The Great Comeback
At Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference on June 5th, one of the most beautifully designed mobile games on the planet, got a long-awaited sequel in Monument Valley 2. While our team had a suspicion something “big” was happening as we were in discussions with one of the founders of ustwo Games; the announcement came out of nowhere and accelerated the heartbeat of many people around the world. In the words of Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, this game is something unique, with a Disney-like story pulling on people’s heartstrings.
Set in the same universe as its previous edition, Monument Valley 2 tells the story of a mother and child as they embark on a journey of discovery through a stunning and impossible world. Players explore ever-changing landscapes, mechanics that surprise at every turn and an evolving parent-child relationship.
“We wanted to find the perfect reason to return to Monument Valley. We spent two years hiring some of the industry’s most talented people for the team, and we’re excited to show this whole new take on a game, fans have been asking for.”
Dan Gray, Head of Studio, ustwo Games
Outstanding Success of Monument Valley 1
Successful products and the formula that leads to their success can often lie in its authenticity and ability for the experience to resonate with the user. The remarkable Monument Valley, an isometric 3D puzzler, was absolutely breathtaking not only in terms of its Escher-inspired visuals and impressive mechanics, but also its enormous audience success earning 14 million dollars in revenue from over 26 million individual app sales just in 2 years.
The game was also featured on the third season of House of Cards, the political drama starring Kevin Spacey, and among 20 other awards, it was named Apple’s iPad game of the year in 2014.
The Art of UX and Storytelling
Games and the formulas leading to success can be a bit of a mystery, perhaps more so when it comes to 8-digit sales numbers. Monument Valley is a slightly different story and one can see what’s the key to this tremendous success quite easily — and this is something anyone involved in product development should learn from.
ustwo Games understood that immersive user experience and unique, fresh design are critical for driving the app on the right path. Monument Valley is dazzlingly beautiful, very carefully designed and every screen of the game has been designed as a piece of artwork that can be printed and framed.
Human Storytelling
As a way to encourage exploration, the game offers minimal instruction, instead explaining itself through the universal medium of art. Monument Valley introduces new game mechanics subtly, allowing players intuitively to discover their abilities and the rules of the world. Balancing difficulty and excitement, players interact directly with the fantastical architecture and impossible geometry of Monument Valley, manipulating the world with a logic and language that is not your own, to help Ida explore new dimensions of her journey.
A Game Changer
What makes Monument Valley so interesting, is besides many other things, its target audience. Originally designed for non-gamers, the game is a perfect example of exploring and filling gaps in the industry. Merging things that look unmergeable at first sight.
Rethinking games as user experiences won the Monument Valley new audiences and turned millions of non-gamers into gamers.
The combination of the focus on a different audience, the approach of delivering delightful mobile experiences, the mastery of visual pleasure, atmospheric sound details and tricky puzzle solving, completely disrupted common trends in the mobile gaming industry.
And that’s why people stop breathing for a moment, while playing Monument Valley. Because they feel it’s been made for them and it’s been done well. As Dan Gray recently said for Forbes:
“When people say a game is good, it’s not about the number of polygons we push, or how expensive the engine was. It’s about, ‘How did it make you feel? How do you remember it not just in the moment you’re playing it but 10 years after?’ And when you see some of the fun art that people have sent in, the way they dress up or the tattoos they get, then you know you’ve made a difference. It’s not a distraction. It’s, you’ve impacted people’s lives. That’s why we make things.”
Feeling inspired? Lea Schönfelder, designer of Monument Valley 2, is sharing their secrets on how to design the unthinkable for a stellar UX at UXDX, Dublin on October 5th.
