Pinata Payday

Inspiration

This game is heavily inspired on the game "Bills Must Be Paid" which is a game I enjoyed a lot due to the decision making factor, and the dopamine you get when you see yourself getting stronger. I'm a big fan of the mexican aesthetic, specially the "Dia de los Muertos" so I found a very good match between the Bills Must Be Paid idea, and the mexican pinatas.

What it does

The game is about smashing hanging pinatas, getting candy out of them that you can use to purchase damage, energy, powerups and many more upgrades, before running out of candy to give out to the kids.

How we built it

I built this game using Cursor with Grok 4.6, and some 3D modeling AI tools too as Meshy. I also used 3D modeling software to clean up and texturing my pinata characters.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge I ran into, was taking the reference game vision, and giving it my own twist so it doesn't feel just like a reskin of it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The game loop feels really solid and satisfying. The intro tutorial is super helpful too. The level of polish for being a prototype is something I'm very proud of. The feedback when hitting a pinata, the looks, the aesthetics of the game is something I'm really proud of. I think I was able to capture the mexican vibe very well.

What we learned

I learned to give the references I use my own twist. Also to prompt to get the results I'm looking for. Creating in-editor tools for designing the game, for example, I built a node editor for the skill tree, and some for UI placement too.

What's next for Pinata Payday

Fully custom UI all across the game. Improved piñata types, with some special behaviors in some of them. Borrowing candy from the Candy Dealer when the player doesn't have enough to give to a kid to stay alive. Run upgrades after completing an order from a kid. Improved VFX. Custom soundtrack and new SFX.