Game Design & Development
Going to the Moon
Working game · In development
- Product
- Independent product · McLachlan Design LLC
- Role
- Game concept, UX/UI, content systems & development
- Year
- 2026
Captured from the current development build · Identity, progression, and play
The Challenge
I took the familiar ‘I’m going to the moon’ guessing game and developed it into Cargo Rush: a space-themed game of deduction under pressure. Players infer a hidden rule from an approved item, sort incoming cargo, and progress through a 500-mission journey. The challenge was making a simple idea feel varied, fair, and worth returning to.
My Role & Contribution
I developed the game concept, visual identity, interface, and Flutter build, alongside the content system that powers play. My work includes theme and vocabulary development, rule validation, mission sequencing, a space-travel progression map, daily puzzles, and player-created challenges.
From concept to a playable system
Give the idea a world
The party-game premise became a space mission: Mission Control supplies a clue, words become cargo, and discovering the rule helps launch the next journey. Identity, interface, feedback, and the destination map all support that concept.
Build themes with clear rules
I expanded the content across familiar subjects, entertainment, spelling patterns, and combined deductions. Each theme has a defined boundary, accepted words, rejected words, and a short explanation. Ambiguous ideas were excluded instead of forcing them into the game.
Design variety and progression
A curated opening introduces familiar ideas before deeper deductions. The campaign spaces related themes and suppresses repeated vocabulary; speed and extra lanes add pressure separately from the rule itself. Daily puzzles and shared challenges create other ways to play.
Theme development
A simple rule.
A different way to think.
The content became a design system of its own. These examples come from the game’s active library and show how the concept expands from recognition into deduction.
The hidden rule
Mammals
Start with a subject people recognize. A dolphin belongs even though it lives in water: the category is the rule, not the setting.
Accepted cargo
- Dog
- Dolphin
- Elephant
Rejected cargo
- Dustpan
- Mop
- Rag
Examples from the development build · This explains the rules; it is not a playable round.
What I Delivered
A working Flutter game with 500 Journey missions, 100 destinations, a 366-rule Daily library, saved progress, star mastery, and player-created challenges. The work spans game design, branding, UX/UI, content development, rule logic, and automated content checks. The current build remains in development.