The Challenge of Making Duck in Debt Feel Full 🦆

Developing Duck in Debt has been an interesting challenge for me.

One of the biggest challenges while developing the game has always been this:
How do I make a very simple game feel full of things to discover?

At its core, Duck in Debt has very simple gameplay. The player controls a flying duck and must survive while dodging metal bars that appear during the run. While flying, the player can also collect onions, which act as the main currency of the game.

🦆 Dodge obstacles
🧅 Collect onions
🏆 Try to reach the highest score possible

Onions can be traded with the Jolly of Eyes, a mysterious character who has kidnapped the other ducks. By giving him onions, players can unlock and free new ducks to play with.

Players can also obtain onions thanks to Sheepy the Sheep, an onion hunter who gives the player missions that reward onions when completed.

One of the strategies I adopted while developing Duck in Debt was to make every element feel like a small character. Even the onions themselves have eyes and legs, giving them personality.
Creating these characters helps make the game world more memorable. For example, Sheepy technically wasn’t necessary. I could have simply added a daily mission system without any character giving the missions.
But I chose to include Sheepy anyway, because I want players to connect with the characters that make up the world of Duck in Debt.

The goal is not only to add gameplay mechanics, but also to create a small universe with recognizable characters like:
🦆 The different ducks
🎭 The Jolly of Eyes
🐑 Sheepy the Sheep
🧅 Onions

When the first versions of the game existed, the experience was much more minimal and lacked clear goals. Over time, I kept expanding the game step by step to make it feel richer and more engaging.
Even though I am still gaining experience as a developer, I enjoy the challenge of turning a simple idea into a game full of things to unlock, discover, and master.

— Yuri Masuda Zoncada
Creator of Duck in Debt
Founder of Akapaaka

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