Mayday... Everyday
First-Person Space-Sim Emergency Management Game | Team Project
The Challenge
In Mayday... Everyday, players work to transport cargo safely while dealing with ongoing ship failures. As the System & Game Designer, I led the design and built the main gameplay systems.
I turned a complex gameplay loop into clear documentation and quick prototypes, making sure the design was easy to understand and delivered on time.
ROLE
Game Designer & System Designer
DEVELOPMENT CYCLE
Jan '26 - Present
ENGINE & TOOLS
Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints) - Excel
PLATFORM
PC
I Made a Delivery Game Where EVERYTHING Goes Wrong!
I designed the core gameplay loop around mechanical degradation during transit, generating emergency events that threaten cargo integrity.
To prevent cognitive burnout, I structured gameplay into pacing cycles: high-intensity multi-failure spikes balanced with calculated pauses (Pillow Time) let players re-prioritize, stabilize the ship, and maintain agency.
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How I Used Spreadsheets to Stress Out My Players!
Following game-economy principles, I built an Excel simulation framework to mathematically calibrate rewards and emergencies.
In this design, time is the ultimate currency, and the payout is a percentage of the saved cargo. I modeled cargo decay curves against player response times to create a high-stakes economy.
Every second lost directly impacts progression, ensuring a perfect delivery feels genuinely earned.
I Beat the 'Control Room' at Their Own Game!
Operating under strict production deadlines, I ensured the game systems met high-quality standards for every milestone review. I managed the iteration loops driven by continuous evaluations from the Control Room. By analyzing their feedback, I optimized the balance between time constraints and cargo decay mechanics, maintained the core design intent, and ensured the project passed every build verification gate.
