Everything I built
My own project · online now
Broom & Blade
Household chores turned into a game for kids, and the website that tells its story.
There are two parts to this one, and they are described separately below.
Part 1 of 2 · Game
The game
The app the family actually uses.
A parent puts the chores on a board. Every chore a child finishes pays out points and gold. One code signs the whole family in, so everyone shares the same board and each person has their own character.
What it does
- Points move a child up through sixteen titles. Gold buys gear in the Shop: 180 pieces, from Tools to fight with to helmets, outfits, companions and charms, and every one has a short story. Some can never be bought, only won.
- Every level a child gains opens one fight in the Colosseum, against a monster made of dust. There are fifty of them across five rooms, and each of the 26 Tools attacks with its own animation and sound.
- Sweep Co. is a small game on the side: sweep up dust for silver and hire help. The helpers only work on hours earned by doing chores, so it never takes their place.
- Marking a chore done takes a press and hold rather than a tap, so it cannot happen by accident. A parent has the final say on whether a chore is really done.
- Finish every daily chore and a hooded merchant comes with three boxes. Two hold gold and one holds a fortune. Every fifth day like that, he offers 100 gold or a mystery box with a prize inside.
- Each child picks one of two looks for the whole game, Warband or Paper Guild, in light or dark. Every hero, piece of gear and monster is drawn for both.
- It is free, needs no account, and installs on a phone like any other app. The music and the sound of each Tool were made with ElevenLabs, and the app makes every other sound itself.
- The carnival games from its first version play on their own, free, in the Broom & Blade Arcade at the bottom of my Arcade page, where Pip the guild mouse runs the room.
Receipts for the game
- 180
- Pieces of gear, each with its own story
- 50
- Dust monsters to beat, across five rooms
- Free
- No account and no payment, on any phone
Part 2 of 2 · Website
The website
The page that tells the game’s story, written for the kid who will play it.
The website tells the story rather than explaining the rules. An old wizard tells it in seven short chapters, and each chapter lets you try a piece of the game right on the page.
What it does
- You can seal a chore with a press and hold, grow a hero from level 1 to 12 with a slider, take a Tool from the Shop into a fight, start a tiny sweeping business, and open the merchant’s boxes after dark.
- Every hero, Tool and monster on it is the game’s own art. A switch at the top dresses the whole page in either of the game’s two looks. It opens in Paper Guild.
- It keeps the game’s secrets. It shows the first twelve levels and the first room of the Colosseum and seals everything past them, so there is still something to find when you play.
- The Tools you can pick up attack with the same animation and sound as in the game. The fight and the sweeping game each have a song, but the music stays off until you turn it on.
- Five dust bunnies are hidden around the page for anyone who looks.
Receipts for the website
- 7
- Chapters, each with a piece of the game to try
- 2
- Looks, and the whole page can wear either
- 12
- Levels it shows. The rest stay sealed for players