Perhaps the most unusual puzzle on Google Play

    This is a bit presumptuous, but I decided to title this text as one of the reviews about my game. There are two reasons for this: the first - such a characteristic amuses my vanity, I admit, why hide it. The second reason - I would like this puzzle to be perceived in this way, or rather the whole set, by the players.


    I recently calculated that for 5 years I have been creating games in my spare time from my main job. During this period, I made several games that can be called successful, judging by the number of downloads. But for the present, I am only proud of the latter, it is depicted in the picture above. No, this is not a lootbox game . This is a set of puzzles, the main idea of ​​which is to combine diverse puzzles with one plot. But the main thing is that these should be trick puzzles, such that require a player to have unconventional, creative thinking. Puzzles with a simple but unexpected solution. Under the cat GIFs, the history of creation and technical details of this game.

    And now, about a year and a half ago, “the stars took shape,” there was an artist ready to take on the visual part of this game. In addition to generating ideas, I myself am engaged in programming and at the same time with everything else, which is the release of a mobile game in the modern world. Below you can see the progress of the graphics on the example of the game menu, starting from the alpha version, drawn by me personally, and ending with the second part of the game, which we are completing right now.


    UI development

    But before talking about development, I would like to say a few words about the setting of the game. I will quote, if I may call it, a script. Here and in the game itself, you can see the references to Stephen King’s Dark Tower, yes, I’m his biggest fan!

    The Mechanical Box is one of the last fragments of the technology of the Ancients, preserved in the post-apocalyptic world of the alternative Earth. A high-tech device created for the sole purpose of storing and protecting an unknown Object inside. Today, the Box is in a rather poor state, partially damaged, overgrown with moss and other vegetation. On one of the surfaces you can still read the warning inscription: “SUB-NUCLEAR POWER SUPPLIES ARE NOT REPLACABLE.”


    Fan art

    That is, imagine that you had a certain multilayer mechanical device in your hands and your task is to crack it layer by layer, looking for secret switches, picking up passwords and solving brain-solving puzzles. To finally find out what is inside the box?

    Of course, the main advantage of such a game is not at all the plot, and not even the secret of the Box. The main thing is the puzzles themselves! I spent many nights googling queries like “unusual puzzles”, “riddles with a trick”, “extraordinary tasks” and reading, reading ... Thinking, drawing in a notebook to me understandable scribbles. In addition, during the search for ideas, I often watched various quests on YouTube (I especially like retro games). But this does not mean at all that “Fur. Box ”consists of puzzles borrowed from somewhere. I rethought each idea that seemed successful to me, compiled it with others, and diluted it with my own, original puzzles. However, an attentive player will find here variations on the theme of classic puzzles, such as the Tower of Hanoi or Bulls and Cows.


    Sketch

    As a result of such a “brainstorming”, a sketch of the future level + a textual description of the mechanics of its work is born. Which, after discussing the details with the artist, turns into a new layer of the “Mechanical Box” protection system. Approximately, this:


    Result

    I believe that I was able to collect truly extraordinary puzzles in this game. Here is one of my favorites. Using the properties of the real world, which in itself is cool. Turning the phone at a certain angle, we see how magically the text appears where there used to be just an abstract pattern. Breaking the “fourth wall”, one might say.


    Magic

    Or here are two more examples of the search for patterns that simply explode the brain of mathematically minded people. On the left is the task found on the Internet, on the right is my own development. In the first, you need to get a 4-digit code from sequences of numbers under an ultraviolet lamp, guided by the prompt on the sheet next to it. In the second, you must “solve” the formula.


    Try to solve it yourself

    It must be admitted that such puzzles are initially complex in nature. Not everyone can be distracted from the fact that numbers are numbers and look at them simply as abstract forms. In general, I position this game as the “Most Complex Quest”. And these are not empty words. Despite the short duration of the game, here for everyone there are puzzles that can lead to a dead end. This is both a virtue and a curse “Fur. Boxes, "simultaneously. The advantage is that there is a challenge in this game . Even if you try to open the Box with the whole company, the obstacles will be serious, and the pleasure of a difficult victory will be real. Especially if you decide not to use the hints that are in the game in case you do not have to go any further.

    Well, the curse is spoiled casual players, accustomed to the fact that puzzles are match-3 games. And here are puzzles of a completely different sort! My game doesn’t help the player pass himself. Even hints are just hints (where possible, of course). All so as not to deprive you of the joy of independent victory. There is no training in the Box, no one will lead you by the hand, no bouncing buttons and other tinsel characteristic of free-to-play. In this, I decided to be consistent to the end and do as I did in those days when games did not yet hold their players to complete dumbasses, for the sake of good marketing performance.

    Here, by the way, is a curious analytics. Just a little more than 3% of the players get to the seventh layer. This, of course, can only afford indie. Any large studio will simplify, make the game more boilerplate, if only to increase the retention rate.


    Game designer's nightmare

    Of course, you have to pay for everything. The game has quite a lot of haters in Story, people are so arranged ... Someone just doesn’t like hardcore puzzles, some cannot understand the logic of the puzzle and write reviews right away, such as “There is no logic at all in the game! The author wants us to look for the password by enumerating 9999 options! ”This is not true. Everywhere there are hints and logical decisions, the other thing is that they are well hidden. Yes, you need to carefully examine the level, any element can have its secret meaning, it is necessary to test hypotheses, even the most unexpected ones. You need to be able to look at the problem from a different angle, sometimes literally. But this is the beauty! With trivial riddles, a difficult and interesting quest would not have turned out.


    The level is inspired by riddles from the book 150+ Challenging Numeric & Logic Puzzles

    But, an average score of 4.5 points suggests that the game still has more fans! It's amazing when one of the players, a father from the Netherlands, talks about how he plays the game with his 10-year-old son. And that it would be cool to give out such a game in schools for the development of logic and informal thinking in adolescents. When a British math teacher not only allows you to use ideas from your book of mathematical riddles in the game, but also sends the book itself autographed! When a player from Russia (sorry, forgot your name!) Writes a whole story on his blog just because the game hooked him. It is because of such moments that it is worth developing games.

    Speaking about the technical part, the game is written in Java using the LibGDX engine. Mainly because with this programming language I often deal with work. In addition, the simplicity and lightness of LibGDX captivates me. This engine allows you to build a game for all major platforms. The game is already available on Google Play and in the App Store, as for the PC - there are plans to make an independent branch “based on”, on a completely different engine (this is Unity, who would doubt it). But for now, these are only plans. You can also compile a web version, however, I can’t imagine what to do with it, except to put it on the same itch.io just as part of the popularization of the game.


    My version of the Tower of Hanoi

    Architecturally, the project looks like this: there is a base class of a game object. He knows how to display the sprite on the screen, apply a mask (when you need to display only part of the sprite), give his hitbox to check for collisions, etc. I wrote my own implementationof this class. Oddly enough, in LibGDX "out of the box" - this is not. All game objects (combination locks, levers, keys, hatches and other mechanisms) are inherited from it, then behavior specific to each specific element is added to them. With levels, the situation is similar. The base layer contains UI elements, exit dialogs, tooltips, and the like. Each new layer of the “Box” is a separate class inherited from the base level, where all the logic of its operation is described. I chose this approach because all levels are almost unique in both mechanics and objects. That is, each level is a “game in the game." Of course, the complexity of the development is greatly increasing, although I try, if possible, to use at least some elements repeatedly.


    Level creation process

    The mechanics of the game are basically the mechanics of the point-and-click quest: drag and drop, combine objects, click. DragListener from LibGDX helps in their implementation. Here is an example of dragging an object within a game area. It remains only to add this listener to the desired object using addListener ().

    Over the past time, the first part of the game was made and “released”, thanks to the success of which, and it has more than 2 million downloads and about 100 thousand active players, a sequel has appeared. In the sequel to Boxes, I decided to completely change the visual style, switch from portrait orientation to landscape, and there are many more minor changes. I believe that the continuation should not just copy successful ideas from the previous part, it should always be a development, a step forward. True, many large titles (for example, “Heroes”) got burned on this approach, what can we say about us. Here is the “Fur. Box 2 ”is much less popular, although, to me personally, it seems much more beautiful, matured and holistic or something. But I'm not complaining, I found my audience, albeit not very large.

    The popularity of the game is mostly viral. I tried to buy ads in AdWords - it did not bring noticeable results. Yes, and it’s hard to expect that for such a game, buying CPI installations would be economically feasible. But the news on w3bsit3-dns.com and a fixed post on one well-known entertainment resource - showed themselves well. Although, I judge purely subjectively, according to the response of the audience. Unfortunately, in the confusion of preparing the materials, I forgot to add UTM tags, so I can’t say exactly how many players came and the installation cost. And at the end of last year, completely unexpectedly for me, the game was included in the review on the German YouTube channel with 700k subscribers. That day, we earned more than $ 1000 - this is a record in general for the whole time that I play games! Very cool, sorry so fleetingly.

    But, in the end, here, after all, as with any creativity. I make games not because of victories or in spite of failures, but because I can't help but make them. What I wish you too! I will be glad to answer questions in the comments.

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