Deepcover | Courtney Manbeck's Portfolio

Development Info

• Role: Game Designer
• Company: Whitethorn Games
• Tools Used: Unity, Figma, Github
• Duration: December 2022—January 2023, October 2023—Present
• Team Size: 8

Project Info

• Genre: Puzzle, Educational
• Platform: Android, iOS
• Project Status: Launched

Links

Website
App Store
Google Play

Game Description

As a secret agent, embark on missions around the globe and play spy-themed minigames, all while learning how to identify and avoid real-life financial scams.

Deepcover was developed as part of the Deception Awareness and Resilience Training (DART) platform created by the University at Buffalo Center for Information Integrity (CII). Its goal is to educate older adults who are especially vulnerable to scams. Adaptive difficulty settings and bite-sized informational videos ensure that anyone can have fun playing and learning.

Contributions

I was first assigned to Deepcover when I joined Whitethorn Games in Dec. 2022, but was then switched to full-time work on Whalefall and other internal projects. I rejoined the Deepcover team in Oct. 2023, about a month prior to the game's launch.

At the beginning:

Assisted the lead designer in the creation of the core loop of the Decoding minigame
Drafted UML diagrams to help engineers structure systems

Pre-launch:

Designed and implemented additional adaptive difficulty settings for the Decoding minigame
Performed extensive QA across all app features

Post-launch:

Wrote and edited short educational video scripts providing guidance on how to identify and avoid phone and internet scams
Storyboarded a thirty second animated informative video about deepfake scams
Designed a new minigame focused on globetrotting trivia, signal interpretation puzzles, and an educational storyline about caller ID spoofing scams
Performed accessibility reviews for existing and new features