The game of a millionaire or the story of creating a board game for a social network
Good day!
We want to introduce you to our application "Monopoly: Golden Bag" , which is designed for the social network "Vkontakte".
You can see it by clicking on this link .
The client for this application was written in AS3, Flash IDE + FDT. Database - MySQL. Graphics mainly raster. The server is located in the clouds, our choice fell on Scalaxi. Why such power - is not yet clear, but let it be.
The idea to do something similar came to us in early 2011. Then we, two friends, and later the creators of the application, gathered at home to play the board game Monopoly. Having received incredible pleasure from the game, I wanted to be able to play with friends without leaving home. An attempt to find something similar in social networks turned out to be a failure. Then the idea to develop your board game "Monopoly" in the form of an application.
The path to its creation was very long: this was mainly due to the lack of any experience in the development of Internet resources. We did not know where to start, but as a result we had a small plan of action:
And now for each more. First we started with a simple sketch on a piece of paper. It showed the initial versions of the application windows. Thinking through the sketch did not take much time and subsequently did not play a particularly important role, but it was easier to navigate this way, especially in working with the designer.
')
Next, we thought out the functionality of the application, which has undergone dozens of changes. Basically, the application is a little different from the usual board game "Monopoly", in which you can buy, rent and sell your property. But there are a number of differences from the original board game, namely:
The main difficulty was to transfer the board game to a computer game, in particular, to introduce a system of voices. It is important to interest the players, but at the same time create conditions under which the players would be equal, regardless of the number of votes contributed. That is why it was decided to make a funded system : the winner receives a percentage of the initial capital, thereby, each player earns virtual money.
The next step was to find a designer . Design is a very important part of creating an application: the attitude of users to the game depends on the visual perception. In the monopoly, it was necessary to preserve the immediate style of the board game, but at the same time to give conservatism, thereby to cause the players to trust. Also, the “severity” of the design increases the target audience: in addition to adolescents, older people play the application, which is not typical of all social networking applications.
“We were very lucky with the choice of the designer, she just completed the task” - we thought. But now we realize that the design needs to be changed. By the way, if there are designers / illustrators who want to work, write. The main colors were chosen gold and green, where gold symbolizes wealth, and green money and tranquility.
The main character of the game was chosen as the hero of Irish folklore - Leprechaun, who is usually portrayed dressed in all green. The attribute of Leprechaun is a pot of gold, hence the variation of the name of our game "Golden Bag".
Then we went in search of a programmer , it was not easy. Honestly, working with a programmer taught us to wait, to wait long. It seemed to us that after a well-designed design, we would launch the application in a couple of weeks, but we were deeply mistaken and the phrase “well, everything, launch on Saturday”, we repeated 15 times :)
First of all, we sent him the technical task and hoped that he would agree to do this work, as the previous two programmers refused because of the complex functionality of the application. The programmer called us a surprisingly short time for a very ridiculous price, which we, of course, did not meet. In the process of programming, some functions had to be abandoned, but some had to be added as they were developed. We encountered a number of problems, both technical and visual. In most cases, the problems were due to insufficient training of the programmer or illustrator. We had to hire all new and new performers, but in the end, most of the problems were solved. As a result, they learned one very good lesson : you need to stay in good relations with the people who worked on your project, even if you are sure that you will not need the person anymore. As practice has shown, you return to many people, and you have to work with them again.
After the end of the main work it was necessary ... to play! It is very, very much to play, test the application , as it were, in order to find and fix all technical errors. Honestly, during this time we became the virtuosos of the game “Monopoly”, although we managed to love and hate it 10 times. The main difference of this application from others is a very complex basic functionality. In the game itself there are a lot of opportunities and scenarios and, as you understand, even with the huge amount of hours spent on testing, the two of them did not find any mistakes. That is why it became necessary to start the game, so that users, so to speak in the field, helped us identify errors.
Came on April 22, 2012 . It's funny that on the first day several people offered to buy an application from us, which of course we did not even think about. People liked the monopoly, there were a lot of fans of this game, but there was no decent application, so we guessed. But, as we thought, questions about the problems that arose immediately fell down: there were a lot of mistakes and the work at the start was just beginning. Most of the people were not very good-natured, so they had to listen to the complaints expressed in a rude manner.
We tried several ways to advertise directly to Vkontakte: VK targeting (~ 4.5rub / person), advertising in groups (~ 2.5rub / person), advertising applications through voices (0.9rub / person). After a study, it turned out that with the most profitable promotion was advertising applications through voice . Each application has the ability to start up ads in the main “Games” window for votes, it looks like this:
We would like to share some advice with you: it is better to save votes for a few days and spend it all in one day. It turns out that in one day you will spend more money, but it increases the likelihood of getting into the recommended Vkontakte applications, since the rating of applications is ranked by the number of user visits.
At this stage, advertising and promotion has just begun, so we will be happy for your questions and suggestions.
If you have any questions about the creation of the game, feel free to ask them in the comments, and we will try to answer them.
We want to introduce you to our application "Monopoly: Golden Bag" , which is designed for the social network "Vkontakte".
You can see it by clicking on this link .
Technical characteristics of the application:
The client for this application was written in AS3, Flash IDE + FDT. Database - MySQL. Graphics mainly raster. The server is located in the clouds, our choice fell on Scalaxi. Why such power - is not yet clear, but let it be.
Server options:
Application demographics
History of creation
The idea to do something similar came to us in early 2011. Then we, two friends, and later the creators of the application, gathered at home to play the board game Monopoly. Having received incredible pleasure from the game, I wanted to be able to play with friends without leaving home. An attempt to find something similar in social networks turned out to be a failure. Then the idea to develop your board game "Monopoly" in the form of an application.
The path to its creation was very long: this was mainly due to the lack of any experience in the development of Internet resources. We did not know where to start, but as a result we had a small plan of action:
- Sketch;
- Thinking through the functional;
- Search and work of the designer;
- Search and work programmer;
- Testing the application;
- Application launch;
- Advertising and promotion.
And now for each more. First we started with a simple sketch on a piece of paper. It showed the initial versions of the application windows. Thinking through the sketch did not take much time and subsequently did not play a particularly important role, but it was easier to navigate this way, especially in working with the designer.
')
Next, we thought out the functionality of the application, which has undergone dozens of changes. Basically, the application is a little different from the usual board game "Monopoly", in which you can buy, rent and sell your property. But there are a number of differences from the original board game, namely:
- at the beginning of the game you have a minimum amount of $ 1500 in your account;
- the more you earn, the more expensive tables you can afford;
- for quick advancement in the game, you can purchase chips for the votes made in the application;
- the winner is the one who will have the biggest capital or the last non-bankrupt player after the time has elapsed;
- at the end of the game, the game percentage is transferred to the winner’s account - part of the money you will play with your opponents.
The main difficulty was to transfer the board game to a computer game, in particular, to introduce a system of voices. It is important to interest the players, but at the same time create conditions under which the players would be equal, regardless of the number of votes contributed. That is why it was decided to make a funded system : the winner receives a percentage of the initial capital, thereby, each player earns virtual money.
The next step was to find a designer . Design is a very important part of creating an application: the attitude of users to the game depends on the visual perception. In the monopoly, it was necessary to preserve the immediate style of the board game, but at the same time to give conservatism, thereby to cause the players to trust. Also, the “severity” of the design increases the target audience: in addition to adolescents, older people play the application, which is not typical of all social networking applications.
“We were very lucky with the choice of the designer, she just completed the task” - we thought. But now we realize that the design needs to be changed. By the way, if there are designers / illustrators who want to work, write. The main colors were chosen gold and green, where gold symbolizes wealth, and green money and tranquility.
The main character of the game was chosen as the hero of Irish folklore - Leprechaun, who is usually portrayed dressed in all green. The attribute of Leprechaun is a pot of gold, hence the variation of the name of our game "Golden Bag".
Then we went in search of a programmer , it was not easy. Honestly, working with a programmer taught us to wait, to wait long. It seemed to us that after a well-designed design, we would launch the application in a couple of weeks, but we were deeply mistaken and the phrase “well, everything, launch on Saturday”, we repeated 15 times :)
First of all, we sent him the technical task and hoped that he would agree to do this work, as the previous two programmers refused because of the complex functionality of the application. The programmer called us a surprisingly short time for a very ridiculous price, which we, of course, did not meet. In the process of programming, some functions had to be abandoned, but some had to be added as they were developed. We encountered a number of problems, both technical and visual. In most cases, the problems were due to insufficient training of the programmer or illustrator. We had to hire all new and new performers, but in the end, most of the problems were solved. As a result, they learned one very good lesson : you need to stay in good relations with the people who worked on your project, even if you are sure that you will not need the person anymore. As practice has shown, you return to many people, and you have to work with them again.
After the end of the main work it was necessary ... to play! It is very, very much to play, test the application , as it were, in order to find and fix all technical errors. Honestly, during this time we became the virtuosos of the game “Monopoly”, although we managed to love and hate it 10 times. The main difference of this application from others is a very complex basic functionality. In the game itself there are a lot of opportunities and scenarios and, as you understand, even with the huge amount of hours spent on testing, the two of them did not find any mistakes. That is why it became necessary to start the game, so that users, so to speak in the field, helped us identify errors.
Application launch
Came on April 22, 2012 . It's funny that on the first day several people offered to buy an application from us, which of course we did not even think about. People liked the monopoly, there were a lot of fans of this game, but there was no decent application, so we guessed. But, as we thought, questions about the problems that arose immediately fell down: there were a lot of mistakes and the work at the start was just beginning. Most of the people were not very good-natured, so they had to listen to the complaints expressed in a rude manner.
Advertising and promotion
We tried several ways to advertise directly to Vkontakte: VK targeting (~ 4.5rub / person), advertising in groups (~ 2.5rub / person), advertising applications through voices (0.9rub / person). After a study, it turned out that with the most profitable promotion was advertising applications through voice . Each application has the ability to start up ads in the main “Games” window for votes, it looks like this:
We would like to share some advice with you: it is better to save votes for a few days and spend it all in one day. It turns out that in one day you will spend more money, but it increases the likelihood of getting into the recommended Vkontakte applications, since the rating of applications is ranked by the number of user visits.
At this stage, advertising and promotion has just begun, so we will be happy for your questions and suggestions.
If you have any questions about the creation of the game, feel free to ask them in the comments, and we will try to answer them.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/150634/
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