How I wrote a game about SEO

Hi, Habr! Mobile learning games are exactly what I wanted to see among applications. Sit yourself in the subway minibus and learn something useful thread, stuff cones on the simulator in the phone.

Our task was to attract new webmasters to our affiliate program. However, the knowledge necessary for the webmaster is at least 2 courses of the institute. There are no random people here. It frightens newbies, and veterans can be counted on fingers. Therefore, we decided to do a training training for beginners on mobile phones.

Gamification and mobility are exactly what is needed so that newcomers can get acquainted with the essence of our work and overcome the stage of training and initial investment in their future income from our affiliate program.
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In August 2014, Unity was updated to 4.6 and rolled out a new GUI that it was decided to use, after testing the engine on Ludum Dare. The presence of a powerful tool has significantly reduced the development cycle, and hence its cost.

I can not tolerate rummaging. If an accident occurred, then we did something wrong.
So there were mistakes in planning and preproduction

Plan on time in general.

1 month - preproduction
2 month - prototype
3 month - testing and debugging

Sprints for 2 weeks:

First stage (1 month)

First week:
We study the subject area, with the active participation of the customer.
We make the list of entities and actions over them.
In the meantime, I managed to earn a little in affiliate program on my first advertising campaign. Nice little thing.

One more week:
We cut the functionality (select the most important thing, discarding the secondary)
We draw interface screens in Balsamiq. (the main thing is not to miss a single button!)

At the end of the second week I was able to show the screen sketches to customers and explain how the game will look like. They were satisfied. We can move on.

Second phase

With the participation and consultation with the customer.
We write the list of parameters and the relationship between them.
Make up the formula and game balance.
First timing calculations in the game.

This time, instead of the pictures, an excel plate with a game calculator and several character pumping scenarios was demonstrated.
No pictures are not so clear, but OK. Moving on.

The third stage (2 month)

We test technologies and new features of the engine.
We collect the interface.
We make a working prototype (add formulas and dependencies).

He showed a prototype, for clarity, duplicating it with screenshots of all game screens.
The customer compared the result with the sketches of the first stage and was satisfied.
Moving on the plan further.

Fourth stage

We order design to outsource.
We draw characters who will communicate with the player in the game ...
We bring a prototype to a new type.
We write quests on the outsource.
We cut the functionality (we throw out all the secondary that we don’t have time).

The customer likes the progress: this time he saw the design and game characters. The work does not stand still and black and white sketches on the eyes overgrow with beautiful graphics and functionality.

Fifth stage (3 month)

Adding quests to the game.
Add secondary screens.
Preparing materials for publication in Google Play.
We finish the Beta and share it.

This time we were able to demonstrate a beautiful icon for the store, the name of the game and the text descriptions. The game can be downloaded by anyone and play.
Now the customer can hold the result in his hands, show it to his friends and colleagues.
And we are waiting for the first reviews, critics and suggestions.

Sixth stage

We are debugging the timing in the game (the same stream that is impossible to feel when designing).
Make improvements, add tips.
We test on users, and again we improve.
More, more tips!
We fix bugs and adjust timing, bonuses and more.

Updates are laid out every 2 days.
For two weeks we managed to make the game more understandable.
Now it is not a shame to show it to a wide audience.

findings

The overall plan, which with each stage obrasta details.
Regular reporting, which clearly reflected the progress in work.
I managed to complete the project exactly on time, which I planned.
The presence of drawn characters in a boring text game greatly improved the atmosphere, making the game more emotional and personal.
Preproduction is an important part of development. Thanks to "dizdoku" managed to eliminate throwing in the development of a new game with not the easiest setting.
The complex subject area was simplified and made accessible to players. The abstruse scheme of earnings on the Internet has become a text-based business strategy.

This project required the application of all my knowledge of game design, interfaces and programming. There are not many reviews from players yet, but almost all of them are good.

I hope that similar training games for employees / partners will be more.