{"id":59031,"date":"2016-04-28T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/projects\/makers-monument-valley-creating-architectural-puzzles-vr\/"},"modified":"2022-03-07T04:54:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T04:54:30","slug":"makers-monument-valley-creating-architectural-puzzles-vr","status":"publish","type":"metro_profile","link":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/profiles\/makers-monument-valley-creating-architectural-puzzles-vr\/","title":{"rendered":"The Makers of Monument Valley are Creating Architectural Puzzles in VR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Before joining the London-based company Ustwo Games<\/a> in 2010, Peter Pashley created a mobile game, Aftermath<\/em>\u2014a one-man project set in a city infested with zombies. Pashley recalls that, striving for realism, he accurately proportioned the roads and sidewalks\u2014which, to the players, made them seem ridiculously wide.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople always underestimate how wide pavements are,\u201d volunteers Ken Wong, the lead designer at Ustwo. Before meeting at the company and developing two groundbreaking titles there, Monument Valley<\/em><\/a> and Land\u2019s End<\/em><\/a>, Pashley and Wong both worked on action-filled, combat-heavy games designed for dedicated gamers. The model at Ustwo Games, however, is very different: The company makes games for mobile devices, and so a general audience.<\/p>\n Wong\u2019s first foray into video games began when he posted a portrait of a character from American McGee\u2019s Alice to the Web<\/em> and drew the attention of that game\u2019s creators. After being called in for an interview by the studio, Spicy Horse<\/a>, he was hired and moved from his native Adelaide, Australia, to Shanghai to art-direct the sequel, the 2011 console game Alice: Madness Returns<\/em>. Following a few years in China, Wong was ready for his next adventure. Seeing a listing for a job in London, he applied, was interviewed by Pashley, and thus began his chapter with Ustwo.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I joined in the beginning of 2013, they were just wrapping up another game, and I didn\u2019t have a lot to do,\u201d Wong says. \u201cSo I started pitching game ideas, and one of those eventually became Monument Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n A breakthrough hit for Ustwo, the game takes place around a series of fantastical buildings, represented with the player directing a princess named Ida along moving walkways and across floating cities. Taps of the finger direct Princess Ida, while parts of each building can be moved or rotated by dragging a finger across the screen. The environment is represented as an isometric projection\u2014a familiar architectural drawing method for rendering three-dimensional buildings in two dimensions. Understanding this perspective becomes key to guiding Ida through each area.<\/p>\n As Monument Valley <\/em>took shape, Wong\u2019s vision meant sacrificing more gamelike elements. The playing area was reduced to fit on a single screen: \u201cWithout that you can\u2019t force great compositions,\u201d Wong explains. Puzzles and secret rooms were cut. The game was kept short, to increase the likelihood that every player would be able to experience the complete story. \u201cI thought we were making a game for design-oriented people\u2014you know, hipsters,\u201d says Wong. \u201cWe didn\u2019t anticipate that it would reach a lot further than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, its widespread appeal was surprising. By January 2015, nine months after its launch, around 2.5 million Monument Valley units had sold, and revenues stood at $6 million. Intended to earn back costs over a two-year span, the game paid for itself in ten days.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ustwo Games\u2019 sunny offices in Shoreditch, London<\/h4>\n