Corgi: Ship Before Sunrise
A Corgi Cafe endless runner where a public leaderboard turned a joke between friends into a real weekly competition.
Corgi: Ship Before Sunrise began as a joke with a friend and became a real cafe game, complete with a public leaderboard, a weekly prize, and players determined to win it.
The situation.
It started while I was joking around with my friend Claudia Maggi, Corgi's Head of Community for the UK and EU. I threw out the idea of a small game that visitors to Corgi Cafe could play, with the possibility of winning cafe prizes. I then built it, which caught Claudia by surprise.
The timing made the idea feel especially relevant. Corgi is an AI-native insurance company, but it also creates physical spaces for builders. It had just opened its London cafe in Shoreditch, bringing its 24/7 cafe model from San Francisco to a new community. The game turned that setting into a pixel-art endless runner about a corgi clearing cafe hazards, collecting commits, and shipping before sunrise.
What I did.
I designed and built the game with TypeScript and Phaser, then launched it with a public leaderboard. Claudia shared it with the Corgi community and set a concrete challenge: the player at the top by Friday would get a smoothie or pastry on the house.
I built the runner loop, score system, persistent player identity, leaderboard, moderation rules, and daily Europe/London reset. Once the competition became real, unusually high scores exposed a problem I had not fully designed for. We suspected automated play, so the next iteration became partly an anti-abuse experiment rather than only a game update.
How the work unfolded.
Turn a conversation into a game
Took a playful idea from a chat with Claudia and shipped a complete endless runner that felt specific to Corgi Cafe and its builder community.
Make the challenge public
Connected the game to a persistent leaderboard and a real cafe reward, giving visitors a reason to replay and compare scores during the week.
Respond to suspicious scores
Used the unexpectedly high leaderboard results as a prompt to explore bot resistance, score validation, and fairer competition without making the game cumbersome for ordinary players.
Plan more player expression
Started exploring customisation options so returning players can make the corgi feel like their own while the competition systems become more robust.
What happened.
Claudia's launch post gave the game enough traction to turn the leaderboard into an actual deadline-driven competition. A player finished at the top and received coffee from the cafe, turning what began as a joke into a small but complete community loop: play, compete, meet, and win something in the physical space.
The competition also revealed the next product problem. Scores rose far beyond what we expected from normal play, and Claudia's winner post openly joked about bot use. That was enough to start experimenting with anti-bot measures and better score validation.
What I learned.
Small ideas can become real rituals
The cafe, public challenge, and prize gave a tiny game more meaning than it would have had as a standalone link.
Rewards change player behaviour
The moment a leaderboard has a real prize, score integrity becomes part of the game design rather than a technical extra.
Suspicion is not proof
Unreasonable scores are a useful signal, but anti-cheat work needs validation and careful rules instead of assuming exactly how a player achieved them.
Customisation can support return play
Personal touches can give players another reason to come back even when they are not chasing the top score.
Related links.
Repositories, demos, event pages, posts, and other places connected to this project.
- Corgi: Ship Before Sunrise: GitHub repositoryPrimary source for the Phaser/TypeScript stack, gameplay loop, fair-spacing approach, leaderboard behaviour, and build workflow.
- Claudia Maggi launches the Corgi game challengeFirst-person launch post confirming the public leaderboard challenge and the smoothie or pastry prize.
- Claudia Maggi shares the weekly winnerFirst-person follow-up showing that a player won coffee and joking that a bot was used.
- CorgiOfficial source for Corgi's AI-native insurance platform and its connection to Corgi Cafe.
- Corgi CafeOfficial cafe site describing the 24/7 builder-cafe model and listing the Shoreditch, London location.
- Corgi Cafe opens in LondonMy first-person account of the 8 August London opening, its Shoreditch location, and its community purpose.
- Claudia Maggi announces the London cafeClaudia's announcement of the 24/7 Corgi Cafe in Shoreditch and its role as a home for builders.