Respect the craft: Making premium games in a free to play world
summary
ustwo builds Monument Valley as a deliberately short, handcrafted premium mobile game — a 90-minute premium experience with a new mechanic each chapter, minimal tutorial (about nine words), and heavy user testing so more than half of players finish it. Development uses Unity, targets being platform perfect (iPad first, then iPhone; 120Hz update that earned Apple featuring), and favors all killer no filler design. First title sells millions (≈2.4M vs an expected 200k) and wins an Apple Design Award.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Start
- 0:55Who am I?
- 2:21What do I do?
- 7:13Stand out
- 14:12User test some more
- 15:10It's super effective
- 15:38Respect the player
- 16:43Respect their intelligence
- 18:04Aim to be platform perfect
- 28:13EXTRA HIDDEN SLIDES!
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