We had reliable statistics for how long it took us to implement features, we also had a concrete list of all the features that we wanted in the game. Celebrities, TV ad spots, event locations, none of these are amenable to a Just-In-Time development style ). We needed to set a hard launch date that wouldn’t slip. Our final constraint was the marketing/branding campaigns. We used the results from user testing to get feedback about the game elements, logic and fun factor.īurnup showing feature creep, scope reduction and reprioritization This included removing incomplete features, and clearly defining the features that stayed in the game.

We defined an achievable minimum feature set for the playtest launch, by reducing the scope to what we really needed to do to meet the launch date.

We set a playtest launch date (an unofficial limited launch in one or two small countries) so we could start gathering quantitative data on the game and we started converging. We needed to get out of the groan zone, and focus on a common concept that would make a successful game. The initial backlog that we were working off of had grown, and there was no end in sight to finishing all the features that were half done. We had a lot of game elements, and new features, and game modes, and cool experiments, but they were all more or less in prototype form. We would develop the game client in both C++ and ActionScript, but we would do it simultaneously and reduce duplication by using the same assets.Ī few months into the project we were facing our biggest challenge: an internally set hard launch date that was fast approaching when we didn’t have a releasable game. This was the first architectural decision. So while half the team worked on prototyping the game the other half started working on a 3D framework in ActionScript for Facebook that could share graphical assets and set up with the C++ code for mobile. This was a really big team to start developing a game with no prototype. The only directive was to build the next big thing. In the Spring of 2013 a team of about 16 developers, artists, producers and level designers was assembled. King was already developing several other games, but with the success of Candy Crush, it made sense to start working on what would become a sister title to the game. In the cut-throat casual gaming industry you can’t rest on your laurels.

Candy Crush Saga started out successfully as a Facebook game, a year later it was released on mobile and it became a runaway success.

Soda king game