Skip to content
All games

Released · 2022–2025

Coco Crunchers

A three-year educational platformer research project with measurable learning outcomes.

Visit Official SiteSource

More repositories: CocoCrunchers · CocoCrunchersLLM

Genres

Educational · Platformer · Research

Current state

Released

Coco Crunchers logo art

About the game

The experience at a glance.

Coco Crunchers evolved from a school game concept into a full research platform spanning three years of iteration, playtesting, and data collection. It explores how platformer design, embedded math challenges, and AI assistance can improve learning outcomes without sacrificing fun.

3 skill-based levels covering wall jumping, enemy combat, and platform navigation
Mathematical challenges integrated directly into progression and feedback loops
Statistically significant learning improvement from 83% to 92.5% (p = 0.02459)
32 participants tested across ages 8–77 over three years
GPT-4o-powered AI hint system added during the final research phase
Web deployment pipeline using Pygbag after multiple framework experiments
Built with pygame-ce and Tiled for iterative content design

Development status

How the project got here.

What started as a simple educational game concept in 2022 turned into a long-form research project about how games teach, how players learn, and how AI can support learning without taking away the joy of discovery.

Across three research phases, Coco Crunchers moved from classroom prototype to measured study. Each round of development refined the gameplay, the educational framing, and the deployment stack. The game’s evolution documents not just a product, but a sustained design process grounded in player behavior and test results.

Today, Coco Crunchers stands as both a playable game and a research artifact. It demonstrates how design iteration, analytics, and educational intent can coexist inside one coherent project.