Pair Plate

The Beginning: I have always been fascinated by people who have very good memory. It’s one of the most impressive abilities humans have. I've never understood how my smart classmates from school could remember the lessons and perform well on exams while I barely remember anything. I am the type of person who learns from pattern recognition and failed attempts and not just textbook memorization, I'm also very lazy memorizing things that I don't immediately need or at least doesn't see the immediate need for. Basically I am a recipe for disaster when it comes to memorization.

I am not very old yet but sometimes I am forgetful, probably from years of insomnia and stress and sleepless nights, I don't know to be honest, but I figured there has to be a way to improve memory in my own way. I'm not a neuroscientist and I won't pretend to know a thing about it, but I thought a memorization puzzle is good for me and even older generations who wants a simple brain exercise in a form of a game.

The Idea: One day while I was eating lunch with my Dad, and we were talking about games (this happened often during the course of my game creation days), he suggested a memory puzzle game where there are plates that are turned and you can pick one and it will turn and show you the image and then you have to find the similar image. I have played similar games before but the design was different, and honestly I just wanted to create a new casual puzzle game to improve my development skillset.

And so the idea was conceptualized. A matching puzzle game where you have to find the matching icons behind those plates.

The Design: It was immediately obvious to me what kind of design that game would have. Circlular plates, clean calming background, clean and calm text colors, basically something that would relax a person especially older people and can keep their focus on the task at hand: turning the plates and finding matching pairs.

The biggest constraint I faced in the design was the maximum number of pairs that I would use. For a grid based system on a mobile device, the limitation is always the width of the device because you can only put so much items there until it is unusable and just cluttered mess. So I have decided that the maximum size of the grid would be 4x4. Comfortable enough to press stuff and still challenging enough for casual players.

The Hint: You would think that this game was too easy, I know, I did so too, but upon testing the game, I find myself always making the wrong choice to the point that it felt punishing. It is unbelievable but it is true. I figured, there should be a way to lessen the feeling of being punished and give players a sense of relief from their previous success, very much like using your hard earned money for an important expense which is what you saved it for in the first place. The Hint

The game starts with the player having a minimum of 3 hints. When you press the "Hint" button, you will see ALL of the unturned plates for a brief moment, just enough to recognize some of their positions, and then they will turn back again, this way it gives a little bit of breathing room for the brain just like a sigh of relief. There is a catch though...

The Hint is limited to 3 uses at first, and if you have exhausted all of them, you have to win 3 levels in order to earn 1 hint. Although it sounds punishing, I made it so that players can earn infinite number of hints as long as they keep winning 3 games, then they can keep earning 1 hint per 3 games won. This was revolutionary for the game.

It made it more casual friendly and even created a goal for the player to save for hints, I know because I experienced it myself, everytime I was earning a hint, a tiny "yay!" shouted in my brain, and I have used several hints and I still have around 16 in one of my test devices.

The Intention: As I have said in the beginning, the intention was to create a casual game for all generations. A game that can exercise mental prowess without requiring too much from the player. I specifically created this game for my grandpa and grandma, to help him keep his wits high. I have not shown them the game yet but I am hoping for the best. But even if they did not like it, I hope other grandpas and grandmas out there or even children or people like me who sometimes becomes forgetful in general would find the game fun and useful and relaxing.

The Iteration Phase: The game is in its early days. I will still keep iterating and improving this one along with the other games I have created and will create. I still think I should add more grid items and bigger grid sizes in this game. My Dad was right, there are some people who have very good memory and can memorize more than just a 4x4 grid, and so in the near future I will update the game with bigger maximum grid size.

Closing thoughts: I made this game in half a day and it was a very casual game. The colors, the mechanics, the icons, the entire system, it all is very casual looking just like when I created it. I hope that you find the game fun and of course if you have feedback or suggestion about this game or any other games from the studio, feel free to send us a message in our contact info.

Have fun!