Triple Match 2D (2024)

Lion Studios

My Role:

Game Designer, Level Designer

In Triple Match 2D, my core responsibilities were to help lead the game’s vision, design the game’s core level mechanics, design the game’s levels, the level design functionality, and development tools.

During the project’s development, my main notable contributions were:

  • Taking the high-level ideas and detail them into systems that worked together. I frequently met with the project manager to ensure our goals were aligned, that designs met the established criteria and vision, and that the game hit the core notes of a match game with a twist.

  • Create the game levels for the market test build. With my experience making levels for casual and match games already, I was responsible for creating the game’s 50+ levels for the initial market test. These levels were designed with the game’s combo system and nested object mechanic in mind.

  • Developed a level design tool that allowed for quick iterations. Creating levels for Match 3D and Match Tile 3D was a process with lots of room for improvement, so I worked closely with the project’s lead engineer to create a level editor integrated into Unity, giving me full control over the level creation process. The efficiency of creating levels more than doubled with this tool.

  • Directly involved in creating game assets needed for the levels in a design position. I worked closely with the team’s concept artist creating hundreds of sticker objects used in the game’s core and sticker book system. I built a spreadsheet that held all the assets and specific guidelines and requirements that matched the planned levels.

  • Design the game’s combo system, boost functionality, and the nested object mechanic. Triple Match 2D’s boost system deviates from most match games in that players need to match three identical boosts rather than tapping a single in-level boost. The game’s combo system encourages players to be deliberate in which objects they collect as matching goal objects consecutively score more points and trigger a lightning effect which clears junk objects from the board. The nested object mechanic allowed us to surprise players by spawning new objects when specific objects are matched, creating levels that feel more dynamic as they often have a puzzle element to them.

Showcase of gameplay and level design

Triple Match 2D utilizes bright and colorful objects that have fun and appealing look to them.

Clearing levels earn stickers for your sticker book. Completing a sticker book will reveal a new book and brand new game levels

Project Process & Breakdown

Pre-Production:
The goal of Triple Match 2D was to take the highly successful match genre in a new direction by adding new game mechanics never before seen. Due to how highly competitive advertising is in the 3D Match market, and effectively dominated by 2-3 games, the CPI for user acquisition was exceedingly high. We theorized that a 2D variant with new and unique mechanics and a hyper-casual visual style could help us capture the same market but with a lower CPI. Lion’s games Match 3D and Match Tile 3D were popular, but the gameplay at the time was much closer to a hidden object game than the more modern match games such as the wildly popular Match Factory. Seeing Match Factory’s success, I analyzed what made the game so fun and appealing to play and came to several conclusions:

  • The level design utilizes shape, color, and size very intentionally;

    • The level design capitalizes on the player’s assumptions and quick tapping to create challenging levels by having objects that look alike, two-sided objects that appear to be two unique objects, and recolored variants of objects, making some levels a test of your concentration (was it the green pepper and red apple - Or green apple and red pepper I was supposed to collect?).

    • Size is used strategically as a lever to adjust difficulty, as small goal objects can slip between bigger objects, and hide at the bottom of the level.

  • In-level objects mostly fit into a few categories proven to be popular with a casual audience; food, candy, toys, and everyday objects (Many objects harken back to an almost nostalgic or child-like feeling)

  • Objects are rendered with soft and relaxing lighting cast on them, and objects appear vibrant with a very deliberately restricted color palette.

After my research, I had a few rules and best practices in mind that informed how I approached level design:
Limit the variations of each color:
It is crucial that the colors of stickers remain constant, as to not only create a visually pleasing level but also leverage the player’s assumptions. If a level has red crabs and red apples, having matching colors will allow us to hide the game objects better, and cause players to accidentally tap the wrong object if they rush. This lets us control the level of difficulty better. With this in mind, we had a very strict color palette.

Objects can share silhouettes:
This plays into the same principle as above, where players must remain vigilant so as to not accidentally pick the wrong sticker based entirely on its shape. A level might have two coconut stickers, where one is a whole coconut, while another is a half-coconut. When they are aligned and covered, they may appear similar.

Nested Objects should follow common sense logic:
Nested objects can be inherently confusing to players if not used correctly. If you have slices of pie appear from matching three campfires, players can get confused and feel like the game is cheating, and the whole mechanic can feel like a guessing game. I made sure that whatever spawned from nested objects made sense. For example; If the goal object was a slice of watermelon, it should come from a whole melon. If the goal object was a bowl of dog food, it should come from a bag of dog food, etc.

Throughout the development, I worked closely with our concept artist. I created a spreadsheet for my object requests, where I could specify the object idea I had in mind, what color (or color variation) I wanted, and the general size of the object. I made sure to not deliver too detailed of a request to avoid stifling his creativity. This process worked incredibly well for us, allowing us to balance the needs of the level design with his artistic vision.

Nested objects spawn new objects when matched. In this case, the frog with a crown turns into a prince when matched!

Designing the level design tool:
We knew early on that we needed a robust level design tool since the process of designing levels for Match 3D and Tile Match 3D was insufficient. The process was slow, error-prone, and limited. In collaboration with the lead engineer, I created a set of requirements and mockups for how we could create a lightweight tool built into Unity, allowing me to quickly create levels and test them without requiring any build commits or server-based configurations. This tool proved highly efficient, as I could pick objects from a dropdown menu, or drag and drop from asset lists, insert the range of layers the objects could spawn in, and the quantity. Compared to the cumbersome spreadsheet configurations used in previous game titles, which had to be uploaded to the game server each time I wanted to test my level, this made the workflow at least twice as fast, and was fun to use. I often just created new levels when I had some extra time, just to experiment with ways to keep the game fresh. This also allowed me to make quick micro tweaks to fine-tune levels the way I wanted. As the game evolved, and new game features were implemented, I worked with the lead engineer to update and accommodate the editor for these changes.

Game Mechanics:
For Triple Match 2D, we wanted to innovate the match gameplay by adding new mechanics and iterating on existing ones. One of the most unique mechanics we had was the combo system. Most match games do not care what objects the player matches, but in this game, we saw the opportunity to add a system that incentivizes players who are fast and accurate with their taps and prioritize goal objects rather than just clearing the entire board; If you match a goal object, you start a combo after three consecutive matches. Once the combo starts, each subsequent goal object match will trigger a lightning effect that zaps away junk objects. For every 3rd combo, this effect grows in power, allowing you to quickly clear the level and earn a far better score. If a junk object is matched, at any time, it will break the combo however. I wanted to make sure this system was fair and not work against the other game mechanics, so when players match non-goal objects such as boosts or nested objects that contain a goal object, it won’t break the combo, but also not advance it. You still trigger the combo effect, however. This allows observant and strategic players to save up boosts and nested objects until they have a combo started, giving them ‘free’ combo effects.

Another unique mechanic we added was the Nested mechanic. To me, this is one of my favorites, as it allows us to give players surprise and delight moments when they enter a level for the first time. You don’t quite know what will spawn from a nested object at first. Beyond the market test, I had several other game mechanics such as this planned, including lock and key objects (match one object to unlock another), ink-blotted objects (covers most of the object in black ink, requiring players to be extra vigilant and not make wrong matches), ‘orphaned’ objects (objects that cannot be matched, thus taking up a spot in the object tray for the remainder of the level), and sticky objects (two objects stuck to each other, forcing the player to collect both objects when tapping one of them).

Most match games have boosts spawn in levels that can be tapped to produce different effects, but in Triple Match 2D, players are required to match the boosts before they take effect. This was not only to reinforce the core mechanic better but also because we initially had plans to allow players to mix and match boosts for unique effects. But as I started designing the system, it became apparent that the feature was far too complicated and confusing to players, and difficult to remember what each effect was (since there were initially 4 different boosts, we had 12 unique combinations), so this feature never made it into the game.

Combo system rewards players who approaches the levels carefully and precisely

Sticker Book Mechanic:
The sticker book system was initially meant to place stickers automatically and function more like a fancy progression bar. But our UI artist had the idea of manually putting stickers anywhere on the page and rearranging them, much like a vinyl sticker book. At first, I was worried that this could confuse players unless we guided them properly, as there was no clear indicator of what was required from the player, and I wanted to avoid tutorials as much as possible. But after some brainstorming, we agreed that we could show the sticker silhouette, as a way to pique the players’ curiosity, and then display the available stickers in a HUD-element at the bottom. Since most people are familiar with drag-and-drop mechanics, we don’t have to teach players how to drag objects into silhouettes. I also thought adding an ‘Auto-place’ button could benefit players who had no interest in placing stickers manually. In my experience, requiring players to repeatedly upgrade or build something is usually fun and novel at the beginning of the game, but once you’re in sticker book #342 you probably just want to move on to the next one. I know I felt that way when playing social games with building mechanics such as Coin Master and Tile Busters. I think this scenario is an example of where input from non-designers often leads to better ideas. The sticker book feature really leans into the concept of stickers and creates a cohesive game loop where players understand that playing game levels awards stickers, and placing stickers completes the collection, which in return advances to the next collection.

The sticker book system at play. Complete the sticker book to earn rewards and move to the next sticker book.

Takeaways:

Triple Match 2D is a game I am very proud of, and one I know the team enjoyed working on as well. The game has a fun and playful art direction, the game utilizes mechanics that brings innovation in a very saturated market. While Triple Match 2D did not get out of the initial market testing phase, we had plans to add monetization and player engagement features and turn this prototype into a GaaS-type game. While our KPIs had potential, ultimately what caused us to stop development after market release was the CPI after scaling. It turns out that making it 2D was not enough to keep CPI low enough for the team to continue development.
In this project I learned how a match game is built from the ground up, I designed a very efficient level editor, and I got to flex my creative muscles working with a very talented concept artist in developing three distinct sticker book chapters. I am especially proud of some of the fairy tale levels I designed, where I utilized the Nested mechanic to integrate familiar fairytales and make nods to famous characters. I also learned that some markets and genres can be almost impossible to enter unless you are prepared to spend a fortune to elbow your way in. The Match market is such a place. I still think it could be possible to be successful, but only if the core loop is different enough to not compete with other match games in the ad space, but still draw in the match crowd, but at the end of the day that is easier said than done.

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