Goodnight, Smiskis

For my game, I created Goodnight Smiskis, a hidden-object arcade game based around finding Smiski figures hidden throughout a college dorm room before the player falls asleep. I chose Smiskis simply because I've collected over 20 of them this year and I like their simple design with the idea that theyre built to give small spaces more life. I thought that translated naturally into a game. I also wanted the setting to feel familiar to me, so instead of making a generic hidden-object scene, I made it take place across a semester in a college dorm.

One of the main design choices I made was having the same room change over three levels: Move-in Day, Midterms, and Finals Week. The first level is relatively clean, while later levels add more clutter and make the Smiskis harder to find. The number of Smiskis also increases from six to eight while the time limit decreases from 80 seconds to 60 seconds.

Another choice I liked was making the room gradually get darker as the timer runs out. Instead of the timer being the only indication that you are losing, the entire atmosphere changes and the player starts to feel like they are actually falling asleep. At the same time, the glow-in-the-dark Smiskis become slightly more visible, which gives the player a small advantage when they are almost out of time. goodnight-smiskis I also added hints, but made them cost five seconds so using one is actually a decision rather than a free solution. goodnight-smiskis

The collaboration with AI was useful because it could turn visual ideas into working systems much faster than I could code them myself. For example, the changing lighting and glow effect ended up working better visually than I originally imagined. At the same time, I did not want the AI deciding what the game was. I had to keep directing the concept, difficulty, setting, and overall visual feeling instead of accepting whatever it produced first.

I did not personally write the code, but I still think I authored the game in an important way. The idea, subject, rules, visual direction, and decisions about what felt fun came from me. AI was more like the tool that translated those decisions into a playable game. Without AI I would not have produced the same code, but without my decisions, this particular game would not exist.

Prompts used during development:

●​ “Make me a game thats finding hidden smiskis similar to the game, wheres waldo”

●​ “Make three levels where the room gets more cluttered and make them harder to find”

●​ “Now make the room darker as the time goes on and everytime they miss a smiskis have them lose 4 seconds of time.”

AI Disclosure: I used Claude Code to create and revise the HTML/JavaScript for the game through multiple rounds of prompting and playtesting. I directed the concept, mechanics, visual style, difficulty, and revisions, while Claude generated the code. I also rejected or changed ideas when they did not match the game I wanted to make.