‘Nail Polish Names Quiz’ and ‘Jelly Belly Flavors Quiz’ were two games I designed and coded based on the popular app 4 pictures 1 word. Both were available on the iOS and Google Play Stores.
THE TOOLS
Because the games were built to support all the main platforms, the Corona SDK was the development tool of choice. Development was done in Lua, a lightning-fast and easy to learn scripting language. Visual and interface elements were designed in Illustrator. The image assets were scaled, modified and cut using Photoshop.
REQUIREMENTS GATHERING
The process begins with gathering general demographic information about our users. Learn who they are, what they want and their apps environment. The more you know about the users, the more you can use that information to design an interface that the users can relate to.
Our target population was mostly female, so the color scheme was selected from data collected that suggested that our users would like the colors.
THE LEVELS
Determining the content that users are interested in can be challenging. We came with a list of possibilities, and then conducted a survey to determine what types of resources the users would be interested in. The top results were a Nail Polish and a Jelly Belly names quiz.
Each of the games was planned to support 80 levels with 4 pictures each. So knowing whom exactly I was designing for allowed me to ask myself how the app fits into the lives of the users.
CONTENT
The content design relied on friendly design, color, movement, high quality graphics and sounds attractive for a female audience. Image research had to be done to select 4 pictures for each required word that represented a level.
After the first phase of development was completed, usability testing was conducted on the app. Based on observing the play, the team made the changes in the areas where the users were having some difficulty.
MONETIZATION
Vungle products were integrated to provide all the necessary infrastructure for app monetization through video ads.
The iAd network was also implemented to take Advantage of the wide range of Ad Formats on the iPhone and iPad apps and to deliver the best ad experience for iOS users.
Google’s Admob was integrated as a third provider to serve as an alternative for ads when the iAd network couldn’t deliver.
FUNCTIONALITY TESTING
Everything must be tested for functionality. Once the levels are coded, it’s important to test them to determine if they are functionally correct and that they appear appropriately in the major devices.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Developing a word game app for a specific target holds many design challenges. The app needs to have a clear structure and deliver information. It also needs to be interactive and visually interesting at the same time.
Overall, this was a fun project to work on.