StarMart: Black Hole Friday

A mobile-first arcade management game where players race alien bargain hunters through doomed asteroid supermarkets, chasing better discounts before each store is swallowed by a black hole.

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Inspiration

StarMart: Black Hole Friday began with a simple question: what if Black Friday was not just a sale, but a literal race against a black hole? The game turns modern consumer pressure — chasing deals, furnishing a home, managing money — into a satirical cosmic survival loop. Its tone draws from animated satire, classic arcade chase games, and mobile progression games built around improving a personal space.

What it does

StarMart: Black Hole Friday is a mobile-first arcade management game set in a retail system orbiting a black hole. Players live aboard a small apartment spaceship and visit asteroid supermarkets to buy discounted furniture, appliances, groceries, and other goods. Each store drifts closer to the black hole over time. The closer it gets, the bigger the discounts become — but danger, Deal Fiend competition, and time pressure increase too. Players race through maze-like aisles, collect products, avoid hazards, and escape through an automatic checkout gate before the timer hits zero. Back home, items can furnish the apartment, increase collection value, or be sold at Loading Bay E for profit.

How we built it

This submission was built as a full game design package for the Meta Horizon Creator Competition, including a Game Design Document, Visual Concept Package, Player Journey Map, and Production Plan. The design focuses on a clear MVP: one asteroid store, one shopping stage, one Deal Fiend type, a token economy, a system map, and one spaceship apartment room. Concept art, UI mockups, sketches, diagrams, and production planning were used to show how the core loop could be built and expanded.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was balancing comedy, strategy, and arcade tension. The game needed to be instantly understandable from a mobile ad, but deep enough to support repeat play. We also had to make each system serve a clear purpose: shopping creates action, the system map creates strategy, the apartment creates progression, and the economy connects everything together.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the core fantasy: chasing bargains in doomed asteroid supermarkets before they are swallowed by a black hole. The systems reinforce each other clearly. Asteroid movement changes discounts, discounts affect risk, shopping creates rewards, rewards improve the apartment, and apartment progression motivates the next run. We are also proud of the visual identity: neon retail optimism, cosmic doom, and chaotic alien bargain hunters.

What we learned

We learned that a strong game loop needs both an immediate hook and a long-term reason to return. The first minute must be fast and readable, while the wider systems should reveal strategy, rewards, and progression over time. We also learned the importance of scope. Defining the MVP first made the game easier to explain, test, and expand.

What's next for StarMart: Black Hole Friday

The next step would be prototyping the MVP: a timed shopping run with product spawns, Deal Fiends, auto-checkout, tokens, and apartment item placement. Future updates could add more store layouts, new Deal Fiend variants, special event stores, premium item tiers, larger ship modules, social apartment visits, and player-to-player trading. Long term, StarMart could become a replay-able social shopping satire about building a consumer paradise while the whole retail system falls into a black hole.

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