Game dev: Numzzle
Making Numzzle: Turning Math Practice Into a Game In May 2025, I started building an arithmetic game. From Sugongjae to Numzzle Like a parent who picks a baby’s nickname before it's even born, I picked a name before the game itself existed. I shortened “making math fun” (수학공부 재미있게 / Su-hak gong-bu jae-mi-it-ge) into “Sugongjae.” Then, aiming for something shorter and punchier, I called it “Suung” — short for “Math Hero” (수학 영웅) in Korean. But my youngest daughter shot that down: “Isn’t it a bit much to call yourself a hero just for solving a few math problems?” So it went back to Sugongjae. I thought about renaming Sugongjae the way Wordle does — by attaching an easy-to-pronounce syllable or a familiar word. “Number” + “butter” = “Nutter” was my first idea, but when I looked it up, I found that in British English it can mean a "crazy person." ChatGPT poured out countless name options, and so many were cute it was hard to choose — but I ultimately picked Numzzle. I...