Minesweeper
Overview
Beginning this project in early 2016, it surely is among the first mobile games I have developed. For this project I had to take care of the game design, UI, UX and marketing content. At that time OutOfTheBit was focusing on producing a vast line up of board and classic games, so it felt like a no brainer to create our own version of Minesweeper, considering it has been among the most beloved simple games out there.
Objective
The competition on the main app stores was huge, therefore we needed to step up our game and make it perfect in order to stand out from the rest. Apart from building a solid and good looking app at its core, we also managed to differentiate this product mainly in two ways: one is the revolutionary use of the 3D touch (to place flags on possible bomb's tiles) the other is the addition of 3 amazing themes and 3 difficulties.
Process
Process Step 1: Brainstorming & Product Set Up
The first few days (and sometimes more than that) of the design process are obviously filled with hours of testing new and old versions of the product I'm trying to design. This allows me to understand what works, what doesn't and what our audience expects to be offered. The creation of brainstorming mind maps, the
testing of various grid's options and some wireframing were the three main staples of this stage.
Process Step 2: Layout & Style Search
At the very beginning of this step of the process, in terms of style we already knew we wanted to create a new and modern version as our main theme, but we couldn't afford to release the game without its most famous incarnations: the classic '98 gray version and the iconic retro greenish one, too. So once I was happy with the layout I immersed myself in researching and creating these 3 themes meticulously.
Process Step 3: Production
We were all fully happy and satisfied with how the layout and style were coming up, so after a few meetings I took some feedback into account and started the production phase. Even the creation of a tutorial for people to understand the basic mechanics of this game was created in this phase of the process. We managed to complete the game on time and since its release, people seemed to love it.
Try It Out
