Inventing a game mechanism for humans to zone out anywhere and anytime
Blox is a minimalist, thoughtless match game designed to help humans zone out anywhere and anytime. It introduces a completely unique play mechanism that is designed to be easy to grasp, fast, and engaging.
Blox started as an experiment on how to apply the product design approach to game development. I felt it was time to bring my experience from products into game development. So I went on a journey to learn about games, human psychology in game play, and iterative exploration.
During the development of Blox I explored many ideas, made iterations, built prototypes, tested them, and updated the game play many times until I was confident about the play rules and the experience it creates. This approach required extensive prototyping, which helped me discover new possibilities and provide the key value for players.
I wanted to put people in the heart of our ideation and development process for Blox. This not only included a lot of testing and user feedback sessions but also thinking about the values and the desires of the humans Blox is designed for. Blox is created to help people zone out anywhere and anytime to get back to life with a fresh mind.
Creating a truly casual game means a casual onboarding. Developing a model which is easy to master was a key principle in the design of Blox. This was achieved by creating layers in the game play. The first layer, which involves basic movements of blocks, is designed to be intuitive and easy to learn, while the next layers need more time to be discovered by the user.
Anywhere and Anytime.
To have a longer term engagement I had to think of a model in which the game progresses as the player gets better at playing it. This needed to happen without changing the mechanism of the play. The solution was to keep updating the algorithm so the game gets harder as the user develops new skills. This way the game keeps becoming more sophisticated and challenging over time. As intuitive and casual as it is to play, this unique play mechanism of Blox makes it a strategic and thoughtful game the more you play it.
I led the design of Blox end to end, from the game mechanism and interaction design through visual design, working closely with Alvar Laigna on development and Ottavio Cambieri on sound and music.
Idea and Design: Amid Moradganjeh
Tech and Craft: Alvar Laigna
Sound and Music: Ottavio Cambieri
www.bloxgame.co