Project 15 · Game

Star Rush

A hybrid-casual endless runner across four kinds of phase, designed on one board and built to an MVP in two weeks.

Genre:: Endless Runner, Hybrid-Casual
Scope:: Game Design · Level Design · UX/UI · 3D Modeling
Development Time:: 2 Weeks
Team Size:: 3
Tools:: Unity · Blender · Miro

Project Resume

Overview

A hybrid-casual endless runner where a cheerful character runs through four kinds of phase, collects bananas and star pieces, and turns seven pieces into a STAR that makes the run invincible.

Platform Mobile
Team Size 3
Duration 2 Weeks
Engine Unity

Key Features

Four kinds of phase that change as you run
Three lanes with swipes to jump, dash and flip
Seven star pieces that make a STAR
Power-ups that change with each phase
Bananas, gems, a shop and a capsule
A silly character and crystal pickups

My Role

Game Designer & Game Director

Designed the game on one board, drew the UI, blocked out the levels and modeled the character and pickups, with a programmer and a 3D modeler.

Designed the phases, the controls and the power-ups
Drew the ten screens of the UI by hand
Modeled the character and the pickups in 3D

Design Brief

Seeliefy and a partner VTuber company wanted a hybrid-casual runner. It began around one of the company's characters and grew into a runner for its whole cast. It had to be colorful and fast, easy to play with one thumb on a vertical phone, and reach a playable MVP in two weeks with a team of three.

Constraints

One thumbPlayed with swipes and taps on a vertical phone screen.
Two weeksA playable MVP in two weeks, with a team of three people.
Their characterThe partner's character as the star of every run.
Hybrid casualFast action with a layer of shops, skins and rewards.

Design Goal

The run had to stay fresh the longer it went, so the game had to keep changing under the player's feet without changing how it is played. Every phase had to use the same three lanes and swipes, and the rewards had to pull players a little farther each time, toward a STAR that turns the whole run into a burst of speed.

From the first step to the STAR

Run. Collect. Shine.

RunSwipe between three lanes as the phases change.
CollectGrab bananas and star pieces along the way.
ShineTurn seven pieces into a STAR and fly.

Player Experience Pillars

Fresh runsPhases change with distance.
One controlThree lanes, the same swipes.
A clear goalSeven pieces, one STAR.
Silly funColorful, fast and funny.
Hybrid layerShops, skins and rewards.

Design Solution

I designed the game on a Miro board, from the controls to every phase and power-up. The run moves through four kinds of phase, Plane, Tubular, Star Jump and Islands, and the farther it goes, the more often they change. Star pieces replace coins at random, and seven of them make a STAR, the power-up that turns the character invincible. I drew the ten screens of the UI, blocked out the levels and modeled the character and the pickups.

Key Design Choices

Four phasesBuilt four kinds of phase on the same three lanes, so the run changes while the controls stay the same.
Star piecesMade star pieces the only way to a STAR, with seven pieces of changing colors spawning in place of coins.
Phase power-upsGave each phase its own set of power-ups, like anti-gravity that only works inside the tubes.
Ten screensDrew ten screens by hand, from the main menu to the shop, the capsule and the end of a race.
Crystal pickupsModeled the character and every pickup in 3D, with the pickups sketched to look like crystal.

World & Visual Identity

A colorful hybrid-casual world with silly characters and fast action, with the camera and curves of big runners and the vibrant cities seen from above in hyper-casual games. A cheerful character runs over the city, in tubes and over floating islands, collecting bananas and crystal stars.

Visual Principles

A vibrant cityA colorful city below the track.
Crystal pickupsBananas and stars like glass.
A rainbow trailThe STAR leaves a rainbow behind.
A silly leadA cheerful runner with backpacks.
Curved worldThe world bends at the horizon.

Results & Learnings

Results

A game on one boardDesigned the whole game on one Miro board, from the controls and the four phases to every power-up, screen and model the MVP needed.
A playable MVPTook the game to a playable MVP in two weeks with a programmer and a 3D modeler, with the levels blocked out and the first tracks running in Unity.
The character in 3DModeled the character, the backpacks and every pickup in 3D, from my own sketches to models ready to go into the game.

Learnings

One control, many phasesKeeping the same three lanes and swipes in every phase let the run change its whole look without asking players to learn a new control.
Plan before buildingWriting every phase, power-up and model on one board before building gave a team of three a clear list for a two-week MVP.
A reward to chaseMaking star pieces the only way to a STAR turned every coin on the track into a reason to keep running.

Media

The work, up close

Project gallery · 38

Four pairs of colorful vertical mockups of runner phases with notes below

Phase mockups

Plane, Tubes, Star Jump and Islands, mocked up to show how each phase plays.

Roles

Roles & Responsibilities

Game Vision & Direction

Led the game as both its game designer and its game director
Grew a runner for one character into one for the whole cast
Set the tone, colorful and fast with silly characters and action
Presented the game to investors straight from the Miro board

Visual Game Design Document

Designed the whole game on one Miro board, from the controls
Explained every system with images, references and short topics
Gathered references from big runners for every mechanic
Built the board to teach the team how each part should play

Gameplay & Systems

Designed the four phases and how the run moves between them
Defined the same three lanes and swipes for every phase
Changed the tube from a free run to three lanes and slides
Designed anti-gravity so coins and obstacles wrap the tube

Power-Ups & Rewards

Designed the STAR, the star pieces and the phase power-ups
Made seven star pieces add up to one STAR in the middle of the run
Gave each phase its own set of power-ups to change how it plays
Turned the STAR into a rainbow trail, a glitter aura and new music

Level Design

Blocked out the obstacles and the three lanes in Blender
Mocked up how each of the four phases plays on the phone
Set the rule that every lane of the Islands keeps one safe
Bent the straight track with a curved world for turns and climbs

UX & UI

Drew the ten screens of the game by hand, menu to results
Designed the screen of the run with only the numbers it needs
Designed the closet, the shops, the capsule and the roulette
Chose a pose and a face for the character on each screen

Art & 3D

Modeled the character in 3D from the concept and the sketch
Sketched every pickup and power-up of the run as crystal
Modeled the banana, the star, the winged boot and the magnet
Listed every animation the character needed, from jump to flight

Production & Collaboration

Took the game from one board to a playable MVP in two weeks
Worked with programming and 3D modeling through the whole MVP
Listed every platform, obstacle and tube piece for the MVP
Guided the team through the board, one mechanic at a time

Full Case Study

Star Rush Case Study

Core Loop

Loop

Run the three lanes
Collect bananas
Gather star pieces
Shine with the STAR
Go farther

Every run starts on the Plane, a flat track over the city with three lanes. Players swipe to change lanes, jump, fall faster and flip, while they grab bananas and dodge obstacles, gaps and holes. Star pieces appear at random in place of coins, and seven of them make a STAR that turns the character invincible for a while. The farther the run goes, the more it switches between the four kinds of phase, so the track keeps changing until a hit ends the run and the distance goes up as a new record.

Four Phases

Phases

Four ways to run

Two mockup screens of a blue track with three lanes over a city

Plane

Phase 01 · Three flat lanes above the city

The base of the run. Three flat lanes float above the city in the fog, with obstacles, gaps and holes. Players dash sideways after a jump, crouch and meet a Star Jump or two on the way.

Two mockup screens of a run inside an orange tube

Tubular

Phase 02 · A run inside a tube

The run drops into a tube with the city around it. Players slide between three lanes along its curve, past walls with a hole, and anti-gravity puts coins and obstacles on the walls too.

Four mockup screens of glowing stars linked above a purple city

Star Jump

Phase 03 · A trail of stars in the sky

Star pieces shoot the character into the sky, and a swipe in the right direction dashes to the next one. A red star skips to the next phase without the bonus, and the end gives a STAR.

Four mockup screens of floating blue platforms, some marked with an X

Islands

Phase 04 · Platforms floating apart

Each lane has its own floating platform, with gaps and coins in the air. Some platforms carry spikes, fall or break, but every lane keeps one safe, so players read each jump before they take it.

Design Iterations

Design Decisions

01 Lanes in the TubeOne control for the whole run

01 Lanes in the Tube

Two vertical screens of runner track prototypes

Problem

A free run around the tube broke the rule of the game

In the first version of the Tubular phase, players could run freely all the way around the inside of the tube, while every other phase of the run used three lanes and the same swipes to change lanes, jump, dash and flip.

Cause

One phase asked for a different way to move

A free run around the tube meant learning a new control in the middle of a run that plays with the same three lanes and swipes everywhere else.

Solution

Locked the tube to three lanes and slides

One control for the whole run mattered more than one special phase. The tube kept its spectacle through the camera and anti-gravity, while movement went back to the three lanes that players have already mastered by then.

Replace the free run around the tube with three lanes along its curve
Keep the same swipes to change lanes as on the Plane and the Islands
Let anti-gravity place coins and obstacles on the walls of the tube

Result

One control for the whole run

The variety of the game moved into what players see and dodge while their hands never have to relearn a thing, which is what keeps a long endless run flowing from one phase into the next without a single pause.

The same three lanes run through every phase of the game
Players cross from the Plane into a tube with the same control
The tube changes the view of the run while the swipes stay the same

Power-Ups & the STAR

Feature Introduction

Seven pieces make a STAR

A banana, a magnet, winged shoes and the character in Blender

Bananas are the coins of the run. Star pieces appear at random in place of a coin, each one in a color, and catching the first color changes the color of the next. Seven pieces make a STAR that appears in the middle of the screen.

The STAR is the big reward. Everything turns into stars, the character flies over the ground without falling and nothing can stop the run, with a rainbow trail, a glitter aura, new music and a faster game.

Every phase has its own power-ups. The magnet, the boots, the wings, the shield and the bonus change how a phase is played, and anti-gravity only works inside the tubes.

Design Principles

Make the STAR rare and earned, through seven star pieces or a finished Star Jump, so it always feels like the big reward of a run
Place star pieces in place of coins at random in every phase, so any stretch of the track can hide a piece that is worth chasing
Give each phase its own set of power-ups, so a pickup changes how that phase is played and each one feels new in every phase
Show every pickup as crystal, so bananas, stars and pieces read at once and stand out on a small, busy screen at full running speed

Feature Breakdown

The pickups, in detail

01 Star PiecesRandom · One color at a time · Seven make a STAR

Star Pieces

Seven pieces of one color build a STAR

Star pieces replace a coin at random in every phase except the Star Jump. Each piece has a color, and catching one changes the color of the next, so players follow one color at a time. Seven pieces make a STAR that appears in the middle of the screen, the main way to earn the biggest and brightest reward of the run.

Function

Turn the coins on the track into a reason to keep running

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Spawn star pieces at random in place of coins, in every phase of the run
Give each piece a color and change the next piece's color after a catch
Make seven pieces bring a STAR to the middle of the screen of the run
Keep the pieces out of the Star Jump phase, which gives its own STAR

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Watch every stretch of track for a piece hidden among the coins
Follow one color at a time and know which piece comes next
Count toward the STAR and take risks to reach the seventh piece
Earn a STAR by playing well instead of waiting for a lucky drop

02 The STARInvincible · Rainbow trail · A faster game

Pencil sketches of a banana, two stars, two boots and a magnet

The STAR

A burst where nothing can end the run

The STAR turns every object into stars, makes the character fly over the ground so nothing can make the run fall, and spawns clusters full of stars. Each character has a trail color, and the STAR swaps it for a rainbow and a glitter aura while the music changes and the whole game speeds up for the length of the STAR.

Function

Make the biggest reward of the run a burst of speed and joy

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Turn every object into stars and spawn clusters with many more stars
Lift the character over the ground so the run cannot fall while it lasts
Swap the trail of the character for a rainbow with a glitter aura around
Change the music and speed up the game while the STAR is active

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Run through obstacles and gaps without fear while the STAR lasts
Collect a flood of stars in the few seconds the STAR is active
Feel the change at once through the trail, the music and the speed
Chase the next STAR with a clear picture of the reward ahead

03 Phase Power-UpsMagnet · Boots · Wings · Shield · Bonus

A star, winged shoes, a magnet and a banana beside the character in Blender

Phase Power-Ups

A different set of helps in every phase

Each phase carries its own set of power-ups. The magnet pulls the coins in, the boots jump higher with coins in the air, the wings fly the middle of the screen along a line of coins, the shield takes one hit and the bonus turns everything into coins, so every phase can change the way the run is played for a while.

Function

Give every phase its own way to change the run for a while

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Pick a set of power-ups for each phase that fits how the phase is played
Let the boots jump much higher and spawn clusters of coins in the air
Let the wings fly the middle of the screen along a line of coins
Let the shield take one hit, breaking itself and the object together

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Reach coins in the air that a normal jump would never touch
Fly over a stretch of track with the movement locked and coins in line
Survive one mistake and keep the record run going a little longer
Turn a whole stretch into coins with the bonus and the magnet

04 Anti-GravityTubular only · Walls · Coins all around

Anti-Gravity

Running on the walls of the Tubular phase

Anti-gravity only works inside the tubes of the Tubular phase. It lets the character run on the walls while coins and obstacles spawn all around the tube, and as a bonus it turns everything into coins while the obstacles in the tube remain, so players read the tube as one whole space that wraps all around them.

Function

Make the tube a phase with its own reward and its own space

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Keep anti-gravity inside the Tubular phase, the one place with walls
Spawn coins and obstacles on the walls when anti-gravity is active
Turn everything into coins as a bonus while the obstacles remain
Sketch the anti-gravity boots as a pickup of their own in crystal

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Run on the walls of the tube while the rest of the run stays on lanes
Look all around the tube for coins instead of only straight ahead
Collect a tube full of coins while still dodging what remains
Expect something new every time the run drops into a tube

Behind the Feature

How the STAR was built

01 The STAR EconomyRandom pieces · Color chain · Seven pieces · Phase power-ups

Goal

Make the STAR rare and earned

Make the STAR the big reward of a run, earned through skill and attention
Let any stretch of the track hide a star piece that is worth the chase
Give each phase power-ups of its own, so a pickup changes how it is played

Constraints

Readable at full running speed

Read every pickup at once on a small, busy screen at full running speed
Keep the coins as the base of the run while pieces replace a few of them
Keep the STAR strong without breaking the rhythm of the phase it lands in

Process

Pieces in place of coins Star pieces replace a coin at random in every phase except the Star Jump, so a piece can appear anywhere a coin would without any change to the layout, so pieces need no level of their own.
One color at a time Each piece has a color, and catching one changes the color of the next, so players follow one color at a time as they run across each phase of the game.
Seven make a STAR Seven pieces make a STAR that appears in the middle of the screen, and the run turns into stars, a rainbow trail, a glitter aura, new music and a faster game.
Crystal for every pickup Bananas, stars and pieces all share a crystal look, so every pickup stands out from the colorful track and reads at once on a small screen at full speed, against any phase background.

The decision that made it work

Build the STAR from pieces spread at random

Spreading seven pieces at random across the coins made the STAR a goal that runs through every phase. Players keep scanning the track for the next color, so the big reward also keeps their attention on the run itself.

Result

A reward players chased in every phase

Every stretch of the track could hide a piece, so players kept their eyes on the coins and chased colors through each phase, and the STAR arrived as a short burst where nothing could end the run they had built.

Art & UI

Feature Introduction

A silly runner in crystal

The character model in wireframe beside a colored portrait of the character

The look came from big runners and colorful hyper-casual games, for a colorful hybrid casual with silly characters and fast action, with a vibrant city below the track and a curved world that bends at the horizon.

I modeled the character in 3D from the concept and the proportion sketch, with a tail, boots and backpacks like a monkey and a carrot, and listed every animation the run needed, from the jump and the flip to the fly pose.

I sketched every pickup as crystal and modeled them in 3D. The banana, the STAR with a rainbow, the one-color star piece, the winged boot, the anti-gravity boot and the magnet were drawn to read as glass on top of the track.

Design Principles

Keep the whole world colorful and fast, with silly characters and fast action, so the run feels like fun from the very first step of the run
Model the character from its concept with a clear silhouette and a tail, so it reads at once from behind while it runs at full speed on the track
Make every pickup look like crystal, so bananas, stars and power-ups stand out clearly against the colorful city right below them
Bend the straight track with a curved world, so it turns, climbs and rolls ahead without modeling a single curve of the track itself

Feature Introduction

Ten screens, drawn by hand

Ten hand-drawn phone screens with menus, shops, a roulette and a results screen

I drew the ten screens of the game by hand. The main menu shows the game itself behind the buttons, with the character dancing in the skin of the moment, the ranking, the shops and the roulette one tap away.

The run keeps its screen clean, with the distance, the bananas, the multiplier, the star pieces and the power-ups bought before the race. The end of a race shows the distance and then the new record, with a retry right there.

Two currencies run the shops, bananas and gems. Skins and accessories live in the closet, power-ups in their own shop, and the capsule shows the odds of every item, with the character posing on each screen.

Design Principles

Show the game itself behind the main menu, so every run starts from the very world players are about to enter with a single tap
Keep the screen of the run clean, with only the distance, the bananas, the pieces and the power-ups that matter while running at speed
Show the distance first and then the new record at the end of a race, so every run ends on its best moment and invites a retry
Put the character on the shop screens with a pose and a face for each one, so every screen of the game keeps the tone of the run

Development

Concept Board

The Star Rush board on Miro

Development

Concept, Models & Prototypes

A Miro board of reference screenshots from endless runners and hyper-casual games

References board

The runners and hyper-casual games that set the camera, the curves and the colors.

Conclusion

A grey grid track with wireframe obstacles and the character

A green-haired character running on a purple track above a blue city

Design Conclusions

Star Rush was a hybrid-casual endless runner made with a partner VTuber company. I designed the whole game on one Miro board, from the controls and the four phases to every power-up and screen, blocked out the levels and modeled the character and the pickups, and we took it to a playable MVP in two weeks.

The strongest decision was to keep one control for the whole run. Plane, Tubular, Star Jump and Islands each change what the run looks like and asks for, while the same three lanes and swipes carry through all of them, so the game stays fresh without ever needing a new tutorial.

Design Takeaways

One control, many phases

A new phase should change what players see before it changes what they do. Since then I bring variety through the view and the challenge, and change controls only when a game needs it.
A document that shows

Trading long text for images and short topics on one board taught the team how each part should play far faster, and the same board was clear enough to present the game to investors.
Rewards worth chasing

Making star pieces rare and the STAR the only big reward gave every coin on the track a reason to be chased, a pull meant to keep players running a little farther every time they start a new run.