Another Case Solvedpost mortem

Another Case Solved

Detective puzzle game set in the interesting times of the Sugar Prohibition.

Another Case Solved

• Game: story-driven, puzzle, F2P

• Development: AT Games

• iOS: Chillingo

• Android: Noddlecake

• Windows 8, Windows Phone 8: Syzygy

Core Gameplay

Big Cycle: strategic, I-must-go-back factor

• story progress,

• office and character development.

Small Cycle: tactical, I-cant-put-down factor

• earning in-game currency,

• unlocking story progress.

Big Cycle

• Major Cases: storytelling, earning stars and cash.

• Your Office: investment, spending cash.

• Your Character: unlocking skills, spending stars.

Small Cycle

• Newspaper Cases: easy, repeatable, grinding in-game currency.

• Tools: useable, buy them with in-game currency.

• Story Progress: unlock Major Caseswith newspapers.

Scope of the Game

• Release Day: 3 chapters = 50 Major Cases

• Full Story: 5 chapters = 90 Major Cases

• About 200 newspaper cases.

• Release Day: at least 30 hrs of gameplay.

Rules of Investigation

• Connect Puzzles: to solve a case gather clues, different for every witness.

• Long Chains: get bonus puzzles, use them to max. the case.

• Limitations: number of moves, target numbers for puzzles.

Advanced Investigation

• Hard Evidence

• Candy Truck

• Bonus Candies

• Bonus Cash!

• Challenges

Other Mini-Games

Major Cases = Puzzles + 3 Extra Stages collected evidences help in solving extra stages.

Witnesses

Inspired by „Guess Who”.

Find the person, who matches all criteria.

Number of questions depends on photos collected.

Crime Scene

Hot or Cold, limited no. moves.

Find the ”hottest” item.

Max. ”hotness” shown depends on Fingerptints collected.

City Search

Find the place that matches all hints.

Some icons are hidden.

Number of hints depends on Maps collected.

Failed Investigation

• Failed puzzles = failed case.

• Failed extra stages = less stars.

Monetization

• Candiespremium currency.

• Detective $ grind currency.

Spending Candies

• Unlocking Major Cases,

• Faster delivery of furniture and newspapers,

• Extra moves,

• Character customization, decorations,

• Premium tools, skills upgrade.

Earning Candies

• Bonus candies, candy truck,

• Long chains of Coin puzzles,

• Daily bonus,

• Candies hidden in extra stages,

• Challenges, achievements,

• Ads.

Production

From Puzzle Craft to Another Case Solved

Starting Point

• Something from Puzzle Craft,

• Something new,

• F2P design,

• Known risk: less casual, more text-heavy.

Production ScreenshotsPuzzle Craft

Another Case Solved

Team and Methodology

• Code: 3, Art: 3, Design: 2, QA: 1.

• Instant prototyping, iterative development,working game with placeholders, improving-as-you-go.

Time Frame

• Start: October 2012

• Release: 20 March 2014

• At the same time: to Jan. 2013 still working on Puzzle Craft, from Nov. 2013 a new project.

Production Cycle

• 2 months - preproduction,

• 9 months - production,

• 3 months - pre-release & polish.

Technology

• Cocos2dx

• Tiled

• Superanim

• EziSocial framework

• External configuration files

What went OK?

• A game bigger and more complicated than Puzzle Craft, in the same time.

• Merging puzzles with new mini-games.

• Updateable and portable.

• Lessons learned from Puzzle Craft.

• How ads were implemented.

Character Creation

This also went ok!

What went not so OK?

• Testing balance: difficulty peaks, unplanned frustration, exploits.

• Secret cases too secret.

• Polish localization.

• Facebook integration.

• Interface sometimes a bit clumsy.

Story vs. Gameplay

In a case, when we are looking for Lucy...

... we can ask Lucy for help.

Awkward.

Curious Case Studies

• Slotmachine

• Lipsync

• Guess Who dilemmas

A cautionary tale about Bostimore.

Sweet City

Good Practices

• Separating balance from code:config i localization in .xml and .csv files.

• Game state re-created on load, no hard saving.

• Analyzing data and feedback.

Reception

• 2 mln downloads (first week: 1 mln)

• Average AppStore rating: 4,5 stars

• Metacritics: 67 „because IAPs”

• 100K likes on Facebook

Our very first fan-art!

Mr. or Ms. Detective?

• Different clothes & face elements.

• Dialog modifications.

• Separate personal plots.

54%

46%

Let’s Talk Business

• F2P was a good decision

• Ads well implemented

• Better than Puzzle Craft

• Break even after 2 months

• Flurry is ok. Player has control over if and when to see ads.

Let’s Talk Business

Downloads

Let’s Talk Business

Top Grossing

Plans

• Support planned from the beginning

• update: 1.1 ready

• update: 1.2 in development

• next updates subject to demand

Big Fish

• Release v.1.1

• Many aspect ratios

• Scroll bars

• Mouse-friendly

Another Case Solved

Play it on your favourite device.

Join Our Team!

• Programmers

• Graphics

• Designers

We are looking for:

Contact us: job@atgames.pl

Appendix: Iterations

From first concepts to the final game.

Puzzles

Puzzles randomly flipped

Tools/ Skills

Puzzles

Case description

„Adventure”

Puzzles

Upper menu bar

Board: 6x7

Puzzles

Puzzles to collect

Tools and skills

Puzzles

Tabs

Moves left

PuzzlesBonus

candy tasks

Puzzles

Next tasks

Puzzles

Final tabs

Story Bar

Puzzles to collect

”Something nice”

Final game:”sth. nice”

shows puzzles to collect

Story Bar

Bonus candy

Next tasks

Final game

Hard EvidenceConcepts

Final game

City Search

City Search

City Search

City Search

City Search

”Fog of war”

City Search

City Search

City Search

City Search

Breakthrough: only blocks with icons are hidden.

City Search

Interface

Side tabs

Interface

Toggle button

Interface

Swipe

Interface

Upper tabs

InterfaceFinal game:

swipe & buttons

NewspapersFirst try:

recommenda-tions

Final game: solvednewspaper cases

Office

Phone in Dialogs

Detectives’ Club

Balancing Bonuses

Theory

Balancing BonusesIn practice

Balancing Bonuses

Problem solved: bonuses add, not multiply

Key Visual

• Inspiration

• Main Menu

• Promo

• Trailer

Game Icon

Game Icon

That’s all folksag@atgames.pl