How did the game Monument Valley

About surreal Action "Monument Valley" tells the story of a silent princess Ida, written many rave reviews, including to "MakRadare". The project has deservedly received the love of users, has been recognized as the best game for the iPad and won Apple Design Award. Despite the visible simplicity, Monument Valley affects well-designed aesthetic that inspired not only gamers, but also other developers. The creators of the Monument Valley spoke about their work on this unique project.

The game labored only eight people from the studio ustwo. It took as many as 55 weeks (a little less than 13 months) to go from the idea to the development of chapters, testing and final implementation. Each part of the story of Ida is unique, filled with the secrets and mechanics, plot details and architectural style. This has created a visually rich image that required much more time. This video briefly shows the workflow of creating walls of Monument Valley in ustwo:

The game is so powerful "shot" that the team quickly focused their strength and spend another 29 weeks, rolled out an additional set of levels to the "Forgotten Coast". Since the original Monument Valley on the history of Ida, additional chapters have taken their place as the episodes that were originally cut from the film.

With plenty of time and resources, developers can better work out new scenes, saturate them with new architectural nuances and make the optical illusion is even more bizarre. The developers have allowed us a little peek behind the scenes, to trace the process of creating the game from early sketches to the final stage of work on the "Forgotten Coast".

Meet the founders

In his interview to the website Maker (By the way, very interesting resource about the history of the famous things - approx. Ed.) is a leading designer Momument Valley Ken Wong shared his views on the process of creating the game.

- One remark that, in your opinion, makes the most "Monument Valley" unique?

- I think in the Monument Valley, we hit upon a unique approach to interactive entertainment, bypassing the Many gaming tradition and created a virtual world, which is like a much wider audience.

- What did you want to achieve, creating a Monument Valley?

- Our studio has given us a tremendous opportunity, because the game did not expect any financial returns. We were only asked to create something amazing. We thought we should try to create a game which has never been done - something mobile, tough quality, creatively, emotionally and with great attention to detail. With such a high bar we could not relax with the design. Therefore, we have armed all that, we believe, will make a great game.

- Who is your ideal customer?

- He who pays! Monument Valley was created for those who do not play video games. It is full of beautiful graphics, music; the game tells the story of a silent princess wanders the world of architecture, geometry and unrealistic generosity. Honestly, we have not really thought about who might buy the game and play. We have worked, just to have something to be proud of, and understand that there may be others who like the same thing to us.

- You have always considered himself a creator?

- Yes! Create anything - the meaning of my life. I always drew, and began to study digital graphics somewhere in 18-19 years. I worked on many games in different genres, from the console to the computer and mobile. Who is doing an illustration, including custom, sold a poster online.

- What are some of your favorite creators.

- I'm a big fan of the James Cameron movie. He mixes technology and art, creating paintings, which did not exist. For the same reason I like Jim Henson. I learned a lot by studying the work of Jamie Hewlett, Mike Mignola and Gustav Klimt. Now I look through a lot of graphics, and try not to pick something favorite.

- What kind of games do you like most?

- I think our tastes formed game with which we grew up. For me, this Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island and Street Fighter. Then there was Sword & Sworcery, which gave a significant boost to the development of modern aesthetics of the game, and Gone Home, which has become a benchmark in terms of the script and design - in this game should play each.

- How did you feel after learning that Monument Valley won the Apple Design Award?

- We went to the ceremony, not knowing what to win. As product ads that turned out not to "Monument Valley", we are increasingly discouraged. We finally left, which made the victory even more memorable. Apple asked the incredibly high standards of design, user environment and innovation, and get their recognition - it is a real achievement.

- What ustwo future plans?

- We are working on Land's End, something like a side project for Samsung GearVR. A great experiment on the possibilities of virtual reality, built on the basis of some of the things that we learned from Monument Valley.

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The creators Momument Valley believe in the paid model of games, setting the value of the original game in 219 ₽ and set levels Forgotten Shores 119 ₽. A relatively small price to pay that, each player will support these creative projects including video games.

(via)