What I learned by designing 60+ games in 2.5 years

Context

Tapps Games is a company focused in mobile games. The company was founded in 2010 and since 2013 they adopted a very fast paced development process, focusing in having a large diversity of titles on its portfolio.

Being a Game Designer at Tapps Games in 2013–2015 was a incredible experience. I used to pitch ideas and create design documents for new games, balance systems or levels for a 2nd game plus assisting a team in creating a 3rd and 4th game in the same week. The result? More than 60 games in 2.5 years and many lessons learned.

Released Games

You may scroll down because it’s a loooong list. I highlighted the most relevant of each category. They were released in Android and iOS.

Strategy/Management (7): My Burger Shop, My Coffee Shop, My Sandwich Shop, My Pizza Shop, My Pet Shop, Tiny Auto Shop, Tree Fortress 2

Idle Games (9): Cow Evolution, Kitty Cat Clicker, Money Tree, Platypus Evolution, Goat Evolution, Giraffe Evolution, Octopus Evolution, Vlogger Go Viral, Zebra Evolution

Virtual Pet (7): My Boo*, My Virtual Cat, My Virtual Dino, My Virtual Dog, My Virtual Dragon, My Virtual Hamster, My Virtual Rabbit
*You can read more about My Boo designing process in this post

Puzzle/Cards (13): Dominosa, Gecko Pop, Juice Paradise, Little Bridges, Magic Cats, Magic Cats Journey, Solitaire Hub, Number Island, Path Link, Pet Bowling, Ropebot, Tappy Fruit Shooter, Zen Hanoi

Interactive Toys (9): Bob 3D, Change Man, Do Not Disturb 2, My Birthday Party, My Boo Album, Please Be Quiet, Plush Hospital, Go Away, Halloween Mansion

Action/Arcade (18): Balloon Party, Blender Man, Fat No More, Hamster Rescue, Honey Batlle, Jailbreak, Monster Slash, Space Rockets, Tappy Circus, Tappy Dig, Tappy Escape, Tappy Escape 2, Tappy Pirate, Tappy Run, Tappy Run 2, The Perfectionist, Toilet Time, Weird Cup

Top 3 Lessons Learned

1. Learn by other’s mistakes. Play and study something new that’s in Top Grossing or Top Download ranks weekly. There’s hundreds of mobile games and updates released per day. Keep your mind fresh and learn patterns.
2. Learn by your own mistakes. Don’t try to innovate everything at the same time — especially when you don’t have much experience in Game Design. Designing, shipping and iterating features, levels and games is a process that generates learning. At Tapps we created many games using similar structure and engine, therefore I iterated systems many times.
3. Better make better games. Don’t spend time doing manual tedious work that could be spend in making a game better. Learn how to simulate progressions and how to make importers and tools for you and your team. If you don’t know how to do it, ask for help for your team or the community. I remember making tools for My Boo, Cow Evolution and Tiny Auto Shop that allowed quickly rebalance systems or add new content in updates.

Results

Some games were a hit and helped Tapps Games grow from 20 to 60 people from 2013 to 2015, such as My Boo. Some didn’t survive and were later removed from stores. The most important for me was the experience and learned lessons that will always help my next game.

Thanks for reading it!

PS: I may update this post with more lessons learned. Any feedback so far? 😉