Dmitriy Molchanov has worked in game design at Playrix since 2011. He has contributed to several popular mobile games including Fishdom, Township, and Gardenscapes. Gardenscapes in particular has over 10 million daily active users and a team of over 200 people. Molchanov describes some of the key elements of Gardenscapes' match-3 game design including handcrafted levels with clear objectives, seasonal elements to keep the game fresh, and a positive storyline and characters. He also outlines Playrix's product structure and development process, emphasizing the importance of quality control and iterative improvement of ideas and features.

1. Game Design in
Playrix

2. About me
Dmitriy Molchanov
Vologda, Russia
In game design since 2011 (Playrix)
Projects:
● Barn Yarn (PC)
● Aquascapes (PC)
● Fishdom (PC, mobile)
● Township (mobile)
● Gardenscapes (mobile)

3. Plan
We had a couple of slides about
Gardenscapes in general, few pellets of
meta overview, four sheets of high
powered match3 description, a salt
shaker half full of pipeline procedures,
and a whole galaxy of multi-colored
product structure and team structure
stories…
Not that we needed all that for the trip,
but once you get locked into a serious
webinar, the tendency is to push it as far
as you can.

4. Match3 with Meta
4 years, 10M+ DAU, 200+ team

5. Meta
● Recognizable main character with pets,
friends and relatives
● No negative characters
● Strong positive storyline
● Renovations!

6. Match3
● All levels are handmade
● Careful calibration with playtesting
● Strict and thorough set of rules for level designers
● Each level has an “idea”

7. More on “idea”
Some levels have a winning strategy, which might not be straightforward.
But it’s a strong positive feedback for the player when they “get” the idea.

8. More on “idea”
Some levels look tight and hard in the beginning.
But after the 1st move they become more clear.
after 1st move

9. Seasonal elements and goals
Season is a set of levels with higher
concentration of specific hard goals/elements
➢ Fresh emotions
➢ Feeling of change
➢ Reducing chaos
➢ Allowing to notice patterns
➢ Opportunity to learn
Example
Levels 3551-3700
Seasonal elements:
➔ Stones (19)
➔ Mushrooms (17)
➔ Ivy (20)

10. More on Match3 in Playrix
Match3 is a long story.
For more info google:
“Playrix: Creating levels and
elements for match-3 games”

11. Product structure
Garden Events Features
● storyline
● quests
● new expansions
● redesign
● expedition
● gold pass
● new features
● match3
Each “project” inside the product has a manager, producer and teams.

12. Mini-teams
Mini-team is making a single “thing”.
In features project each team is making a single feature
● Team Lead
● Responsible for quality
● 0-2 programmers
● 0-2 artists (including UI)
● 0-1 QA specialist
Each mini-team is more or less independent and self-sufficient
- should be able to produce a result without external help
- has enough specialists according to the task (including high-level specialists)

13. Responsible for quality
Usually a game designer
“Mini-producer”
➢ Writing design document (DD)
➢ Making sure everyone understands the DD
➢ Controlling the development process
➢ Giving feedback on art
➢ Approving everything with a producer
➢ Balancing if needed
➢ Making sure the result corresponds the initial idea
➢ Controlling the launch, analysing results
➢ Updating the DD during/after the development

14. What is “quality”?
It is a state of feature when everyone who saw it agree on some basic things:
★ It is being played the way it was expected to be played
(according to the initial or modified vision)
★ It looks not just OK or good enough, but precisely good

15. Development process
I D E A[Concept]
Design Document
Production
Internal Review External Review
Submit and release

16. What is OK
➢ Release the feature anyway if the quality
is a little less than was expected
➢ Return to the [Concept]
➢ Return to the IDEA
➢ Abandon the feature altogether
What is OK-ish
➢ Move the feature to the next update if
the quality is less than was expected
➢ Adjust the vision (IDEA)

17. How to come up with ideas
IDEA can come from many places.
Most of the time - from other games.
Isn’t it just “stealing”?
❖ There’s no such thing as an “original idea” (TED Radio Hour: What is Original?)
❖ “Simpsons already did it!”, you just don’t know it
❖ Experiments in big commercial project is a bad idea
Just play more and get working ideas elsewhere.
Then re-invent them in your project. And make them better.

18. Thank you!
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linkedin.com/in/dimagd
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