Numzzle Devlog: part 1

🎮 Numzzle Development Diary Part 1 – The Working Title Was Sugongjae

1. During Game Development, I Didn’t Keep a Diary

I’m someone who normally keeps a diary, but during the game development period, I didn’t write in it at all. I want to record this now before I forget.

2. Essential Research Before Making a Game – Are There Similar Games?

I always decide on a concept before making a game and research whether similar games already exist. If they do, I give up before starting. That’s because all that effort would go nowhere without a release.
So I researched math-related games and asked ChatGPT, but nothing similar to my idea turned up. I also looked into existing math games, but they were all about solving as many problems as possible within a time limit — basically just math worksheets, not games.

3. Making Arithmetic Practice Fun – Creating Target Numbers with Cards

I thought about how to make arithmetic practice genuinely fun, and came up with the idea of presenting numbers and operation symbols as cards to create a target number.

4. The Game’s Working Title ‘Sugongjae’ and the Character That Didn’t Make It

Like someone naming a baby before it’s even born, Numzzle’s working title was actually Sugongjae — short for “math study made fun” in Korean.
I also imagined a lovable mascot: a bean-shaped character wearing a graduation cap, named Sukongi. But there was already an otter character named Sukongi out there, so I decided to focus on the game itself. If the game is fun, I figured, a cute character isn’t necessary.

5. Dreaming of an International Game – Finding an Easy-to-Pronounce Name

With my grand ambitions of making an internationally successful game, I decided to choose a name that anyone could pronounce easily. Was Sugongjae easy to pronounce? Was it too long? The deliberation began.
For game naming, ChatGPT is the answer.

6. The Birth and Abandonment of Suwung3030

ChatGPT suggested several names and I picked from them. I chose Suwung — short for “math hero” in Korean. On top of that, I had decided the target number would be 30 at the time, so I named the game Suwung3030. (Kind of like FIFTY FIFTY?)
Originally the target number was fixed at 30, but I realized that smaller targets made the game too easy, a middle range made it harder, and very large targets made it easy again — so I eventually made the target number adjustable to control difficulty.
The game wasn’t even finished yet, but I’d already settled on “Math Hero” as the name — until my youngest daughter pointed out that becoming a hero just for solving a few math problems seemed a bit much. So I dropped Suwung and suggested going back to Sugongjae.

7. The Miracle on the Bus – Three Game Names Born in One Day

Anyway, we were discussing game names on the bus, and ChatGPT was on fire that day — and so was I.
I went back and forth over whether to attach something meaningless to “Math,” “Number,” or “Cal” (for calculation) the way Wordle does, or maybe tack on a fruit name. In the end, I added “puzzle” and the name Numzzle was born. On that same bus ride, Worpuzz came to life too.
It was such a momentous day — and just one minute before pulling into my stop, Trinkle was decided as well. Three game names in a single day.

8. The Meaning of ‘Numzzle’ – So Enjoyable

The name Numzzle is such a perfect fit. In Korean, it sounds similar to the phrase “so enjoyable,” carrying the spirit of making studying as fun as a game.

9. What If You Can’t Hit the Target Number Exactly? – The Proximity Scoring System

Back to the game itself: since players can’t always make the target number exactly with the cards they’re given, does failing to hit it mean they’ve lost? I didn’t think so. So I decided to award points based on how close they get.

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