Mastermind

The seminar brief was to design, build, test and demonstrate a fully functional mobile app running on a physical Android device. I chose Mastermind and focused on making its code-breaking loop feel clear, modern and approachable.

Research and prototyping

I began by studying the rules and feedback system: one player creates a hidden sequence of coloured pegs, while the other uses positional and colour clues to refine each guess. With that interaction mapped out, I created the initial interface in Balsamiq.

Development

I first implemented the game logic with a terminal interface in Java. Separating the rules from the visual layer helped verify code generation and computer-generated clues before I moved on to the Android interface.

Using the high-fidelity sketches made in the first step, I created a first prototype already inheriting the proposed design language, a color picker, buttons and pop-up dialogues.

Final application

Several iterations added menus, local data storage, an action bar, music, sound effects, advertising and a dedicated application icon. The finished interface uses restrained typography, soft peg colours and deliberately simple controls to keep attention on the puzzle.