Check the Label

A University of Groningen research team studying microplastics came in with a paper board game about how synthetic clothing pollutes. They didn't just want it digitized. We would bring the game design, and they would bring the research. The result had to work in classrooms and as a standalone game anyone can play online, and keep collecting research data after launch.

Together with the researchers we reworked the prototype into a proper game, with a clothing market, action cards and a wash day that makes the pollution tangible, all built around a balanced economy of money and microplastics. I built all of it, both the game in PlayCanvas and a Node.js server that owns the game state and keeps every player's screen in sync. The hardest part was a player switching tabs mid-turn. Events piled up while they were away and all fired at once when they came back, which broke the game. Now it pauses when you leave and rebuilds the current state from the server when you come back.

The game is live at checkthelabel.nl, where you can play solo or with others on any device. A dropped connection doesn't end the game, and a research mode gives each completed session a code the university can verify.

The researchers use it with participants in person and share the link online, and the analytics keep feeding them data. For me, it was the first multiplayer game where the server runs everything, and keeping it in sync was the toughest technical problem I'd worked on at that point.