A magia das bolhas

Como Unity ajudou a transformar uma ideia fugaz em um jogo 2D incrível

Tiny Bubbles: estudo de caso Unity para jogos 2D

Veteran indie developer Stu Denman had a grandfather who had worked on the Manhattan Project, and afterward studied the physics of soap bubbles. Half a century later, Stu couldn’t get his grandfather’s bubble work out of his head. He was dreaming bubbles at night. But would he be able to turn the seed of an idea into a polished, fun and challenging game?

  • O jogo

    Tiny Bubbles, a beautiful award-winning physics puzzler, developed by Pine Street Codeworks.

  • O objetivo

    Imitar a física natural das bolhas em um jogo de quebra-cabeça divertido

  • Plataformas

    iOS, Android, PC, Mac, Linux

  • Número de membros na equipe

    2

  • Lugar

    Seattle, Washington

Stu Denman, co-founder and developer at Pine Street Codeworks, explains why Unity was the perfect tool to help him realize his vision.

Um belo jogo de quebra-cabeça premiado baseado em física

Como diretor técnico de estúdios AAA, Stu Denman liderou equipes com mais de 30 desenvolvedores. Mas ele chegou em um momento da carreira no qual sentiu a necessidade de criar seu próprio jogo. A flexibilidade e o conjunto de ferramentas completo do Unity o ajudaram a criar o Tiny Bubbles: um jogo de quebra-cabeça inteligente, hipnotizante e viciante com mais de 160 níveis.

Os resultados:

  • Economia de milhares de dólares em plug-ins de qualidade na Asset Store
  • Economia de meses de tempo de desenvolvimento graças à ferramenta de localização
  • Conquista de vários prêmios, incluindo Google Indie Festival, Intel Buzz: Best Overall PC Game, Seattle Indie Games e Mobile Games Forum Indie Showdown

A faísca que desencadeou a imaginação

Quando começou a trabalhar no projeto, Denman só tinha a semente da inspiração. Ele sabia que queria fazer um jogo sobre bolhas de sabão, mas não sabia como ele seria. A extensibilidade e o design modular do Editor Unity deram a ele a liberdade que precisava para experimentar.

“Para ver o que era divertido e o que não era, decidi fazer um editor dentro do Unity, para poder jogar e testar o jogo imediatamente, voltar, mudar as coisas de lugar, sempre repetindo esse processo, sabe. A flexibilidade do Editor Unity melhorou muito a criação do jogo.

“Unity faz com que eu não me preocupe com as coisas que eu inventei antes,” Denman diz. “Em vez disso, posso me concentrar em tecnologias interessantes que nunca tinha usado. A física de bolhas é um ótimo exemplo disso.”

100x de retorno sobre investimento

In addition to adding his own tools, Denman also used many pre-existing tools from the Unity Asset Store, and he says that they offered an incredible ROI.

“Sometimes you don’t comprehend how much work and polish it takes to complete a project and compete in a market that’s so competitive. But when you throw your game in front of players, you realize, oh my gosh, I need to add an effect here. I need to improve the look of a feature there.

“So being able to go to the Asset Store and find a tool there–probably for 100 times less than you would spend making it yourself–is just phenomenally awesome. It saves tons of time for sure,” Denman says.

What’s more, he often experiences that the assets he initially acquires for one specific reason hold hidden benefits elsewhere. TextMesh Pro was a good example of this:

“I grabbed TextMesh Pro to add icons in my text and‒not only did it allow me to do that quickly and efficiently and for very little money‒but it had a tremendous number of other very cool features I could take advantage of that I never expected.”

Brincar com bolhas: um direito universal?

The result of Denman’s experimentations was an award-winning game with over 160 intriguing puzzles. The game mirrors the actual physics of bubbles in the real world with regard to pressure and surface tension, interaction, and cascading chain reactions.

“Bubbles are this elemental human thing. There’s just something fascinating about bubbles that everyone loves regardless of their age, sex, or culture. And I wanted to offer this great new way to play with clusters of bubbles to as many people as possible, including people who are color blind or rely on eye trackers. In order to that, though, I needed to be in as many different languages and platforms as possible, and that’s definitely one big reason why I chose Unity,” Denman says.

Using the I2 Localization plugin from the Asset Store, Denman was able to store all his languages on a Google Spreadsheet. He could then share the spreadsheet with translators. Once approved, the text was automatically pulled into Unity.

“I was really blown away by how ridiculously easy it was. It would have taken me probably two months or more to make that same software. I got a third of the game localized in a single day, including the integration and tutorials. And it’s going to save me hours and hours,” he says.

Informações em tempo real e ferramentas de monetização

Once he created the prototype, Denman was eager to see how people would respond to his experimentations and what they would actually do in the game. In order to do so, he enabled Unity Analytics and began to send it out to friends.

The Unity Analytics dashboard has enabled him to look at things like, for example, which levels take more tries to win or at which levels people stop playing the game. In order to base some potentially critical business decisions on sound data, Denman plans to continue to use Unity Analytics when the game goes to beta.

Will they pay to play?

One major decision Unity Analytics will help with is Denman’s business model regarding monetization.

“The market is challenging out there right now, so it’s important that I choose the best model for the given platform and market. All of those markets have different kinds of players, so you really need to test retention for those different types of players in order to have an idea of which one is going to make you the most money.

“Sometimes if your retention is lower, it’s better to go premium, and if your retention is higher, it’s better to go free-to-play. Unity Analytics lets you look at retention and make a decision based on data.”

In order to be ready for a free-to-play audience, Denman is prepared to complement Unity Analytics with Unity Ads and IAP. He has already integrated ads into his design in a way that will offer a good player experience to different types of players.

“I use reward-based ads for the hints and power-ups and the puzzles. If the player is struggling and they need help, they can watch an ad and get a reward like a hint. The hints help make the game accessible to a wider audience. It allows casual players to get through some of the more difficult puzzles, where a more hard-core player might prefer to labor through the solution.”

Denman has taken full advantage of what Unity offers. First, the flexible, modular design helped him follow his interest when he only had an inkling of what the final game would look like. Next, the Unity Asset Store and his own custom tools enabled him to focus on the core of the game itself. Finally, Unity IAP, Ads and Analytics are helping get the game right in a way that will enable him to get paid for all his hard work.

Stu Denman, Founder and Lead Programmer at Pine Street Codeworks

“Unity’s modular design tends to keep things fairly clean. So if you have stability issues in one part, it doesn’t affect the rest of the game. And it means that overall, through the course of your development, your game tends to be a lot more stable than what I’ve experienced with other engines that I’ve used.”

Stu Denman, Founder and Lead Programmer at Pine Street Codeworks

Como começar com a Unity para 2D?

Obtenha um guia prático com informações e recursos que irão dar orientação, ajudar a economizar tempo e a alcançar os melhores resultados ao desenvolver jogos 2D usando a Unity.

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