Game logic
Three weapons in a circle: diapers beat papers, the syringe beats diapers, papers beat the syringe. The comparison is a single lookup table instead of a stack of if-statements, so adding a fourth weapon would be a one-line change.
Deadbeat Parent
A satirical browser game inspired by the frustration, exhaustion, and absurdity of navigating single parenthood — transformed into an original interactive experience.
Begin the Game
What the game is
Deadbeat Parent is a satirical three-way game built around the familiar logic of rock-paper-scissors. Players choose a parent, select a weapon, and compete against a blind opponent.
The winner is decided by a circle of rules: diapers beat papers, the syringe beats diapers, papers beat the syringe. Wins, losses and ties are tracked across rounds — and tallied into a running scoreboard between both parents.
Built entirely by hand. No AI was used to create the game's illustrations, sound, or logic. I designed the visual system, created the original artwork, synthesized the sound, and built the interactive experience myself.
Why I made it
This game began with a personal experience.
As a single parent, I experienced what it feels like to carry the day-to-day responsibility of raising a child largely on my own. That experience brought frustration, exhaustion, and a very real need to find ways to process difficult circumstances.
I chose to turn that experience into something unexpected: an interactive game.
Instead of presenting the subject as a traditional personal narrative, I used satire and absurdity to transform a difficult experience into a playful system of rules, characters, objects, sound, and interaction.
For me, Deadbeat Parent became more than a game. It became an exercise in turning lived experience into interactive storytelling — using design and technology to take something difficult and give it a completely different form.
Design intent
Rather than creating a conventional serious narrative about single parenthood, I intentionally used humor, exaggeration, and arcade-style mechanics to create emotional distance from a difficult subject. The result is a game that is intentionally absurd while still being rooted in a real experience.
The three weapons
What it was built with
React 19
The whole game is one component tree. Every screen — rules, player choice, weapon picking, results — is driven by state, with no page reloads.
TypeScript
Weapons, players, round outcomes and the score are all typed, so an impossible result can't slip through at build time.
TanStack Router
File-based routes give this write-up and the game their own shareable links, each with its own page title and preview text.
Tailwind CSS v4
Layout, the neon frame and the responsive sizing are done with utility classes plus a few custom styles for the arcade look.
Web Audio API
Every sound — the fart, the slurp, the paper scrunch, the win jingle — is synthesised in the browser. No audio files to download.
Original artwork
Logo, background and the three weapon illustrations are my own, carried over from the desktop version of the game.
How it was built
Round flow
You pick your player, then a weapon. That locks the buttons, shows a short 'the deadbeat is choosing' beat, then reveals both picks side by side and updates wins, losses and ties.
Shared scoreboard
Results are tallied twice: once for the individual player's run and once into a shared scoreboard for Team Mums and Team Dads, allowing players to see which side is winning overall.
From desktop to web
The original was a desktop build. I rewrote the screens and rules as reusable components, replaced the window layout with a responsive one, and kept the art and rules exactly as designed.
From personal experience to interactive system
The project started as a personal creative concept and became an opportunity to explore how experience can be translated into interaction.
I treated the game as a small design system: the weapons became metaphors, the rules became the interaction model, the scoreboard became the feedback loop, and the visual language established the tone.
The result combines illustration, UX, interaction design, sound, and front-end development in one self-directed project.
Ready to play?
Choose your player, pick your weapon, and see if you can beat the deadbeat parent.
Begin the Game