Peek & Seek Project Report
1. The Concept
Peek & Seek is a friendly, landscape spot-the-difference game for children and casual players. Players compare two illustrated scenes, identify the small changes, use limited hints, and progress through 10 levels. The experience includes a calm Relax Mode and a more challenging Timed Mode with a countdown.
2. The Stack
The Stack: Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in one index.html file, with local WebP and PNG assets. The project has no framework, backend, database, external API, build tool, or package dependency. Browser local storage saves progress, stars, best timed results, and sound preferences.
The AI Assist: OpenAI Codex supported implementation, responsive layout refinement, gameplay interactions, local asset integration, and the creation of supporting game artwork.
3. The 1 Day Sprint:
Morning (Hours 1–3): Built the app flow from splash screen to Home, mode selection, gameplay, settings, and completion popups. Established the approved playful Peek & Seek visual direction and local-asset structure.
Afternoon (Hours 4–6): Implemented the core spot-the-difference loop: 10 level definitions, hearts, hints, wrong-tap feedback, tutorial guidance, zoom/pan, progression, stars, and saved progress.
The Finish Line (Hour 7-8): Refined the 16:9 landscape experience for mobile and desktop, added the countdown for Timed Mode, improved game artwork and popup assets, and documented how to run the project.
4. The Roadblocks
Roadblocks: The main challenge was making every screen fill the intended 16:9 landscape play area without unwanted rounded containers, unused margins, scrolling gameplay, or cropped comparison artwork. This required careful responsive CSS adjustments for mobile and desktop. Another challenge was keeping the visual style consistent while replacing temporary UI treatments with transparent PNG and WebP assets. Timed Mode also needed to retain elapsed-time scoring while changing the player-facing timer to a countdown.
5. Key Takeaways
A small Vanilla JavaScript project can still deliver a polished game loop when its state, assets, and screen lifecycle are kept clear and focused.
Responsive gameplay layout deserves early attention: the game area, artwork, touch controls, and modal states must all behave well together on compact landscape screens.
My final thought: Peek & Seek now has a complete, approachable gameplay foundation with a consistent visual identity, a clear progression loop, and room for future level and asset expansion.