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My own project · online now
Broom & Blade
Household chores turned into a game for kids, and the website that explains it.
There are two parts to this one, and they are described separately below.
Game
The game
The app the family actually uses.
A parent puts the chores on a board. Every chore a child finishes pays out points and gold. One code signs the whole family in, so everyone shares the same board and each person has their own character.
what it does
- Points move a child up through ranks as they go. Gold buys gear for their character in the shop.
- Every piece of gear and every prize has a short story attached, and you can only read it once you have earned the item. There are 67 of them.
- Marking a chore done takes a press and hold rather than a tap, so it cannot happen by accident. Clearing the whole board needs a password, so a child cannot wipe it.
- Finish every chore for the day and a merchant offers three boxes to choose from. One holds a reward, one a gift, and one a curse.
- Every fifth day with a clean board you get a choice: a bag of gold, or a box holding one of thirty items that can never be bought.
- It is free, needs no account, and installs on a phone like any other app. Every sound is made by the app itself, so there is nothing extra to download.
- 67
- Pieces of gear and prizes, each with its own story
- 30
- Items you can only win, never buy
- Free
- No account and no payment, on any phone
Website
The website
The page that explains the game, written for the kid who will play it.
The website is built to feel like the game rather than describe it. You can seal a quest on the page the same way you would in the app, turn gear cards over, and look along a shelf of prizes.
what it does
- The website contains no picture files at all. The sky, the hills, the candles and the smoke are built by the page while it loads, in six layers that move separately as you scroll or move the mouse.
- Sealing a quest on the page takes a press and hold while a ring fills up, exactly as it does in the game.
- It does not give the game away. Six of the nine ranks stay hidden, gear you have not earned shows its back, most prizes stay dark, and one box never opens at all.
- There are things to find: a moon that grants a wish, candles you can blow out, dust to sweep up, a sleeping dragon, a rat in the footer, and a purse that counts the gold you pick up on the way down.
- Every sound is made by the page as you go, so nothing has to be downloaded. It works with a keyboard, and it calms its movement for anyone whose phone is set to reduce motion.
- 81 KB
- The size of the whole website, so it opens fast
- 0
- Pictures to load. The artwork is part of the page
- 6
- Layers that move separately as you scroll