GAME ASSETS

Sweetest Game Assets Produced For A Mobile Match-3 Game

CLIENT: Big Fish Games
LOCATION: Oakland, California

Brief: They need the main game pieces, which they refer to as “marbles,” designed for a match-3 game they are developing.

Software Used:
Adobe Photoshop – used for realistic effects and aesthetic customization
Adobe Illustrator – primary shapes are outlined here in vector form

The Challenge:
The game is nearly finished and ready to release, but just decided they don’t like the current marbles. They are causing a great deal of debate. Everyone in their team agrees that they look nice, but also everyone who sees the game says that the marbles aren’t particularly interesting or competitive with other popular Match-3 style games.

Their current marbles, which are in need of an upgrade

Few points in mind:

  1. Should have great but minimal details for phone screens
  2. They would like to compete in some way with the game assets that their rivals have, such as Candy Crush or Bejeweled. They are receptive to new concepts and opportunities.

Their most recent teaser features marbles with a travel motif. The original name of the game was “Jetsetter Jam,” but it was renamed “Gummy Drop” and a hybrid of the two games’ concepts was created.

Current Game Teaser

© Big Fish Games

My Creative Proposition:
My suggestion is to try a set of marbles that doesn’t attempt to be thematic. Instead of trying to make marbles that fit the game’s travel or city theme, the game asset should focus on being pretty and sparkly, like gems. Make them look nice so that people will want to tap on them. Using gems or something similar will make it easier for people to get into the main part of the game and enjoy it without having to think too much about the theme and things like luggage, cameras, starfish, etc.

Also, to make it look professionally designed, few points should keep in mind:

  • stylized
  • different one from each other by their shapes and colors
  • looking good on small screens (balance of details)
  • Juicy / nice / cute
  • their shapes should “fill the circle”
  • looking good on bright and dark background
  • no holes

So, I gave each of the 11 pieces a simple shape and a different color. I chose which shape went with which color in some way (e.g. heart shape could be better red etc.)

Initial Concept Presented

Shapes, colors and flavor ideas

To give them a sense of the direction I’m thinking, I’ve given them these basic concepts. They are good and asked me to make them look more like gummy bears than hard candies, which I agreed because I thought it would look more appealing.

Final Designs

Several months after completing this work, I noticed that people all over the world were downloading the game. It was well promoted that I was surprised to find that several people I knew had downloaded the game despite their unawareness of the fact that I had created the game assets they were using.

They eventually got in touch with me again for a project requiring the same kind of icons, this time with an underwater theme.

Underwater Theme