We beat Minecraft.

So, the next logical step was coming up with a game idea (that’s what we are calling it here). Just so you know, a game idea is a brief description of the game.

Game idea: “Planet X”. An airplane crash lands in the planet X with a main character of an alien Bud. The main objective is to collect stuff to build a spaceship and fly back home. There are more than 100 levels, and the game is free to play.

Keeping this in mind, we worked on:

For this project, we had the goal of creating a game with customizable units, a multiplayer feature, and an action-adventure environment. We developed Planet X, our proof of concept, with these features so that we could test them before implementing them into another game.

• We started off by creating a quick and dirty implementation of critical features. By understanding and solving real business problems, we aimed to solve the client’s pain points.
• We then tried finding the answer to an important yet often ignored question: how does the setting appeal to the target audience? The setting plays a large role in making the experience enjoyable and meaningful. Whether the characters inhabit a world of fantasy or one of reality, it plays a critical role in the experience.
• And while we were onto it, we had to keep in mind that the gameplay must always be engaging, fun, addictive, and always rewarding. There can be no long-rolls or boring moments. The stakes were high.
• More importantly, our team had to make sure that the controller worked on all supported devices, with no input lag issues.

This game design document (GDD) was written as a set of specifications for the game Planet-X. The purpose of this document was to clearly define what must be done to build the final product, so we could then use it for developing, testing, and debugging.

It addressed 3 of these key questions:

1. Why did we want to create this game?
2. What a player should be able to do in the game?
3. What does a successful player look like?

While most systems were fully validated during the proof-of-concept phase, it was still important for us to create a playable prototype for the target platform. Our prototype included the most important game elements and embodied the core play experience. Here’s a snapshot of the steps followed:

1. Define and design the game
2. Define functionality requirements for the prototype
3. Evaluate available tools and build a prototype (Mobile or Browser)
4. Play and iterate your prototype to refine the game and player experience
5. Expand the game

We started by specifying that our game will be composed of features A, B, and C. We then explored the design space covered by these features to get the right mix of building blocks. With this approach, we built many possible combinations leading to different player experiences. We used those to create playtesting versions of the game.

Those versions were tested against a group of players in an online survey with a scoring system. All results were collected and analyzed to identify which combinations will offer the best balance of player experience and gameplay.

The next obvious step was development. With game development quickly evolving, we knew that an agile methodology would help streamline our game development process. We also realized that early delivery of an MVP was important to the motivation and involvement of the QA team. This perfectly sums up our development process:

1. Quickly decided on estimations and features
2. Developed prototype iterations of world generation, gameplay, and art style
3. Followed the agile dev process (Scrum)
4. Built a scalable infrastructure for QA and the live game’

QA and beta testers joined the team as soon as the game was close to being version 1.0-ready. We used this sprint to test the game in the wild to make sure there were no weak spots, and we updated the game until it was acceptable according to user feedback.

1. 40 hours of current gameplay
2. 200 active early users focusing on balancing
3. 15 play-test sessions with external testers at various stages of the development

Getting the users’ attention is one thing and keeping them engaged for long is another. Updates are a must. With related features and game content, we aim to keep them hooked. And give them a reason to keep coming back.

Our regular updates include bug fixes, new content, balance adjustments, etc.

Hope you enjoy playing as much as we did while building it from scratch.