2025
(Summary)
SugarSenpai is a kawaii-themed, browser-based puzzle game built on SEI Network. At its core it's a match-3 candy puzzle game — players solve tile-matching puzzles, unlock anime waifu character reactions, complete daily quests, and earn tickets that fuel a gacha-style lucky wheel for cosmetics, boosters, and character interactions.
The tagline 'solve puzzles and win hearts' captures the dual loop: gameplay rewards (puzzle completion, quests) and emotional rewards (character reactions, unlocks, community identity). This isn't just a game — it's a social, otaku-friendly space where Web3 ownership of cosmetics and characters makes sense because people actually want to keep and show off what they earn.
Built on SEI's fast, low-fee infrastructure, SugarSenpai uses the chain for what it's good at — provably fair gacha outcomes, true ownership of earned cosmetics, and on-chain reward distribution — without surfacing any of that complexity to the player.
SEI Network ecosystem project
Web3 · Puzzle Gaming · Kawaii · Gacha · SEI Blockchain
(Role & Team)
Full design ownership — from character to chain
Visual Identity: Built the SugarSenpai brand system — logo, color palette (candy pastels, neon accents), typography, and character visual language that reads as kawaii-native, not kawaii-inspired
Game UI Design: Designed the full in-game interface — match-3 puzzle board, tile designs, combo indicators, progress tracking, and win/lose states — all maintaining the kawaii aesthetic under the pressure of active gameplay
Gacha System UI: Designed the lucky wheel and reward reveal experience — high anticipation, satisfying animation hooks, and clear outcome communication. Special care given to communicating odds honestly (SEI blockchain's provable fairness) without breaking the magic of the reveal
Character & Waifu Reaction System: Designed the anime character reaction UI — the expressions, animations triggers, and unlock progression that make players feel emotionally connected to their SugarSenpai character
Daily Quest & Ticket System: Designed the quest tracking and ticket economy UI — making multiple simultaneous progression loops feel motivating rather than overwhelming
Website Design: Designed sugarsenpai.com — communicating the game's kawaii identity and Web3 integration to both anime fans and crypto-native players
(Approach)
Why cute and blockchain actually work together here
The kawaii aesthetic isn't just decoration — it's a strategic design choice that solves a real Web3 UX problem. When everything looks adorable, wallet prompts, transaction confirmations, and reward notifications feel like part of the game world rather than interruptions from the real world.
I designed the gacha wheel as the emotional centrepiece of the product — the moment players feel most connected to SugarSenpai. The provable fairness of on-chain randomness was positioned not as a technical disclaimer but as a feature: 'our lucky wheel is provably fair because it lives on the blockchain.' Transparency as a trust mechanic, not a legal footnote.
The character reaction system was designed to make players feel seen. When your waifu reacts to your puzzle performance — celebrating a big combo or consoling a missed match — it creates the emotional loop that keeps casual players returning daily without needing to understand or care about blockchain rewards.
(Challenges)
Making blockchain disappear behind kawaii
The hardest design problem in Web3 gaming is the same one SugarSenpai faced: how do you make a product that's genuinely fun and emotionally engaging, where the blockchain is an infrastructure layer rather than the product itself?
For SugarSenpai specifically, there were three layers to solve:
Kawaii consistency: The entire product — from the puzzle board to the gacha wheel to the wallet connection flow — needed to maintain a single, coherent kawaii aesthetic. One screen that felt 'crypto' would shatter the experience.
Gacha UX: Gacha mechanics are inherently high-emotion — anticipation, reveal, reward. Designing a gacha wheel that feels fair, exciting, and trustworthy (especially with on-chain provable randomness) required careful tension between delight and transparency.
Progression legibility: Daily quests, ticket earning, lucky wheel spins, character unlocks — multiple overlapping progression systems that needed to feel simple and motivating, not overwhelming and confusing.
(Results & Impact)
✅ Complete kawaii visual identity — brand, character system, color language — creates a fully coherent world that doesn't feel like a Web3 product wearing a cute costume
✅ Gacha wheel UX delivers high anticipation and satisfying reveals while communicating on-chain provable fairness as a feature, not a disclaimer
✅ Character reaction system creates emotional engagement that drives daily retention — players return for their waifu, not just for token rewards
✅ Multiple progression loops (quests, tickets, spins, unlocks) designed to feel motivating and legible rather than overwhelming
✅ Web3 infrastructure (wallet, rewards, ownership) fully integrated but never intrusive — players can enjoy the game without interacting with blockchain at all if they choose
(Next Step)
With the core puzzle and gacha loop live, the natural expansion is the social layer — player profiles showing off earned cosmetics and character unlocks, community leaderboards for puzzle performance, and collaborative events where the SugarSenpai community solves challenges together for shared rewards. The character system was designed with this in mind: each waifu has enough personality to anchor a community identity, not just a single-player relationship.
