PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 30, 2024

In the upcoming Sci-Fi Action-Puzzle FPS IHAS , from Ukrainian solo developer Vladyslav Pidiashenko , players wake up aboard a giant, desolate spaceship swarming with hostile robots. I produced a lot of content and had some success, but it wasn’t all that sustainable. It’s used to both fight enemies and solve puzzles.

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Concepts Esports 104

Game Refinery

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

To put you on the right track, we’ve taken a deep dive into four games that have delivered innovative storytelling in four subgenres: Merge Puzzle from the Casual category, and MMORPG, Action RPG, and 4X Strategy from the Mid-core category.

Mobile Gaming 247

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Games 247

The Bottom Feeder

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Two games that everyone was impressed by (including me) are Party House (a delightful deck-builder) and Mortol (a puzzle platformer where you advance by killing your guys). Block Koala is a neat puzzle game. The rules for its puzzles probably wouldn’t stretch to fill a 20 hours game (the ways you can move are VERY restrictive).

Games 90

Games Puzzle Indy Console 90

Game Refinery

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Not only are collaboration events a great way to engage players, but they’re also a great way to boost your game’s monetization through the addition of new content, such as event-exclusive cosmetic items and collectibles. As an example, Granblue Fantasy is an RPG with heavy social ements, while Puzzle & Dragons is a Match3 puzzle game.

Mobile Gaming 233

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Game Developer 233

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 24, 2024

I prioritize creating content based on what I believe will facilitate the games marketing efforts, he explains. In the upcoming Sci-Fi Action-Puzzle FPS IHAS , from Ukrainian solo developer Vladyslav Pidiashenko , players wake up aboard a giant, desolate spaceship swarming with hostile robots. War (what is it good for?)

Development 197

Development Dev Horror Playtesting 197

Ask a Game Dev

JUNE 4, 2024

When designing a puzzle, a designer must think of the process by which the player interacts with them. Place and advertise the clues to the puzzle goal within the environment. This can be subtle or it can be obvious, depending on whether the puzzle is optional or part of the critical path.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Playtesting Advertising Dev 52

Game Refinery

MAY 4, 2023

In the past, hybridization was mainly seen in 4X strategy games that merged with puzzle and idle RPG mechanics , but in recent months this phenomenon has spread to titles of all shapes and sizes across the market – not just the hybrid-casual genre. In many respects, this change isn’t particularly surprising.

Mobile Gaming 252

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Mechanics 252

Deconstructor of Fun

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Beyond Cutscenes : Todays dramatic content isnt yesteryears skippable cutscenes. Narrative content, on the other hand, is virtually unconstrained. Not an AI Story: While AI dramatically reduces content creation costs, its merely a tool which is well suited to untapped audience demand. Its likely precisely what youd expect.

Cutscenes 90

Cutscenes AI Content Mechanics 90

Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

The mobile hit Empires and Puzzles (E&P) by Small Giant Games (acquired by Zynga) has made over $600M in net-revenues while racking up around 60 million installs. While there have been numerous clones and follow up titles trying to get a piece of the ever growing puzzle RPG pie, none of them has had any meaningful success.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Tile Mechanics Build 52

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Cocoon, the intricate puzzle adventure by Jeppe Carlsen , known as the lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside, launched to raving reviews after 6.5 Communicate puzzle logic The creative process at Geometric Interactive follows a specific pattern. The art, sounds, and animation need to communicate the puzzle logic effectively.”

Puzzle 104

Puzzle Prototyping Art Communications 104

Sirlin

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Starting in October, I’ll begin showing this content to our patrons at patreon.com/sirlin. Most of this content is for new tabletop games. If you’re a fan of Puzzle Strike or Yomi, I hope you’ll like these new things too. I plan to show something new about every two weeks for at least the next year. There’s that much in store.

Content 52

Content Fantasy Puzzle Development 52

Raph Koster

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

I thought it would be interesting to contrast this to Word Dad , a puzzle game made by my friend, master game designer John Cutter. A brief aside on puzzles All three of these are more correctly called puzzles, of course. This means that really, puzzles and games are terms that are matters of degree, not kind.

Puzzle 112

Puzzle Build Games Data 112

Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 20, 2020

A bold move for Supercell, going against giants that continue to rule the casual puzzle space. Playing levels awards stars , which are used to earn coins in the Puzzle Pass. Looking at the market, there have been plenty of combinations of Puzzle Core + Invest & Express hybrid games attempted. The Twist: The Puzzle Pass.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Mechanics Content Data 52

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 28, 2024

Kazimir’s staff is more than just a weapon, it’s a dynamic tool that players can use to solve puzzles, combat enemies, and cleanse the Miasma. In 2020, he was joined by his wife, Gorokhova Rita, who took on the role of 3D modeler and content lead. From there it grew into something much more.”

Prototyping 104

Prototyping Indy Games Concepts 104

Game Refinery

APRIL 6, 2023

As an example, a puzzle minigame might feature consumable boosters or rewarded ads to help players in the levels, while a more complex standalone minigame might introduce a completely new monetized meta layer. Very nifty way to, for example, map out LiveOps requirements and content of your next live event project.

Mechanics 217

Mechanics Puzzle Mobile Mobile 217

Game Refinery

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Widely regarded as the biggest trendsetter when it comes to entertaining content, the short-form video content platform, TikTok, has become the new home for viral content. Similar to popular games, the success of viral content is often down to it being relatable and fulfilling certain needs.

Build 130

Build Mechanics Mobile Gaming Puzzle 130

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

Typically highlighting a game’s mechanics in their raw form, even before content and visuals receive their final polish. Aim to show off a vertical slice that is about 80% mechanics-focused and 20% content-focused. Publisher demos are tailored for pitch meetings and potential partnerships.

Demo 239

Demo Mechanics Games Bug 239

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 14, 2020

Alrighty then, lets kick off the predictions with the Puzzle genre! Puzzle Games Continued to Grow. Puzzle genre is the second largest, after strategy games, on mobile in terms of in-app purchases. Last year Puzzle games generated a whopping $4.5Bn in IAP revenues while growing 18% year-on-year.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Games Tile Mobile 52

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 28, 2024

Best in Gameplay – Puzzle Scout Developed by: Leti Arts (Ghana) A word search game based on great African history, revisiting the historic chain of African countries, civilizations, and tribes with young puzzle scouts. Download the game here.

Puzzle 104

Puzzle Art Mobile Gaming Games 104

Deconstructor of Fun

JUNE 3, 2019

The reason for this acquisition was the success of Small Giant’s hit game, Empires & Puzzles. Since mid 2017, Empires & Puzzles has raked in $260M in net revenues with only 34M installs. Empires and Puzzles regularly takes the top spot in Puzzle RPG category in the West (when Dokkan is having a post event hangover).

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Feature Build Balance 52

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Ideas for the game’s content were inspired mainly from movies and TV shows, while the game designs came from the games the team loves to play, like Everquest for the open world concept and The Vanishing Hitchhiker for the atmosphere. Some started from a puzzle standpoint. But over the course of development, the narrative grew.

Studios 129

Studios Puzzle Game Design Game Designer 129

Game Refinery

JUNE 21, 2023

An example of an exclusive reward offer bundle in Diablo Immortal The match3 puzzle game, Pet Rescue Saga , also has a good example of a reward-based IAP offer. Better yet, by having the bundle’s content directly relate to the player’s achievement, marketers can help users with their current goals.

Mobile Gaming 44

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Games 44

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Older gamers tend to play more Puzzle and Match games, while Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and Millennials all lean towards Adventure titles most frequently. Older players spend more on handy purchases like gear and content packs. Younger generations tend to be more used to hopping between different devices. Download the full report here.

Mobile 129

Mobile Mobile Alpha Console 129

GamesIndustry.biz

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

The match-3 puzzle game initially launched in 2012 and has regularly seen new content updates. Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox On the 20-year anniversary of King, the firm has announced that Candy Crash Saga has earned $20 billion in consumer spending. Read more

Puzzle 63

Puzzle Content Games 63

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 11, 2023

Thief Puzzle: to pass a level Another new hit with 27M downloads is Thief Puzzle: to pass a level. The game’s monetization strategy is focused primarily on In-app Ads: it has short levels with a big amount of post-level and try-again Interstitial ad placements that allow Thief Puzzle: to pass a level to generate high LTV.

Tile 104

Tile Racing Puzzle Games 104

Deconstructor of Fun

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

The misleading ad push was succeeded by the famous "Pull the pin" puzzle-style ads that put Evony and Hero Wars on the map in the past few years. The audience that was looking for a slightly different type of puzzle gameplay, the gameplay that was featured in the ads they were clicking on. Since its launch in February 2021.

Mobile Gaming 132

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Puzzle 132

Logic Simplified

JULY 31, 2023

Game mechanics include everything from character movement and battle mechanics to puzzle-solving and resource management. They design the layouts, obstacles, and puzzles to create a smooth player experience. In simple terms, they define how the game functions and what determines its success or failure in the game.

Mechanics 95

Mechanics Puzzle Games Balance 95

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 29, 2024

We need to release regular updates: more content, more events, faster, and higher quality. Reusing content The next thing on our list is reusing and looping content. So, here are our tips on how to reuse and loop your content the right way: 1. Plan content looping during the feature design phase.

Mechanics 98

Mechanics Content Puzzle Games 98

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Airships: Conquer the Skies is still going strong on Steam and Stark keeps adding new content to the game to keep the community interested. I’m not good with story telling or puzzle design, so combining some expertise would be nice.” The game is successful enough for me to support myself.

Development 257

Development Dev Indy Game Developer 257

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 19, 2024

And so, the duo started exploring different ways to turn talking into a puzzle. But for that dialogue to be of a high quality, the game needs a wealth of hand-written content to inspire it. For this to be a First Person Talker -and not just a conversational sim- the conversation itself had to be gamified in some way.

AI 129

AI First person Puzzle Scripting 129

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Between one job and another I always tried to include some type of content related to games. That’s how I worked on the level design and puzzles in Raccoo Venture, for example. Although the levels often underwent changes after testing in the 3D environment, when you start to feel the dynamics of the level and the puzzles.

Dev 163

Dev Advertising Internet Development 163

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 8, 2022

The ultimate result of this kind of system-driven combinatoric gameplay is generally in one of two core gameplay paradigms: Procedural content generation , i.e. the game systems themselves create new content through a bunch of randomized decisions resulting in novel game content for each playthrough.

Dev 52

Dev Content Cinematics Puzzle 52

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 20, 2022

When designing a puzzle, a designer must think of the process by which the player interacts with them. Place and advertise the clues to the puzzle goal within the environment. This can be subtle or it can be obvious, depending on whether the puzzle is optional or part of the critical path.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Playtesting Advertising Dev 52

Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 9, 2023

Dream Games has joined that list by bolstering its hold on match-3 puzzles and widening its already mass-market audience through the addition of its newest game, Royal Kingdom , which features one of the smoothest casual PvP designs in the market. This makes sense; in context, why change a formula that works if you don’t need to?

Puzzle 69

Puzzle Mechanics Feature Build 69

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 24, 2024

It allows players to instantly swap places with any physics based object which allows for some clever puzzling through the relentless levels. “We Now it’s mostly about creating the content of the levels for me now.” The Swap The initial idea that ignited the project was the core mechanic: The Swap.

Pixel 145

Pixel Art Mechanics Demo 145

Deconstructor of Fun

JULY 1, 2024

King, when they ruled the casual puzzle space, chose to expand the breadth of their casual portfolio: Bubble Witch Saga (bubble shooter), Pet Rescue Saga (collapse/blast), Diamond Digger Saga (digging/water flow mechanic), Blossom Blast Saga (linker), Pyramid Solitaire , etc. So why did this not go to plan?

Puzzle 64

Puzzle Engineering Engine Mechanics 64

Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 6, 2024

This strategy can lead to increased retention and deeper interaction with the ad content, ultimately resulting in better conversion rates for advertisers. For example: The puzzle game Royal Match created a simple match-3 playable ad to showcase its core gameplay. Are Playable Ads Working?

Advertising 100

Advertising Mobile Mobile Media 100