Case Study

15 Weeks at UMBC: a campus-life strategy game about student tradeoffs.

15 Weeks at UMBC turns a semester into a choice-based system where every decision changes health, food, grades, money, stress, support, and career readiness.

Play Game GitHub Back to Portfolio

Problem

Student life is full of tradeoffs that are hard to see in the moment.

Students balance class, food, rest, work, social life, studying, and long-term career goals. The game makes those invisible tradeoffs visible through stats, events, and endings.

Players

Students who recognize the pressure of a full semester.

The game is built for students who understand that one choice rarely affects only one part of life. A study choice can improve grades but raise stress. A work choice can help money but hurt rest.

Product

A browser-playable campus strategy game.

The original class-style Processing idea became a deployable web game with arcade visuals, save/load support, achievements, weekly decisions, and pass/fail semester outcomes.

Technology

Processing roots with a JavaScript deployment path.

The project combines the original Java/Processing logic with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so it can run publicly on GitHub Pages as a polished browser game.

System Design

How choices become a semester outcome.

Player Profile Starting path, semester goals, and student situation

Weekly Events Choices around study, work, meals, rest, social life, and campus resources

Stat Engine Health, food, grades, money, stress, support, and career readiness shifts

Ending Logic Pass/fail outcome, achievements, and reflection at the end of the semester

What I Built

Core features

Decision engine with seven connected student stats.
Weekly event loop with meaningful yes/no choices and visible consequences.
Arcade-inspired interface, UMBC color cues, and pixel-style scene artwork.
Save/load support, achievements, multiple endings, and final semester results.

What I Learned

Interactive systems thinking

How to turn real student behavior into game mechanics.
How to balance fun, clarity, and consequence in a choice-based system.
How to move from a local class project into a deployed product.
How visual style changes the perceived quality of the same logic.

Roadmap

Where the game could go next.

More UMBC locations Expanded character paths Leaderboard mode More semester endings Audio and arcade effects Student feedback testing