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Overview
IndieCade Climate Jam 2025 gave teams 4 weeks to build a complete game around changing the story on climate change discourse. The challenge was to make a more serious, information-heavy topic into something engaging and fun without overwhelming or lecturing players on the topic. My team successfully delivered a playable satirical card game launched on Itch on PC (Windows) and won Top Overall game out of 48 entries for the jam.
What I Did
Led UX/UI design of the main gameplay layout to condense the table space to fit four players and highlight key information.
Created UI art and icon assets for game, working with main artist to develop style guide and art direction for game.
Assisted with playtesting and feedback sessions to iterate on designs within the final week.
Timeline
June - July
2024
Role
UX Designer
UI Artist
Platform
PC (Windows)
Unreal Engine 5
Problem Space: Goals
Our team defined the key goals of our game which drove the MVP features I focused on:
1. Design a concise onboarding flow to teach core mechanic within first 15-20 seconds as people new to
card game genre should be able to play it without confusion.
2. Include informational sections without interrupting gameplay flow and make key information elements
like card type / effects / game phases easy to read and see visually.
3. Design features that incentivize players to replay the game.
Competitive Research
I conducted research into popular card games and noted key elements of the game flow and UI design:
Successful card games like Hearthstone excel in smooth, engaging gameplay flows with clear visual cues that make gameplay intuitive.
Hearthstone – Game Board Layout
Hearthstone – Card Hover Select
Readability and accessible UI icons that are familiar to players are the primary focus with card games like Magic: The Gathering with so much information.
Magic: The Gathering Online – Game Board Layout
Physical Prototype Deck
Our team created a physical deck to test the core gameplay loop with the internal team and found key insights:
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Phases can be confusing so an indicator of phase is a priority element.
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Lot of information on cards so important to highlight most important info quickly such as card effect.
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Clear understanding of rules necessary with various types of cards and many win/lose conditions.
Physical card prototype test
Tutorial Flow
One of the key features we needed to implement was an in-depth tutorial and clear indicators for what new players should interact with when starting the game.
Different explorations of the tutorial screens - when user clicks play
With limited time and resources, our team decided a step-by-step FTE tutorial that would guide new users would have to be scrapped and opted to include a static tutorial that players could visit anytime on the menu or title.
Final screen of main menu and pause menu - tutorial locations
Final screen of tutorial screens
Gameplay Table Layout
The core gameplay loop would be through four main phases which need to be clear to the user what phase they are on and whose turn it is with four players.
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Flow chart of phases of core gameplay loop
With limited real estate on the screen, I proposed a 3D tilted angle for the table to focus on the player's hand. Our team decided to go with a flat angled 2D surface due to time limitations.
Reference screens for angled table perspective from Inscryption (left) & Magic: The Gathering Online (right)
Some focal points of the gameplay screen include the turn indicator, card hover info, and action buttons.
Final mid-fidelity screen of table layout
Early Build Playtesting
Early UE gameplay build (before adjusting zoom)
Early UE gameplay build (after changing player hand zoom)
Our team ran an internal playtest session with the early Unreal Engine build of our game to test the gameplay. I flagged a few items that I observed impacted the gameplay most and could be prioritized as fixes during our last two weeks push:
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Each round consists of action and reaction (impact bonuses) loading for each player's moves which means a lot of waiting time for each effect to show one-by-one. Speed up or combine effects display.
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The card hover selection effect overlapped with other cards and made it difficult to interact with other cards and go back to a neutral table view mode. The entire player hand can be zoomed in when hovering near the bottom screen to simplify it with a card-specific hover to show an info pop-up of its effects.
Replayability: Abilities + Different Endings
One way to make the game fun to replay was including randomized player abilities starting out, a scoreboard to keep track of high scores, and different endings.
Final screen - role draw card
Adding in different randomized player roles also allows for room to add information about climate change in a fun way.
Final game assets - role card info
I explored different variations of the scoreboard screens, landing on a design that includes the character roles and scores for profit, role bonus, and damage in the final screen so players can see a breakdown of scores.
Exploration of scoreboard screens - final design on top
Our team planned about 6 different win/lose conditions, so I designed screens with additional text detailing the impact on the environment tied to their results.
Final screens - victory / lose conditions
Style Guide (UI)
Post-Launch Feedback
After launching on Itch, we received player feedback for potential future changes and made a few final bug patches:
Given more time, refining the length of one round where players can make an action while waiting for their turn would be key to make the core gameplay fun.
At Least I'm Rich is a strategic turn-based card game that explores themes of climate change by placing players in the shoes of a venture capitalist expanding your wealth. You must make the most money by the end of the game, but there will be a devastating impact on the planet.
Credits
Cass Suarez: Blueprint Programmer
Evan Evers: C++ Programmer & Blueprint Programmer
Hannah Rose: Lead Illustrator & Artist
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