La magie des bulles

Comment Unity a permis à une vision fugace de devenir un incroyable jeu en 2D

Tiny Bubbles : une étude de cas Unity pour les jeux 2D

Veteran indie developer Stu Denman had a grandfather who had worked on the Manhattan Project, and afterward studied the physics of soap bubbles. Half a century later, Stu couldn’t get his grandfather’s bubble work out of his head. He was dreaming bubbles at night. But would he be able to turn the seed of an idea into a polished, fun and challenging game?

  • Le jeu

    Tiny Bubbles, a beautiful award-winning physics puzzler, developed by Pine Street Codeworks.

  • L'objectif

    Refléter les lois de la physique appliquées aux bulles dans un jeu de réflexion amusant

  • Plateformes

    iOS, Android, PC, Mac, Linux

  • Nombre de membres de l'équipe

    2

  • Lieu

    Seattle, Washington

Stu Denman, co-founder and developer at Pine Street Codeworks, explains why Unity was the perfect tool to help him realize his vision.

Un superbe jeu d'énigmes primé

Autrefois directeur technique dans de grands studios, Stu Denman avait dirigé des équipes de plus de 30 développeurs. Mais, arrivé à un certain point de sa carrière, il eut envie de créer son propre jeu. La flexibilité et l'ensemble d'outils complet de Unity l'ont aidé à créer Tiny Bubbles, un jeu d'énigmes addictif et hypnotisant, doté de plus de 160 niveaux.

Les résultats :

  • Des milliers de dollars économisés sur les meilleurs plugins de l'Asset Store
  • Les outils de localisation lui ont permis de gagner des mois de développement
  • Gagnant de multiples prix : Google Indie Festival, Intel Buzz: Best Overall PC Game, concours Seattle Indie Games et Mobile Games Forum Indie Showdown

L'étincelle qui a mis le feu à son imagination

Lorsqu'il a entamé ce projet, Denman n'avait qu'un germe d'inspiration. Il savait qu'il voulait créer un jeu tournant autour des bulles de savon, mais il ne savait pas à quoi ce jeu ressemblerait. L'extensibilité et l'aspect modulaire de l'Éditeur Unity lui ont offert la liberté dont il avait besoin pour expérimenter.

"Pour voir ce qui était fun, et ce qui ne l'était pas j'ai décidé de créer un éditeur dans Unity, afin de pouvoir jouer au jeu et le tester immédiatement, revenir en arrière, modifier les choses, et ainsi de suite. La flexibilité de l'Éditeur Unity a énormément amélioré le design du jeu."

"Unity me permet de ne pas avoir à me soucier des choses que j'ai inventées avant," nous a déclaré Denman. « Au lieu de ça, je peux me concentrer sur des technologies que je n'ai pas encore essayées. La physique des bulles en est un excellent exemple."

Retour au centuple sur investissement

In addition to adding his own tools, Denman also used many pre-existing tools from the Unity Asset Store, and he says that they offered an incredible ROI.

“Sometimes you don’t comprehend how much work and polish it takes to complete a project and compete in a market that’s so competitive. But when you throw your game in front of players, you realize, oh my gosh, I need to add an effect here. I need to improve the look of a feature there.

“So being able to go to the Asset Store and find a tool there–probably for 100 times less than you would spend making it yourself–is just phenomenally awesome. It saves tons of time for sure,” Denman says.

What’s more, he often experiences that the assets he initially acquires for one specific reason hold hidden benefits elsewhere. TextMesh Pro was a good example of this:

“I grabbed TextMesh Pro to add icons in my text and‒not only did it allow me to do that quickly and efficiently and for very little money‒but it had a tremendous number of other very cool features I could take advantage of that I never expected.”

Jouer avec des bulles : une passion universelle ?

The result of Denman’s experimentations was an award-winning game with over 160 intriguing puzzles. The game mirrors the actual physics of bubbles in the real world with regard to pressure and surface tension, interaction, and cascading chain reactions.

“Bubbles are this elemental human thing. There’s just something fascinating about bubbles that everyone loves regardless of their age, sex, or culture. And I wanted to offer this great new way to play with clusters of bubbles to as many people as possible, including people who are color blind or rely on eye trackers. In order to that, though, I needed to be in as many different languages and platforms as possible, and that’s definitely one big reason why I chose Unity,” Denman says.

Using the I2 Localization plugin from the Asset Store, Denman was able to store all his languages on a Google Spreadsheet. He could then share the spreadsheet with translators. Once approved, the text was automatically pulled into Unity.

“I was really blown away by how ridiculously easy it was. It would have taken me probably two months or more to make that same software. I got a third of the game localized in a single day, including the integration and tutorials. And it’s going to save me hours and hours,” he says.

Des données en temps réel et des outils de monétisation

Once he created the prototype, Denman was eager to see how people would respond to his experimentations and what they would actually do in the game. In order to do so, he enabled Unity Analytics and began to send it out to friends.

The Unity Analytics dashboard has enabled him to look at things like, for example, which levels take more tries to win or at which levels people stop playing the game. In order to base some potentially critical business decisions on sound data, Denman plans to continue to use Unity Analytics when the game goes to beta.

Will they pay to play?

One major decision Unity Analytics will help with is Denman’s business model regarding monetization.

“The market is challenging out there right now, so it’s important that I choose the best model for the given platform and market. All of those markets have different kinds of players, so you really need to test retention for those different types of players in order to have an idea of which one is going to make you the most money.

“Sometimes if your retention is lower, it’s better to go premium, and if your retention is higher, it’s better to go free-to-play. Unity Analytics lets you look at retention and make a decision based on data.”

In order to be ready for a free-to-play audience, Denman is prepared to complement Unity Analytics with Unity Ads and IAP. He has already integrated ads into his design in a way that will offer a good player experience to different types of players.

“I use reward-based ads for the hints and power-ups and the puzzles. If the player is struggling and they need help, they can watch an ad and get a reward like a hint. The hints help make the game accessible to a wider audience. It allows casual players to get through some of the more difficult puzzles, where a more hard-core player might prefer to labor through the solution.”

Denman has taken full advantage of what Unity offers. First, the flexible, modular design helped him follow his interest when he only had an inkling of what the final game would look like. Next, the Unity Asset Store and his own custom tools enabled him to focus on the core of the game itself. Finally, Unity IAP, Ads and Analytics are helping get the game right in a way that will enable him to get paid for all his hard work.

Stu Denman, Founder and Lead Programmer at Pine Street Codeworks

“Unity’s modular design tends to keep things fairly clean. So if you have stability issues in one part, it doesn’t affect the rest of the game. And it means that overall, through the course of your development, your game tends to be a lot more stable than what I’ve experienced with other engines that I’ve used.”

Stu Denman, Founder and Lead Programmer at Pine Street Codeworks

Unity pour la 2D : par où commencer ?

Consultez un guide pratique contenant les informations et les ressources qui vous aideront à vous lancer, de façon à aller plus vite et à gagner en valeur lors du développement de jeux 2D sous Unity.

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