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mobile app / gamified Bible study

bible codex

Scripture turned into cases to crack: the reader stops reading passages and becomes an agent of the Bureau of Biblical Mysteries.

CLIENT
private project
YEAR
2026
DURATION
ongoing
CATEGORY
mobile app / gamified Bible study
~/work/bible-codex
Site landing page: “The Word keeps mysteries that have waited for centuries”, with the door to office 015 of the Bureau of Biblical Mysteries and buttons to push the door or see the case file.
Site landing page: “The Word keeps mysteries that have waited for centuries”, with the door to office 015 of the Bureau of Biblical Mysteries and buttons to push the door or see the case file.

Bible Codex — Detective Bíblico — is a Bible study app built as a 1940s investigation bureau. The user is issued a badge, an agent number and an office, and progresses by solving case files: evidence, interrogations, hypotheses and resolution.

The fiction is not a wrapper: it is the mechanic. The O·I·A study method — observe, interpret, apply — is taught in the Academy as the detective’s method, and the license you earn by passing it is what unlocks the first case.

A full system surrounds the app: website, pitch, desktop version, TV mode, mystery catalogue, design manifesto and master documents, several with a printable version.

// THE CHALLENGE

Consistent Bible study almost always fails for the same reason: there is no narrative tension pulling you back tomorrow. The challenge was building a reason to return that is not an empty streak, without trivializing the text or reducing it to a quiz.

// THE SOLUTION

I designed and prototyped an entire bureau, with its rooms and its paperwork:

  1. 01A cinematic entrance: a falling case file, a CONFIDENTIAL stamp and a typewritten report, followed by an induction door and badge handover.
  2. 02Headquarters with the active case, telegram of the day, a three-step route and a board of dismissible notices that empties into a “you’re up to date”.
  3. 03Cases by chapter: logged evidence, interrogations, hypotheses and a sealed resolution.
  4. 04An Academy with the O·I·A method lessons, an exam, a license, flashcards, field practice and spaced repetition.
  5. 05Supporting rooms: Cartography on parchment, Stories scene by scene, Brigade with collective files, an Archive of sealed cases and a Record with a shareable credential.
  6. 06A reading room with all 66 books laid out as a physical library, grouped by section and with the current chapter highlighted.
  7. 07A cross-cutting layer: ES/EN bilingual, synthesized sound effects — paper, stamp, lock, typewriter —, haptics, local persistence and simulated notifications.

// SCREENS

Headquarters on mobile: “The small hours are yours, agent Luiyi”, an unread telegram of the day quoting Psalm 119:105, a dismissible archive notice and the three-step route — lesson, reading Luke 24 and case 001, The Empty Tomb.
Headquarters on mobile: “The small hours are yours, agent Luiyi”, an unread telegram of the day quoting Psalm 119:105, a dismissible archive notice and the three-step route — lesson, reading Luke 24 and case 001, The Empty Tomb.
The Library: all 66 books as volumes on shelves grouped into Law, History and Poetry & Wisdom, with the first reading — Luke 24 — highlighted on top and filters for all, Old and New Testament.
The Library: all 66 books as volumes on shelves grouped into Law, History and Poetry & Wisdom, with the first reading — Luke 24 — highlighted on top and filters for all, Old and New Testament.
TV mode: the agent’s desk in office 015 showing case file 001 “The Empty Tomb”, the day’s route, the five Academy lessons and the office rooms, navigable with arrow keys and OK.
TV mode: the agent’s desk in office 015 showing case file 001 “The Empty Tomb”, the day’s route, the five Academy lessons and the office rooms, navigable with arrow keys and OK.
The site’s “Come in. Touch everything.” section: a desk where every object — lamp, telegram, radio, case 001 file, magnifier, agent badge and cup — is a part of the app.
The site’s “Come in. Touch everything.” section: a desk where every object — lamp, telegram, radio, case 001 file, magnifier, agent badge and cup — is a part of the app.
The agents’ board: handwritten statements from agents in Madrid, Bogotá and Austin, the accreditation ladder from agent to commissioner and the upcoming cases, all tied together with red thread and pins.
The agents’ board: handwritten statements from agents in Madrid, Bogotá and Austin, the accreditation ladder from agent to commissioner and the upcoming cases, all tied together with red thread and pins.

// RESULTS

  • A single-file prototype of roughly 13,000 lines, navigable from the front door to the closed-case archive.
  • A distinctive visual language — case files, stamps, telegrams, red thread — applied consistently across app, web, desktop and TV.
  • The study method is baked into the mechanics: you learn in order to open the next case, not as a separate module.
  • An end-to-end documented system: pitch, mystery catalogue, design manifesto and master documents v1–v3.
mobile appgamificationnarrativebilingualprototype
MY ROLE
Concept, product design, art direction and interactive prototype.
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