As a part of the final year of my undergraduate degree, we were tasked with creating a mobile game of our choosing, as a group we created the logo, name, concept and design/function of the app.
Project Aims
We aim to create an entertaining game that will also help users develop their skills, ranging from general knowledge to reaction times to concentration.
We did this as we feel that puzzle games are very popular on mobile devices and a lot of the gaming apps at the tops of the charts are puzzle games, so we wanted to create one to match this. However, we noticed that there are only a few puzzle apps that also develop and train users’ skills, so we thought we might include something like this.
Primary Research
As a group, we discussed a variety of existing applications that are currently popular on the App and Play Store. After discussing with the group we decided to choose a puzzle mobile application. Each member reviewed two applications each of which was similar to our chosen mobile app. Below are the mobile applications that we have reviewed.
- Candy Crush
- Quizup
- Snake
- Tetris
- Flow
- Capitals and Flags Quiz
We looked at each game in depth, including their colour scheme, game mechanics, app map and their reviews on the Play Store/App Store.
Initial Designs
Once we did our research on existing apps, we then set out our initial designs including our game mechanics, app map, genre, wireframes, app icon and colour scheme.
Design and Development
Once we had designed our app pages and received feedback from focus groups, we then went on to designing and building the app. We had settled on a brain training game that involved 6 different mini games, each with their own mechanics and scoring systems:
We then built the app using Adobe Animate and ActionScript 3, each member of the group was assigned 2 games (I was tasked with creating ‘Concentration’ and ‘Focus’) and I also bundled all 6 games together and built the overall app as I had the most experience with Animate and ActionScript.
We recorded a video of the app in action to showcase its capabilities and provide evidence of how it works:
Overall the app was fairly successful as we managed to create it the way we wanted with the games played how we envisioned, with more experience using ActionScript and Animate I’m sure we could refine it further and improve upon the design and usability of the app.