MAHJONG TINY TALES
Platform:
Facebook,
iOS,
Android
Game Engine:
Company proprietary software
Duration:
4 Years
Team Size:
40
Role:
Level Designer,
QA Tester/Analyst
Description:
Mahjong Tiny Tales is a tile-matching game where the player matches similarly designed tiles to remove them and complete the objective of the level, which can vary from finding special matching tiles, to a time challenge or clearing all the tiles from the level. While playing through the levels the player will unlock new areas and progress through a series of “Tiny Tales” that feature a unique self-contained story. The game also features special events that offer players bonus levels to play which reward them with helpful boosters and in-game currency upon completion, thus increasing their chances at successfully passing future levels. Additionally, the game has an online cooperative feature where players can invite their friends and exchange lives with each other daily, to continue along with the journey.
Mahjong Tiny Tales
Design Commentary
Mahjong Tiny Tales was a game that had already launched when I started working at Qublix Games Studio. However, it was struggling to compete in the competitive market therefore I was tasked along with another designer to analyze and evaluate the competitive products to better understand their systems try to figure out what made them successful so we could improve upon their design to make an equally, if not better overall product. To this end, I was tasked with playing through various different successful Mahjong games available in the market and take notes to present in front of the director as well as bounce ideas between the other designers and project managers.
One of the biggest discoveries that I made, which inevitably was implemented to great success was regarding the level design and layouts. Many of the competitive products created an automated system that generated solutions to the level and then padded the level out with false paths to trick the players into losing. This enabled their designers to create unique looking levels focused more around interesting shapes/layouts rather than hand designing layers to build a complex challenge. Furthermore, this enabled the competitors to add more replay ability to their existing levels as each attempt would feel new and refreshing. Consequentially, this also meant that the competitive products were able to generate more levels faster than our own hand designed levels.
Additionally, I also noted that the competitor products had various different gameplay modes that increased the replay ability of their levels. From timed challenges to uncovering special tiles to complete a level, instead of just the collect all tiles mode that the studio had implemented. All this combined and more created a vast gap between the studios game and the competitor products resulting in a loss of sales. Once this was recognized the studio took action in reworking the game.
After helping the studio with research material, I was then assigned duties to help test the newly automated level generating system for any issues and ensure that there are no other bugs with the various gameplay loops. Overall the research that I conducted helped increase the revenue margins for the game and start generating profit in the long run.
Contribution Details
Level Design:
• Create fun, challenging and rewarding Mahjong tile-matching puzzle levels.
• Balance and adjust levels based on testing results, player feedbacks and data metrics.
• Analyze competitive products to derive inspiration for new levels and incorporate their
design philosophies to help elevate overall product quality.
• Research competitive products gameplay loops and help redesign the core gameplay
mechanics to help improve the player retention rate along with increasing the product
profit margins.
QA Tester/Analyst:
• Performing comprehensive quality assurance for new game features by following testing
guidelines to ensure high quality, accessibility and gameplay standards are met.
• Testing levels to safeguard against bugs and help maintain the overall quality of the
product.
• Analyzing the difficulty of levels based on testing results to help creators adjust their
designs using the feedback provided.
• Identify issues and create proper bug reports for effective communication between project
manager and programmer.