Mario Chuman
Clue Hunt
Description
Go undercover in this three in one game and discover the secrets of the 39 Clues.
Crack secret messages in Codebreak, tour through a secret facility in Mission LASER, and program a submarine to obtain each of the 39 Clues.
Summary of Contributions
Initial Brief
While working on the launch of Home Base, The 39 Clues was selected as one of the properties to be showcased in the Beta release. While the franchise was concluded, the fanbase was passionate and our team had a preexisting game that could make the jump to Home Base.
However, our team wanted to make a new game for the property with a hook that would tie into the narrative of the series: allowing players to collect the actual 39 Clues.
Design Philosophy
This provided to be an interesting challenge as this begged the question: how would we allow players to do that? After discussing with our teams, we decided that the best option would be to have a small sampling of microgames. One of these microgames would be featured every day, and completing it would reward a player with a clue. As this was before launch, we were very focused on player retention, so adding another layer of daily rewards for long term completion was ideal.
When it came to the design of the microgames, my team was tasked to come up with what gameplay styles would fit. As The 39 Clues is a middle grade spy series, we wanted games that were more puzzle focused instead of action focused. This would also contrast nicely with Home Base’s action packed launch lineup.
I was responsible for one of the microgames, which I decided to take inspiration from my time in education. As an educator, I taught students programming in the context of gaming, and one of the exercises we would do would be simple code block flows. Because of my prior experience in education, I was keenly aware of the position that our game was in to providing a social benefit to our players without them realizing it. The submarine theming came soon after, as players commanding a remote submarine fit well with the programming and espionage gameplay. The game would be titled Minedive.
