Sentence Rescue Project Report
1. The Concept
Sentence Rescue is a web-based English grammar game that helps students practice grammar by fixing broken sentences. The player chooses a grammar mission, reads an incorrect sentence, selects the correct answer, and receives instant feedback.
The goal of the project is to make grammar practice feel more like a quick mobile game instead of a normal textbook exercise. The app is designed for beginner English learners who want short, simple, and fun practice.
2. The Stack
The Stack: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and image assets.
The project does not use React, Vue, Tailwind, Bootstrap, or any frontend framework. It is a static web app, so users can open it directly in a browser without installing dependencies.
The AI Assist: ChatGPT helped with planning the idea, target user, gameplay direction, and project report. OpenAI Codex helped build the project files, improve the UI/UX, add bilingual EN/KH support, add sound effects, connect image assets, remove unused images, and fix design issues found during testing.
3. The 1 Day Sprint:
Morning (Hours 1–3): We started by planning the game concept and target user. The idea was refined from a simple grammar quiz into a sentence-fixing challenge. We used a checklist to define the reference apps, target user, reason to open, reason to continue, core value, and feedback questions. The target user became a 15-year-old beginner English learner who wants quick grammar practice on a phone.
Afternoon (Hours 4–6): Codex built the first playable version using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The app included a home screen, mission selection, grammar questions, score tracking, feedback, and a result screen. The game later expanded with multiple missions such as Be Verbs, Present Simple, Articles, Pronouns, and Past Simple. Extra modes like Practice Rescue, Error Hunt, and Speed Rescue were also added.
The Finish Line (Hour 7-8): The final stage focused on polish and bug fixing. We improved the mobile UI, increased small text sizes, redesigned the result screen, added EN/KH language switching, connected Facebook and TikTok links, added sound effects, and removed unused image assets. The project was checked to make sure the main game script had no syntax errors.
4. The Roadblocks
Roadblocks: The biggest roadblock was making the app look like a mobile game instead of a normal webpage. Several screens needed redesign because the spacing, background, text size, and result screen did not look polished enough at first. Another challenge was bilingual support. The first language button was confusing because users could not tell whether it showed the current language or the next language. This was fixed by changing it into a clear EN | KH selector. Screen space was also a challenge because the app needed large readable text while still fitting inside a mobile layout.
5. Key Takeaways
The best part of the project was turning a simple grammar quiz into a clearer game experience. The mission system, feedback, score, mastery progress, animations, and sound effects made the app feel more interactive.
The weakest part was the first UI version. It worked, but it needed many design improvements before it felt suitable for a mobile learning game.
My final thought: If I had one more day, I would add more grammar questions, polish the animations, improve the sound effects, and test the app with real students to see which missions are too easy or too hard.