITIVE HINT FEATURE

Playtests revealed a critical issue with choice paralysis. Players suffered from cognitive overload when faced with too many possible moves, growing frustrated by the fear of making an suboptimal choice.

I spent multiple iterations testing different solution vectors to alleviate this bottleneck:

Classic Combo - Use timed combo streaks to encourage faster momentum.

Felt too restrictive and added excessive pressure mid-level, yet felt cheap and "free" during the end-of-level final moves. Attempting to balance it out ultimately removed its intended gameplay effect.

Reward Incentive - Spawning a minor, timed reward (a flying coin with wings) over the board after a brief period of inactivity to nudge players into a move to strike it.

The frustration of a "forced" move or a missed opportunity caused critical player friction.

The Special Hint Tap - Implemented solution to deal with this complex issue, was a really intuitive feature missing from any existing competition - Tap on played and waiting to match tiles to Hint all visible matching items currently on the board.

Players should not get stuck in frustration mid level overloaded with search and strategy for a single right next move, and this option made it easier to asses current situation.

This feature shifted the core gameplay focus from a tedious "search game" into a satisfying strategic puzzle, maintaining a relaxing casual flow.

Although while this only relieved pressure from taking already played tiles in account for possible moves, it was enough to change gameplay frustration into provided easy targets to conquer, while keeping the rest of the board's strategy completely intact.

PLAYER RETENTION & ECONOMY BALANCING

Friction Identification: Analyzed player-behavior reports during cross-functional reviews to advocate for player psychology, diagnosing the exact flaws causing player frustration and premature drop-offs.

Anatomy of Difficulty: Contributed to core discussions on why sampling data differed from real player experiences, offering insight on how level layout complexity, tile distribution, and hidden cognitive friction actually dictate true level difficulty.

LiveOps & Economy Loops: Shaped the balancing of soft-currency generation and sink structures to ensure the meta-progression loop remained highly rewarding, specifically designing catch-up mechanics for players engaging in late-stage progression phase.

WORLD MAP SYSTEMS & TECHNICAL ART

WATER

Added and fine tuned custom shader graphs for ocean water, shoreline, river flow maps, lake caustics, and an underwater reef section on the second island to bring the world space to life.

PROGRESSION CLOUDS

Added clouds with custom shader graph (similar to water-refraction, noise-based uv transform) and their shadows.

Implemented a strategic, granular placement system for cloud-opening zones tied directly to player progression.

This builds anticipation for upcoming areas and strongly reinforces the player's feeling of advancement.

WIND

Conceptualized and implemented stylized wind particles system in Wind Waker style, but that concept was eventually cut.

NEW ISLAND TRANSITION

Conceptualized directed and implemented the grand milestone transition from the first island to the second, with next build step as instant environmental reward.

Achieved by creatively recycling existing visual assets to save critical production resources.

ISLANDS & DISTRICTS DESIGNS

I was responsible for the core concepts and approval process for each distinct district, defining the architectural styles, aggregate building steps, building animations, and final color palettes.

Economy & Rules: Formulated the district build order, balanced the progression prices, and mapped out interconnected decisions for parallel player construction paths.

Audio-Visual Sync: Managed the building animation audio by implementing a custom production pipeline that injected precise animation events tied to key visual milestones from pre-recorded construction video playbacks.

Map Design Rule: From day one, I established a strict design rule that the initial island must never look "dirty" or display obvious, immersion-breaking placeholders for future construction. Expansions must always feel organic and live in perfect synergy with the existing landscape topology.

Future Planning: Directed the thematic and stylistic visual concepts for upcoming expansion zones on the second island, specifically the Desert and Winter zones.

Full Map Showcase

TRIPLE TREATS 3D

Overview: A variation of the original Triple Treats game, that transitions the core gameplay into a physics-driven 3D pile-matching system with a critical timer mechanic, while maintaining the signature culinary meta-progression.

Main challenge is caused by addition of a timer mechanic.

Genre: Puzzle, Match3 3D, Casual
Role: Lead Software Engineer / Technical Game Designer
Engine: Unity 3D

Platform: Mobile (iOS / Android), WebGL

CONTRIBUTIONS SUMMARY

Core Development & Systems: Conceptualized and engineered unique 3D gameplay systems and level mechanics tailored for the "match-3D" casual experience.

Art Direction & Technical Art: Designed and automated technical content pipelines for 3D asset generation and LiveOps seasonal updates, enabling rapid deployment of new narrative themes and level variations.

CORE GAME FEEL, MECHANICS & LEVEL DESIGNS

Atmospheric Polish: Added dynamic 3D particles and a gently breathing, subtle caustics cookie light projection on top of items to dissolve the initially flat, static look of the level view.

Mechanics & Balancing: Fully responsible for the main feel of the game, including the design, balancing, and implementation of all player-facing powerups, boosters, and custom mission target items.

Predictive Volume Camera System: Designed and implemented a custom system to predict the physical volume required for any given level board layout. It forces the items' surface to stay at a fixed, comfortable distance from the camera, gradually sliding toward the ground as items are cleared. This completely resolved jumpy initial item spawns and improved spatial depth feel.

Level Layout Architecture: Designed a comprehensive level layout system that allowed to control item spawn logic and group them into appealing structural patterns (grids, circles, or vertical and horizontal stripes). As well as having custom Z-positioning and spread controls within level designs to either strategically hide target items beneath randomized objects or place them right on top for an easy level start.

ASSET WORKFLOW & AUTOMATED RECOLORING

Dynamic Item Recoloring: Built an initial custom shader pipeline utilizing a color replace node to shift close color ranges into target palettes directly inside the engine materials.

Masked Generation Pipeline: Upgraded the color variation workflow with an automated asset generation tool that bakes out dedicated masked maps. This guaranteed new color variants remained localized to designated zones without spilling into core original colored sections.

TOY SORT

Overview: A proof-of-concept project designed to explore and iterate on the rising trend of F2P "Grill Sort" mechanics. The game is themed around a whimsical toy factory where players sort items into boxes, packing them away once three identical toys are matched.

Genre: Puzzle, Sorting, Casual
Role: Lead Software Engineer / Technical Game Designer
Engine: Unity 3D

Platform: Mobile (iOS / Android), WebGL

CONTRIBUTIONS SUMMARY

Core Development & Prototyping : Designed and developed full-scale systems prototypes to explore novel gameplay mechanics; managed experimental soft launches to validate fun-factor, pacing and market fit

Technical Art & Systems: Refined gameplay loops through multiple rapid design iterations, focusing on shaping "novel" mechanics into highly intuitive, satisfying player experiences.

GAMEPLAY SHOWCASE

Fully responsible for the end-to-end design, systemic architecture, and interactive prototyping of this product concept.

GAMEPLAY & UX DESIGN ELEMENTS

Intuitive Win Conditions: Integrated a highly visible "Remaining Lids" counter paired with a base level timer, providing players with clear, instant feedback on their progression goals.

Strategic Layout: Main challenge comes from the timer, but the layout itself is also a challenge, as players can easily lock themselves out of available moves if they fail to strategize a few steps ahead, shifting the game from simple matching to high-engagement casual strategy.

Distinct Perspective: Deviated from market competitors (who traditionally rely on side-by-side grilled skewer alignments) by creating a clean, top-down box layout to maximize item readability.

Toys Previews: Implemented a "Next" conveyor queue directly beneath each sorting box, complete with a remaining-steps indicator to allow players to calculate urgency and strategic value.

Mission Items: Lightbulbs "mission" event items grant a necessary relief from the main mechanic, as it is the only item you can play directly to free a space for sorting.

Hidden Toy: The "hidden" item mechanic adds a nice variety without being too hard of a challenge, but still requires some attention.

Provided basic In-Level Power-ups:

Shuffle: Closes all active boxes on the board and completely rerolls the internal item distribution.
Forced Pack: Manually select and pack an item group instantly, even if its matching toys are buried.
Time Freeze: Grants a 10-second suspension of the core level timer for stress-free strategy.

Pre-Level Boosters:

Extra Packed Box: Automatically solves and packs a random item immediately upon level launch.
Extra Time: Injects an additional 30 seconds into the level's starting clock.

PACKS CONTENT PIPELINE

Progressing levels open more toys variety with toy packs - easily extendable with unlimited themes possibility. Shipped with 30 Items in Base pack, plus additional 15 packs x 9 items each.

LEVEL LAYOUTS

Designed a suite of options for variety of levels layouts from 6 up to 12 boxes. Future options would also include additional single items generators and conveyor belt mechanic.

FACTORY LEVEL BACKGROUND

Designed a custom in-level factory background, but eventually had to be cut during production to eliminate visual clutter and ensure absolute level readability for the casual player.

YARN FLOW

Overview: A proof-of-concept project engineered to capture and iterate on the rising trend of casual F2P "Flow-genre" puzzle mechanics, based on queue-management and conveyor-loop-fill. The game features a central knitted pixel-art tapestry surrounded by a continuous conveyor loop, challenging players to launch queued yarn spools strategically to unravel pixels without overflowing limited buffer slots.

Genre: Puzzle, Flow, Sorting, Casual
Role: Lead Software Engineer / Technical Game Designer
Engine: Unity 3D

Platform: Mobile (iOS / Android), WebGL

CONTRIBUTIONS SUMMARY

Core Development & Prototyping : Designed and developed the structural prototype from the ground up to explore the balance between strategic queue management, active conveyor loop load, and waiting slots limitations.

Technical Art & Systems: Refined gameplay loops through multiple rapid design iterations, focusing on shaping "novel" mechanics into highly intuitive, satisfying player experiences. Designed the unique "Flow State" mechanic to solve core pacing friction points.

GAMEPLAY SHOWCASE

Fully responsible for the end-to-end design, systemic architecture, and interactive prototyping of this product concept.

GAMEPLAY & UX DESIGN ELEMENTS

Progression: Integrated a prominent Level Number paired with a dynamic Total Unravel Progression Bar at the top of the HUD, keeping players constantly aware of their forward momentum and canvas completion.

The FLOW! Meter: Displays the tactile, letter-by-letter filling sequence of the "FLOW!" gauge, culminating in its high-energy, animated "dancing" active state to signal the launch of the hyper-flow state.

Conveyor Indicators:

Features the early-stage prototype conveyor-loop Lamps to indicate free versus occupied spots.
Later prototype stage evolved into a dynamic Buttons Stack that automatically moved a Button underneath to cradle each actively played spool.

Waiting Slots: Dedicated buffer slots that explicitly display, fill counters on waiting spools, giving players the exact data needed to calculate their next move without losing focus.

Hidden Queue Spools: Added spools in the queue that hide their true color, revealing it only when they advance to the front of the queue line to inject a layer of tactical anticipation.

Provided basic In-Level Power-ups:

Pick-From-Queue: Opens a full view of all queued spools, allowing the player to select a specific color spool to play immediately, bypassing the strict top-of-queue restriction.
Shuffle: Instantly reshuffles the distribution of spools across all active vertical queue lines to resolve color blockages.
Extra Conveyor Capacity: Expands the active conveyor-loop limit, allowing more spools to run concurrently while forcing tight management of the waiting slots below.
Golden Spool: Launches a universal wildcard spool that targets and unravels any pixel color it encounters.

Pre-Level Booster:

Extra Waiting Slot: Grants a bonus waiting slot for the duration of the level, increasing the safety buffer against overflow losses.

Tactile Theme: Implemented reactive elastic tension feedback on the level canvas, mirroring the satisfying stretch of real unraveled yarn.

CORE DESIGN DISCOVERY: THE FLOW STATE MECHANIC

The Competitive Landscape & "Design Crutch"

Market-leading "Flow" conveyor-loop queue-sorting titles traditionally divide player attention into two zones:

- The Top Section (Loop & Board): Players scan for open target colors and manage conveyor capacity fill.
- The Bottom Section (Slots & Queues): Players manage unfilled/shooter items in waiting slots and strategically launch new queue items to uncover more colors to play next.

Many modern F2P titles artificially inflate the difficulty of the bottom section with introduction of linked items which stall queues and take more space on both conveyor loop and waiting slots, or add full-fledged puzzle mechanics at the bottom like parking or other puzzle genres to free up queued items.

This creates a massive mechanical bottleneck. It forces players into a jarring stop-and-go rhythm, where they spend most of their time waiting for loop completions or fighting gridlocked slots. This misses the entire point of "Flow" games genre that is defined by a conveyor-loop inclusion. Merging sub-genres should create a unique, fun synergy - not act as a design crutch to mask pacing issues.

Even in its purest form, waiting for loop completion was identified as the primary friction point during early market research and playtesting for this novel "Flow" games genre.

New Mechanic Solution

My goal was to maintain a clean, casual approach using pure sorting queues, while unlocking the full, untapped potential of the top section.

My solution embraced the conveyor loop momentum to get into a true psychological flow state:

The FLOW! Meter: Every spool launched onto the conveyor fills a letter of the "FLOW!" meter, while items leaving the loop decrease it.
The Hyper-Flow State: Filling the meter triggers a high-speed, high-reward state. The conveyor accelerates, and the board comes alive with dynamic "dancing colors." This rewards rapid-fire, accurate placements, allowing skilled players to blaze through level progression. State is kept while there is at least one spool on the conveyor loop.
The "Safety Valve" Catch: High-speed play naturally increases cognitive load, the risk of panic and mismanagement. To prevent frustrating, abrupt losses, triggering an overflow condition while in the "FLOW!" state activates an instant "Flow Break" with a slow-motion sequence. The failing spool is caught in a temporary overhead buffer, slowing the game to a crawl. This gives the player a stress-free window to clear their lower waiting slots, recover from a minor mishap, and immediately fight their way back into the rhythm.

The Impact

This feature shifts the game from a slow, anxious exercise in queue and space management to an engaging, rhythmic juggling act. It maintains high tension and velocity while protecting the player from cheap losses, directly driving casual engagement.

FUTURE ROADMAP & MECHANICAL EXPANSIONS

Because this is a high-fidelity prototype, the next phase of development focuses heavily on tightening the casual feel, smoothing out UX friction points, and scaling the core game. Planned expansions include:

UX & Feel Refinement: Polishing micro-interactions, haptics, and UX elements to elevate the tactile feedback of the unraveling mechanic to true casual market production standards.

Capacity-Variant Spools: Introducing visually distinct spool tiers, each featuring customized capacities to create deeper puzzle layout variations.

Spool Merging: Fuse spool items of the same color into heavy-duty spools and keep them longer on conveyor.

Multilayered Yarn Decorations: Introducing additional depth with obstacles to the main canvas element, requiring players to unravel separate layers to dissolve these obstacle elements.

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