Code Busters
- Description
Wayground is a classroom platform where teachers run quizzes and students earn coins for correct answers. Between question rounds, Energizers give students a few minutes of active play, helping maintain momentum and giving students another way to participate beyond test performance.
Code Busters is one of these Energizers. Each student is assigned a classmate’s vault and races to guess the password before another player breaks into theirs.
- Field
- Art Direction · 3D · Game UI
- Client
- Wayground, formerly Quizizz
- Year
- 2026
The challenge: a mechanic without an identity
When Code Busters reached me, the mechanic was already working: players entered a password into a handheld device to unlock a vault. Visually, it still relied on familiar hacker tropes, so I reframed it as a heist made for younger players, with tension but none of the severity of an adult crime world.
The direction: a friendly heist
I built the art direction around the idea of a friendly heist. Chunky vaults, oversized controls, and rounded forms made the game tactile and easy to enter, while warning lights, lasers, and shifts in illumination carried the suspense.
The environment also became part of the feedback system. Wrong answers raised the alarm; correct ones advanced progress across the vault door. Connecting the game state to the world gave a simple password mechanic a distinct identity.
