Hi! I'm @MediocreHenrik - co founder/designer @MediocreGames (PinOut, Smash Hit etc). I'm going to talk about my experience with game design

I'm going to focus on our later games, but there are a few things that we learned starting out (back in 2010) that I think are worth sharing

The mobile games market was immature then and our first game (Sprinkle), though successful, was not a very good one. youtube.com/watch?v=DO1lAE…

After our 1st game we were advised to milk it, build a franchise. Starting out I think this is a bad strategy. Don't be a one trick pony.

My only regret as a dev is making a sequel. We caved to the pressure from players+peers, ultimately it was a better game, but uninteresting

In terms of appreciation from players and downloads, making new IP:s have always worked far better for us than making updates (or a sequel)

I can only speak for myself but for some games we made several major content+feature updates, most times there were no measurable benefit

Early prototype for @smashhitgame. Throwing things at glass was fun for a short time but finding lasting #gameplay… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

In an early version of @smashhitgame you could move sideways, but we felt the increased complexity actually removed… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

For a while #SmashHit had water physics, floating objects etc. It didn't work well enough but you can still see it,… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

Another early @smashhitgame experiment: curved perspective. It had to be very subtle not to make aiming difficult,… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

Silliest FX we ever did for @smashhitgame was depth of field. Looked amazing but obviously you don't want to simulate being short sighted!

I think one of the most difficult aspects of game development is deciding what idea to work on, when to give up and when to keep struggling.

I've always been surprised by the tiny changes that makes a game really work. Its been like that every time for us. Suddenly it just does.

What really made #PinOut work are gate sensors (green). Easy to forget how difficult pinball is, would've been an i… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

Gate sensors in #PinOut got pinball enthusiasts complaining about wonky physics, we anticipated this but they weren't our target audience

Screenshot of the very 1st prototype for #DoesNotCommute. It was supposed to be a "mini game". Single screen, add a… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

Add extra ♥ with an #easteregg! My faves in our games are the hidden radio ads & songs in #DoesNotCommute. I'm sad… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

If you'd like to read about the tech behind our games I recommend this blog by my colleague @tuxedolabs - tuxedolabs.blogspot.se

This concludes my week tweeting here, its been brief but fun! Many thanks for reading and commenting, I hope you found this interesting!

As the tradition goes here at gdunderhood I'm ending my week of tweets with a picture of my work space. This is it!… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…