Creating games with the CBL methodology (Part 3) – Western Land
How the Apple methodology helped us create a MVP for a mobile game
I described the creation process of two games made in a really small period of time, around 2 to 3 months. Now I’m here to tell a little more about the third project and one of the most audacious project, therefore we had around 7 months to develop it.
The outcome of Klement’s Attack was so good that we decided to move on to our next challenge with the same group formation. Our third approach for a game was something that’s more common on the App Store environment. We aimed for the management games as our Big Idea and from that we started our discovery and studies just like the other games.
We questioned ourselves why those type of games were so popular among iOS players? What made them come back to the game? The main point here is having a motive to come back and keep growing on the game. As a MVP we developed the main mechanics and behavior such as building, harvesting gold and wood, the shop screen and building paths. What made it so complex was the interaction the player would have with the villagers and also the progress of buildings. Another challenge was the isometric art, which I had a hard time drawing on the grid.
Below you can see a video of the animated sketch to test the mechanics and game logic. After making sure everything was working as it should, we started to replace the sketches for the final art.
You can access the animated gif in the link below:
The final result was a management game where you had to build your community and make it thrive. Building paths were necessary so the villagers could get to the mines or three to harvest material. If you wanted more villagers to help, you had to build more houses. For backup and a little help you could access the shop and buy supplies as well.
It was a wild and fun experience developing those three games while in the Apple Academy getting all the knowledge from Apple itself. I see it as an opportunity to get to know more about the game creation process and start somewhere in the game UX/UI design career. For this purpose, I’m working on a case study focusing the game scene and it will be posted here later on.
Thank you for reading until here and if you have any comments, suggestions, let me know!
