From Idea to Wood: Crafting SUPERA’s First Prototype

After waking up with the idea of how the pieces might fit together, I immediately checked whether a game like this already existed. To my surprise, although there were many patents and commercial games for 3D polyomino stacking or tower building, I found nothing combining tilted planes, height-dependent stability, and strategic placement. That was exciting.

I needed to make a prototype quickly. Instead of sourcing specialized parts, I bought simple colored wooden cubes intended for children’s mosaic puzzles. I glued them into various shapes, testing both simple two-dimensional and more complex three-dimensional tetrominoes. Some pieces worked, some didn’t—but every failure taught me something new.

By the afternoon, I held the first playable prototype of what would become SUPERA. Carefully placing the first elements, I realized: if done right, the structure could even grow more stable as it rises, and yet the tension of potential collapse remained. Even with my imperfect hand-glued pieces, the concept already felt fun and exciting.