AquaBlock is a turn-based puzzle game designed for mobile devices. In the game you piece together blocks to create a finished puzzle cube. The player can spin and rotate the puzzle cube to find the correct orientation that the blocks need to be placed. As the player progresses through the puzzles, they discover different block types and unique ways in which they can be used.

3 THINGS THAT WENT RIGHT

Utilizing Last Project's Assets
AquaBlock is my second mobile release, a follow-up to MechDog. Fortunately through good scripting on MechDog, I was able to carry over many scripts and managers to expedite certain parts of development. The benefit of making scripts that are universal and transferable between projects should not be underestimated.
Performance Testing from Day One
A lesson that I learned from my last project was that performance testing needed to be practiced during all points in mobile development. Although it was a time-consuming practice, the constant testing helped create straight-forward decisions on which post-processing effects were viable and what quantity of in-game effects were acceptable.
Task Managing for a Solo Project
It was very important to use a task manager to stay on track during production. Even with a team size of one, the task manager was used in keeping tasks organized, prioritized, and minimized in scope. By visualizing tasks in the manger, I was able view which tasks were causing bottlenecks and put them on the back burner.

3 THINGS THAT WENT WRONG

Puzzle Playtesting is Different
In skill-based games like shooters and platformers, you can have the same playtester replay a section multiple times and still collect useful data every time. This isn't the case with knowledge-based games like puzzles because they are solvable. Once a playtester completes a puzzle, they can simply rely on their memory to complete it again. Unless iterations on the puzzle completely change it, a old playtester's feedback isn't as valuable as a new playtester's feedback.
Not Setting Clear Goals for Polish Phase
While there was a healthy amount of concepting in the early stages of development, additional concepting would have still been useful for polish. There was no set vision for how the game would finally look. Towards the end, it felt like a grab-bag of UX and FX ideas were being thrown at the game to see what would stick. Reinforcing the game's vision would have resulted in a more efficient polish phase.
No Competitive Research
Because the puzzle genre was an unpracticed genre for me, I should have at least tried to benefit by having complete knowledge of the subject. Many of the design/UX problems faced during production could have been more fluidly solved by analyzing other puzzle games for possible solutions.

OUTCOME

Working on AquaBlock has taught me a few things.

Apply different types of playtesting for different game genres
Schedule more concepting breaks to refine and polish the game's vision
Look towards games of the same genre when suffering "Designer's Block"
Keep static scripts well-documented so they can be plugged into future projects