Don’t Play With My Balls

Role

Game Design, UI/UX Design, Character Production, Creative Direction

Platform

Mobile Game (iOS & Android)

Year

2013–2015

Team

Creative lead, 1 developer

Tools

Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects

Overview

Don’t Play With My Balls is a fast-paced, over-the-top mobile game with one simple mechanic: swipe ninja cats away before they shred your ball of yarn. Realistic ragdoll physics send cats, and their pieces, flying into each other.

I handled the game design and the UI/UX, writing the full game design document and designing every screen and asset. I also directed the character and sound work, and turned the character concept art into production-ready files. The design was completed and ready for development, but the game was never built.

01The game

Protect the yarn

Cats swarm in from the bottom of the screen and claw at your ball of yarn. Swipe them off before its health runs out. Difficulty ramps up every 23 seconds with more cats, faster cats, and tougher cat types.

02Gameplay

Swipes, combos, and chaos

Swiping one cat into another knocks out both and raises the point multiplier. Powerup overlays like Balls of Steel and Feels So Nice protect the yarn, and treasure chests reward catnip. Motion mockups show how swipes and ragdoll hits were meant to feel.

03Menus

A world built from yarn

Menus hang from the yarn stand itself: each option is a ball of yarn on a string. Players choose between four modes (Classic, Sensitive Balls, Cat Massacre, and Cat Fling), track their level, and shop for upgrades.

Game mode, social, account, and store screens

04Results

Every stat worth bragging about

The results screen celebrates the carnage, from max combo and catnip to cats killed, femurs shattered, and headshots, alongside experience toward the next level.

05Characters

Six cats, rebuilt to break apart

Each cat type has its own behavior: Ninja, Illusionist, Ghost, Sapper, Demon, and Samurai. I took the character concept art and rebuilt each cat as working Illustrator files, segmented into head, arms, torso, tail, and feet, then created damaged and destroyed versions of every piece so cats could be ripped apart realistically in Unity.

06Powerups

An upgrade economy

Powerups like Yarn Ball refills, Ball Sack, Cat Food, Multiplier Increases, and Balls of Steel armor each come in five levels, purchased with catnip earned in play.

07Game design document

Specced down to the second

The 37-page GDD defines everything a developer needs: the difficulty sequence table, cat spawn rates and speeds, damage values, experience and catnip rewards, achievements, levels, treasure chests, monetization, and social features.

08Flow

Every screen, connected

The wireframe maps how every screen connects, from the title screen through modes, the store, gameplay, pause, achievements, and results.

09Style guide

Ready for production

A style guide specifies type treatments, stroke sizes, swipe trails, the dynamic yarn string, and how cat sprites are assembled, alongside full asset sheets for development.

10Icon

The ninja cat

The App Store icon puts the game’s mascot front and center.

11Outcome

Ready for development

The design was fully completed and ready for development, though the game was never built.