1. Making your F2P puzzler
a story-driven game
What could possibly go wrong?
Based on a true story.

2. This is a case study
• Story-driven
• Practical
• Anecdotical
• Hopefully with some general conclusions

3. ATGames
• Small, focused team,
• trying to make quality mobile games,
• with a love-hate relationship with F2P.

4. Story-driven puzzler

5. Game
• Another Case Solved - puzzle
detective game set in the interesting times
of the sugar prohibition
• tile-matching core gameplay loop
• strong story elements

6. Before ACS
• Puzzle Craft
a relaxing game of
farming and mining, F2P
puzzle/townbuilding
• Our first tile-matching
game and quite a
success.

7. Before ACS
• The Mooniacs
addictive physics puzzler
with totally unnecessary
three alternative
endings.
• The first game we
produced, and we
learned a lot during the
production.

8. Before ACS
• The Witcher - AAA
cRPG about an
emotionally unstable
monster slayer.
• The first game I worked
on, included here to
explain the need for
adding a story :)

9. The Quest
• Why did we decide to make
a story-driven F2P puzzle game?
• We were bored
• We had some experience in puzzles
• We had some experience in storytelling
• It seemed like a good idea :)

10. High Hopes
• We hoped to appeal to mystery-games fans
• We hoped the story will be a driver to play
for players that are not into puzzle games.
• We hoped the gameplay will be a driver for
those not interested in the story.
• We hoped it will be awesome!

11. First Fears
• We feared we would lose casual players
• We feared the game will be harder to make
• We feared it will monetize poorly

12. Design Decisions
• Segmented gameplay - a series of criminal
cases, as opposed to the continuous flow
in Puzzle Craft
• Story - detective procedural series
• Gameplay - progress-driven

13. Story

14. Setting
• Sugar Prohibition
all the great noir tropes,
no problems with rating.
• Hardboiled Gumshoe
struggling for money and
fighting for the truth,
a great hero archetype.
• Core fantasy in perfect
synergy with the
monetization model.

15. Making of a Hero
• We provide an archetype
- players give the protagonist a face.
• We make the hero pivotal for the story.
• Players customize the avatar...
• ...show competence through the gameplay.

16. Customization

17. Mr or Ms Gumshoe?
• We wanted players to be able to choose if
they are playing a woman or a man.
• To localize the game we had to
accommodate for gender-specific texts...
• ... so we decided to make the most of it.

18. Behind the Scenes

19. True Romance
• The same cast
of characters,
• different
dialogues,
• significantly
different story.

20. The Burglar
• Friend/rival for male detectives.
• Romantic interest for female detectives.

21. The Police Officer
• Friend/rival for female detectives.
• Romantic interest for male detectives.

22. Behind the Story
• Likable, competent protagonist
• Emotional ties to other characters
• Narrative inspired by TV series:
episodes, seasons, recurring characters,
slow development of the main plot.

23. Gameplay

24. Tile-matching
• Connect Tiles:
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.

25. Witnesses
Inspired by
„Guess Who”.
Find the person,
who matches all
criteria.
Number of
questions depends
on photos
collected.

26. Crime Scene
Hot or Cold,
limited no. moves.
Find the ”hottest”
item.
Max. ”hotness”
shown depends on
Fingerprints
collected.

27. City Search
Find the place that
matches all hints.
Some icons are
hidden.
Number of hints
depends on Maps
collected.

28. Progress: Skills
• Skills grouped by
puzzle type.
• Can be unlocked as the
character gains levels.
• Players decide which
skills to pick.
• Can be upgraded.

29. Progress: Equipment
• Office: both esthetic
and gameplay choice.
• New items bought
for in-game currency.
• Equipment
modifies gameplay or
gives bonus currency.
• Choice:
many items per slot.

30. Behind the Gameplay
• Basics: tile-matching, and players’ abilities
• Additional puzzles: difficulty lowered by
successful tile-matching
• Skills (persistent), tools (consumable)
• Progress: skills and equipment (modify and
enrich the basic gameplay)

31. Story vs. Gameplay

32. Big Loop
• Major Cases:
story progress,
earning stars and cash.
• Your Office:
investment,
spending cash.
• Your Character:
unlocking skills,
spending stars.

33. Small Loop
• Newspaper Cases:
easy, repeatable, grinding
in-game currency.
• Tools: useable,
buy them with
in-game currency.
• Story Progress:
newspapers needed
to unlock Major Cases.

34. Dependencies
• Story Progress: you need to grind tile-matching
puzzles to unlock new cases.
• Gameplay Progress: you need to solve
story cases to earn stars for new skills and
level up your character.

35. Story Constraints
• Every case consists from the same blocks:
• Investigation - initial tile matching,
• Suspects - identifying a person,
• Search - finding an item,
• City - locating an address.
• Suspects, Search and City - order may vary.

36. Gameplay Constraints
• The puzzles must make sense for the story.
• That means no random cases.
• Progress in the story => character
progress => need for higher difficulty

37. One Environment
• Story to gameplay: hints
in the dialogues, if you
read you gain an edge.
• Gameplay to story:
custom mechanics used
only in crucial moments.
• Credibility: gameplay set
in a context, story told
not by text alone.

38. The Unexpected
• We encountered some surprises...
• ... that in hindsight are obvious...
• ... but we were surprised nonetheless.

39. Dramatization Effect
• As the story progresses the characters
accumulate more and more background,
• demand more and more characterization,
• the story gets deeper and more nuanced,
• and writing takes more and more time.

40. Power Level Effect
• As the story progresses the protagonist
becomes more and more competent,
• demands harder challenges,
• and new gameplay mechanisms,
• so implementation takes more
and more time.

41. It Just Gets Harder
• Work gets more complicated
as the project progresses:
• you have to design harder puzzles,
• repetitiveness creeps in,
• and the dialogues swell (or it’s just us?).

42. Localization
• The game was written in English
• we made the Polish localization in-house
• and it took much longer than expected.
• We skipped other languages - too much
text, translation too expensive.

43. Updates
• New chapters - obvious choice,
appeals only to long-time players.
• New skills - obvious choice,
appeals only to advanced players.
• New players? - that is the question.

44. Adding Depth
• New skills
- not in the main branch.
• New skill upgrades
- some skills just cannot
be upgraded.
• New mechanisms
- all types of puzzles
in newspaper cases.

45. Update Constraints
• Consistency - side cases raise questions
of difficulty level, relations with NPCs, state
of the world.
• Forced Progress - every new case
progresses the character. Sooner or later
new mechanisms will be needed.
• Limits - app size, memory limits.

46. Problem: Scalability
• Most puzzlers are effectively endless.
• Story-driven games need finite arcs.
• One leg is shorter.

47. Ways out?
• Freeze gameplay progress on high difficulty
plateau (ex. high end-game skill prices) and
provide interesting side stories.
• Introduce some kind of a „newspaper-burner”
(ex. some collectible elements to
be unlocked by grinding newspapers)

48. Look at the Bright Side!

49. Story
• Loyal fans, who care about your game.
• Story compensates for repetitive
core gameplay.
• It is both a driver to play and a reward.
• Can be fun to write :)

50. Gameplay
• Loyal fans, who don’t care for your story :)
• Gameplay makes waiting for the next case
fun - you don’t have to put the game down.
• Effective progress loop:
mastery => advancement => puzzles
change => need for mastery.

51. Was it worth it?
• Spoiler: oh yes!
• Great reception.
• Good profits.
• Diversification is good for your team.

52. But...
• Knowing, what we know now...
• ... we would have done
some things differently.
• And we probably will :)

53. Thank You!
ag@atgames.pl

54. We Are Hiring!
Looking for a Senior Programmer!
http://atgames.pl/jobs.html