Case file 01Things I've built
Unofficial concept · not affiliated with Lagos Life
Lagos Life
An unofficial front door for the viral Lagos game: a players + brands site, a crown logo, 200+ illustrations, CBN-election art and a mini-game, all built unasked.
Open in the office →The same case file, inside my interactive office
In shortUnofficial concept, not affiliated with Lagos Life. I designed a front door and an Advertise side for a viral Lagos browser game. The post reached 152,000 views on X, and I followed it with a fix for the crowded in-game screen.
- SSituation
- Lagos Life, a free browser life game by Ijeoma Shalom Rayhamen, had 4.29 million players a week after launch. But its site opened straight into the game, so you had to sign up to understand it, and brands couldn’t see where their ads would sit.
- TTask
- Nobody asked me. On my own initiative I designed an unofficial front door for players and brands, and I’m not affiliated with the game. A few days later I also took on a player’s complaint about the in-game screen.
- AAction
- I directed AI agents to build nine working sites, picked one and made every design call: a Play / Advertise switch, showing the game before sign-up, and fixing the button contrast. For the in-game screen I built four live directions and cut the always-visible parts from 12 to 6.
- RResult
- The launch post reached 152,000 views on X in about a day, and the HUD fix is live as a prototype. The effect on sign-ups was never measured, because the site isn’t official.
- Client
- Lagos Life: unofficial concept, not affiliated
- Category
- Concept · site, brand & game
- Role
- Designer and creative director: research, identity, UX, interaction, motion, and direction of the build
- Team
- Me, directing AI research, build and QA agents
- Timeline
- 6 – 14 Oct 2026 (concept 6–9 Oct, HUD fix 13–14 Oct)
- Platform
- Website (players and brands) and an in-game HUD prototype
- Tools
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript, GSAP; Playwright for testing
- Status
- Concept live; HUD prototype live
Live ↗Concept site: lagoslife-concept.pages.devLive ↗HUD prototype: lagoslife-hud.pages.dev
Lagos Life is a free, Sims-style life game set in real Lagos. The game is by Ijeoma Shalom Rayhamen (@Shalom_HeyEliy). It launched on 1 October 2026 and had 4,286,650 players by 8 October. A city growing that fast keeps its builders busy keeping the lights on. That left room for someone outside to help with one thing: a front door. I designed it as an unofficial concept, a gift to her idea, then posted it and tagged her.
SStage 1Situation
01The problem
You had to enter the game to understand it. lagoslife.app opened straight into the live 3D map, with Sign up and Log in. The 29 phone apps, 23 careers and weekly elections were things you found after signing up. Brands had a similar gap. The Advertise page was a working booking form at up to ₦250,000 a week for a billboard, but it didn’t show where the boards sit, compare placements, or let you see your own ad first.
TStage 2Task: my part
02My part
This was self-initiated and unofficial. I did the research, the identity, the UX, the interaction and the motion, and I made every pick. AI agents did research, built the variations and ran QA under my direction. The game, its assets and the booking checkout belong to the Lagos Life team.
AStage 3Action: the decisions
03How I worked
I researched the live site and press coverage without signing up, and audited the brand’s colours, fonts and contrast. Agents collected 564 inspiration screenshots, then built nine full working sites, so I judged real pages instead of mood boards. I picked one, Owambe Sticker Book, and ran 37 rounds of section variations. Every “chosen” was my call. My rules: every number dated and sourced, no betting brands, anonymous player names, and nothing that implies the site is official.
04Decision 1 · Two sides, one switch
Players and brands want different things, so the site has a Play / Advertise switch. Every Play button goes into her game, and every Book button goes to her own checkout. The Brands side opens on a roadside billboard over a Lagos go-slow, because that’s where the ads actually live.
05Decision 2 · Show the game before you play it
The game’s biggest meme, whether you’re born a “Nepo baby” or a “LAPO baby”, only happened after sign-up. I brought it to the front door. Six Lagos questions drive a prepaid-meter “Nepo-meter”, then a thermal printer prints your verdict and starting pack. The phone, which is the game’s real menu, got its own stage with working food, ride, vote and chat flows on one wallet.
06Decision 3 · “Not a mobile game”
The homes-and-careers climb started as a clean listings app. It was accurate, but it felt like a property website. Three rounds later it became a painted Lagos signboard, where each home you can afford paints in with a brush stroke.
07Decision 4 · Fix contrast while I’m here
Her main button used white text on green at 2.65:1, below the WCAG AA minimum. The concept uses ink on green, 44px tap targets, keyboard support and reduced motion. It kept her crown, her green and her typeface, and folded three greens, two yellows and two logos into one green, one gold and one crown. Lighthouse on 9 Oct: 100 accessibility and 100 best practices on desktop and mobile, with performance at 97 on desktop and 62 on mobile, which is still open.
08Then the game changed, and so did the concept
On 10 Oct the game shipped dark mode, and I gave the concept the same night that day. Three days later a player posted the in-game screen with “There’s too much going on please.” I audited it and built four live directions in a day. In direction C, the always-visible HUD surfaces drop from 12 to 6, the clear view of the city on an iPhone Safari screen grows from 42px to 318px, and seeing and fixing your hungriest need takes one tap instead of three or four. Direction C is live as a prototype at lagoslife-hud.pages.dev.
RStage 4Result
- 152kViews on the launch post on X, in about a day
- 12 → 6Always-visible HUD surfaces in my fix for the in-game screen
- 3–4 → 1Interactions to see and fix your most urgent need
The view count is from X on 10 Oct 2026. HUD figures were measured in a browser on the prototype against captures of the live game. The page’s effect on sign-ups was never measured, because it isn’t official.
09Result
The launch post reached 152,000 views on X in about a day. The HUD fix is live as a prototype at lagoslife-hud.pages.dev.
Unofficial concept, not affiliated with Lagos Life. Lagos Life is a game by Ijeoma Shalom Rayhamen (@Shalom_HeyEliy); the game and all its assets (place renders, in-game ads, chat screens, facts and the crown idea) are © Lagos Life. The before screenshot of the HUD is from @EbunlomoD’s post on X. Type: Bricolage Grotesque and Plus Jakarta Sans. Motion: GSAP.