An honored spot at TAGS

So recently, my team and I had the amazing opportunity of showcasing our game, BeanRush, at Tomorrow’s Awesome Games Showcase (TAGS)—an unforgivable achievement in my eyes. 🎉

The game simply started as an academic exploration of how players engage with their avatars in the couch co-op game genre. I don't believe 'simple' is an understatement since we developed a vertical slice of the game over approximately a month. The game in one sentence is four players teaming up to run a abnormal coffee shop, each taking on a unique role to keep the orders flowing.

Despite being a simple concept, it was a project that we fell in love with. Thankfully, we weren't the only ones, as kids, teenagers, and adults all wanted to play. The really was an incredible experience of chaos, strategizing and overall fun. The most rewarding feeling was seeing many even coming back multiple times over the three-day event to play again!

Image of one of the many players, playing our game at TAGS

My many role for the game

We were four people working on this project. Two of us, designers, and two programmers. And team size was definitely both a gift and a curse, as it forced to wear many, many hats throughout the development. Examples of my main roles included:

• Lead level designer

• Equal part UX designer

• Briefly a 3D artist

• Equal part playtest researcher

Image of the level design and game world

Small concept, bigger future?

TAGS reminded us why we started this project in the first place—to bring people together, create memorable moments, and, of course, serve up some virtual coffee and break some health regulation in doing so. ☕

And although we didn’t take home the title of best student game, we were thrilled to see BeanRush stand among the highest-voted showcase games. The love and enthusiasm from all our players said enough for us. We had a small, fun vision that had bigger potential than just its current state. So who knows… Maybe we will take on the challenge and make it a more complete experience. 🚀