What started as a HackDay project at work about repairing guitars soon became a full-blown mobile game prototype: String Surgeon
It’s a game where you run your own repair shop, restore broken instruments, customize them for quirky clients, and build your own journey from garage tinkerer to legendary luthier. Aesthetically, I was inspired by Assemble With Care's simplistic yet defined look and wanted to sprinkle some rock ‘n roll dream dust over it.
Imagine being able to get your hands dirty while dismantling a dusty old guitar to see how it works. With tactile feedback, you could feel what it's like to pull the strings off, to use alcohol wipes to get the grit off the electronics, to paint the guitar and lacquer it for an awesome look. I wanted to give players a meaningful progression path with an in-app currency that helps you instead of feels like you're being forced to spend real money to play the game. Ultimately, you would be rewarded with currency to spend on new parts, looks and tools that you could use to create your very own dream guitar from scratch! And whilst your reputation as a luthier grows, famous artists would start coming to you in order to repair their legendary instruments! 🤘
The prototype was completed in Figma, Game Design and Pitch documents done in Google Docs and Google sheet. I used ChatGPT to ask me questions regarding the game design and be my secretary, whilst always checking for the answers and results so that it didn't diverge from my vision. It was easy to use ChatGPT to figure out whether all aspects of a GDD would be comprehensive enough for the team to get an overall picture of how the game should work.