Pounds of Piranha

A modular number-manipulation puzzle game with surprising depth and scalability.

Genre: Puzzle
Role: Project Lead, Designer
Engine: Godot
Team Size: 2 (Remote)
Duration: 30 Days
Platform: PC
Play: https://nugamedev.itch.io/pounds-of-piranha

Development Overview

Pounds of Piranha was built in 30 days for the Game Off 2023 game jam. I led the project’s design, vision, and structure, creating a system of modular mechanics that proved both intuitive to learn and rich in design depth. The game challenges players to manipulate numbers using a weight system on a digital scale, guiding green fish to safety while avoiding predatory red fish.

The project was well-received for its clever logic-driven gameplay, turn optimization challenges, and clean UX—all of which stemmed from a core loop that scales elegantly with additional elements.

Core Design Contributions

⚖️ Mechanic Design:

  • Created the central puzzle loop: players place weights on a digital scale to alter values on a board, with the goal of opening a path for green fish while avoiding contact with red fish.

  • Prioritized readability and teachability, with mechanics that required only basic number logic but offered deep room for puzzle expansion.

🧩 Level Design Philosophy:

  • Employed a modular level system, enabling rapid creation of puzzles by remixing number values, fish placement, and board layout.

  • Designed levels around tight turn constraints, rewarding efficiency through a gold-rating system and encouraging optimization without penalizing experimentation.

  • Used a dry-erase board to sketch and iterate on puzzle logic before transferring to engine-level implementation.

🎯 Replayability and Scalability Systems:

  • Designed mechanics with scaling complexity in mind—small rule changes (e.g., fish type, digit count, weight behavior) created exponential level design potential.

  • Built a dual-path difficulty structure, allowing players to:

    • Complete levels at their own pace, or

    • Replay for optimal “gold” turn ratings, appealing to competitive and casual players alike.

📋 Project Leadership & Vision:

  • Directed all aspects of game flow, puzzle logic, and player feedback systems.

  • Collaborated closely with the programmer to ensure accurate implementation of intended systems and to manage scope within the 30-day jam timeline.

  • Served as the creative lead, aligning the game’s visual theming, mechanics, and overall UX with the jam’s theme, “Scales.”

Challenges Tackled

✦ Balancing Accessibility with Depth

  • Created a first-time-user experience that taught core mechanics within minutes while allowing deeper layers of strategy to emerge naturally across the level set.

✦ Ensuring Long-Term Design Viability

  • Structured puzzle systems to support endless expansion with only a few core mechanic changes—positioning the project as a viable candidate for future mobile or expanded desktop development.

Outcome

Pounds of Piranha was praised for its clean concept, elegant progression, and unexpectedly deep puzzle logic. As a lead designer, I treated it as a design exercise in restraint and depth—building complexity from minimal input, ensuring strong onboarding, and preparing it for post-jam scalability.

© 2018 Blund