About the project

Time Trial Cards is an educational game that merges historical learning and competitive gameplay. The concept is simple: place each card representing an event, invention, or famous figure in the correct position on a timeline.

Game mechanics

The gameplay is based on a point system focused on speed and accuracy:

• Sort cards on a precise timeline
• Progress through the ages from Prehistory to the present day
• Accumulate points to unlock new levels and boosters
• Cover school curriculum from elementary to high school and beyond

Educational content

The game offers more than 500 cards classified according to several criteria:

• Historical categories: Art, Religions, Sports and Games, Politics and Social Events, Science and Innovations, Civilizations
• Specific historical periods
• Adapted school levels (elementary to high school)
• Languages: French and English

School+ Edition

A specialized version for teachers allowing to:

• Prepare customized game configurations
• Select periods and categories
• Choose game modes (Left/Right or Timeline)
• Adapt difficulty and game duration
• Manage boosters and language options

My freelance involvement

As a freelance Unity developer, I was commissioned to optimize and modernize the game’s technical architecture, with a focus on performance, maintainability, and code robustness.

Technical architecture modernization

Persistence system refactoring: Unification of save mechanisms to ensure user data consistency and eliminate desynchronization risks. Implementation of a modern system compatible with legacy saves.

Performance optimizations: Improved mobile game fluidity through elimination of expensive operations in render loops and strategic caching of critical references.

Code restructuring: Breaking down monolithic components into specialized modular services to improve maintainability and facilitate future evolutions, while preserving existing gameplay integrity.

Comprehensive technical audit

Before working on the code, I conducted an in-depth technical audit of the project to identify improvement areas and prioritize interventions.

Action plan and results

The audit enabled the establishment of a structured intervention plan in three phases:

• Critical stabilization: security and crash risk corrections
• Optimizations: performance and fluidity improvements
• Refactoring: architectural restructuring for future maintainability

This methodical approach ensured measurable interventions without regressions.