AI portfolio case study · Game design and build

Bouffie Blob

A cozy eat-and-grow game for phones. You roll a fluffy blob around a bakery counter, snack on treats to grow, hide from bigger blobs, and work your way up from crumb-sized to counter champion.

My roleGame designer and art director

Built withVibe coded with Claude

StatusPlayable prototype

Play the prototype

The idea

Eat or be eaten, but make it cozy

Eat-and-grow games are simple to learn: eat anything smaller than you, and stay away from anything bigger. Most of them look like flat shapes on a grid. I wanted the same tension in a world that feels soft, warm, and a little silly, where the characters look like you could pick them up.

I also wanted the growth to feel dramatic. You start at 2 centimeters, when a cookie is a wall you bounce off. By the end you are big enough to swallow a tiered cake.

What it does

One board, a full round of play

Growth you can see

Sugar crystals, sprinkles, berries, macarons, cookies, cakes, and bread are drawn to scale. Anything bigger than you is an obstacle until you outgrow it, and the camera pulls back as you grow.

Rivals with personalities

Computer blobs play the same game you do. Some are greedy snackers, some hunt, some panic and hide. Bigger blobs get bolder in color, so the threats stand out.

Places to hide

Tea towels on the counter are safe spots. Tuck under one while you are small and bigger blobs lose track of you.

Dash and power-ups

A dash for quick escapes, a sugar-rush lollipop, a bubble shield, and a rare golden mini cake worth extra growth.

A round you can win

Reach one meter to become Counter Champion. If you get gobbled, you respawn with a short shield and try again.

Settings for everyone

Cozy, Classic, and Feisty difficulty, and a choice of how many computer blobs share the counter. It plays with a finger on a phone, or with a mouse or keyboard on a computer.

The screens

What it looks like on the phone

These screenshots come from the playable prototype at phone width. Swipe to see them all.

The Bakery Counter start card with a peach bouclé blob, difficulty choices, and the Roll out button — Start: pick a difficulty and how many computer blobs to play against.

The opening countdown over the bakery counter, with cookies, cupcakes, and berries drawn to scale — The opening countdown. At 2 cm, a cookie is a wall.

Mid-game view with the player blob among cookies, macarons, and named rival blobs — Mid-round: snacks, rivals, and the leaderboard.

The player blob tucked under a see-through gingham tea towel, with a Hidden badge — Hiding under a tea towel, where bigger blobs can’t find you.

Design decisions

What shaped the look and the play

Visuals before codeI worked out the look in sketches first: fur and fleece studies, a side-by-side of flat illustration against chunky clay, and three board directions. Nothing was built until the style was settled.

A bouclé coat, not furLong fur read as hairy. A nubby, looped bouclé texture, like a cozy armchair, gave the blobs the soft, squishy feel I wanted.

Contrast so play stays readableThe first counter was warm beige on beige and looked like a floor. A pale marble counter with a sage tile backsplash fixed both problems, and rival blobs brighten as they grow so danger is easy to spot.

Real-world scaleSizes are shown in centimeters and meters, and every snack is drawn to its real size, so growing from a crumb to a giant feels earned.

How it was built

Vibe coded in conversation with Claude

I directed the concept, the art style, the scale, and the rules, reviewed the sketches, and played the builds on my phone. Claude wrote the code. I made the product calls: what the blobs eat, how hiding works, how hard the rivals play, and when a round is won.

Playtesting found two real problems. Bigger blobs could still eat me while I was hidden, and a round could end with nothing left that I was big enough to eat. Both were fixed: hiding now keeps you safe, snacks refill nearby, and there is always a smaller rival to chase.

Status and next steps

A playable first board

The Bakery Counter is playable with computer rivals. Scores and settings save on the device.

A start screen for choosing your blob’s coat and color
Room codes so a few friends can play together
More boards, already sketched: deep space, a tide pool, a greenhouse, a game day table, and a snow globe

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Bouffie Blob Case Study