Case study
Mobile game development

Dice Journey

Dice poker

Customer country

Development timeline

Budget

Developed in cooperation with

Team

Murka

Ukraine

February 2013 → September 2013 = 180 days

$60 000 + % of the profit

10 experts

3 engineers
1 manager
2 artists
1 consultant
3 game designers

Vision

Dice Journey is a dice poker game for iPhone and iPad.

The game features 6 worlds:
• mafia;
• circus;
• casino;
• pirates;
• hunters;
• vampires.

Each of the worlds has its own specific artwork, characters, background music, and AI opponents’ behavior patterns.

The essence of the game is the following:
in each world there are 4 characters with specific logic (1 boss + 3 NPCs), they are increasingly difficult to pass. The task is to beat the enemy and get in-game currency and boosters. The amount of your bet affects the possible win and the duration of the game.
A move consists of 3 rounds (3 throws). The amount of points is doubled if the winning combination is gained in the first round. If the player does not get any combination, he receives 1 skull. After he accumulates 3 skulls, 500 points are subtracted from his balance.

Boosters help you get more points. The in-game currency is called Dice Dollars. The player can use only 1 booster per 1 move. If the player wins with one star advantage, a new enemy is unlocked. Defeating all real-time opponents with 3 stars grants one unique aura. Auras apply to all worlds.

Game process

Development

It took 180 days to develop.

The features we implemented:
• Implemented Apple Game Center achievements.
• Developed and implemented 4 types of boosters.
• Made the game generate profit by selling in-game currency.
• Implemented 2 game modes: with bots and with real opponents.
• Translated the game into 4 languages: English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
• Developed logic for each character - these are AI opponents with varying difficulty.
• Implemented game mechanics and sprite animations based on Cocos2d, used the iOS SDK to render the interface.
• We made the application less heavy to boost the number of installations and integrated only the first world into the installation file of the game. The rest are loaded after the first launch.

For each of the 6 game worlds we created:
• gaming tables;
• game elements;
• specific artwork;
• musical background;
• 6 types of characters.

Game tables

Game mechanics

Real-time competition

Competition with real opponents in real-time mode or bots, if the number of online users is not sufficient.

Multilingual interface

•‎ amount;
•‎ 2 points;
• extra move.
• repeat the move.

•‎ English;
•‎ Russian;
•‎ Chinese;
•‎ Japanese.

Boosters

Winning combinations

• Full house. A set + a pair.
• Set. A combination of the same numbers on 3 dice.
• Caret. A combination of the same numbers on 4 dice.
• Two pairs. A combination of 2 pairs: 2 of one type + 2 of another.
• Poker. A combination of the same numbers on 5 dice. Bonus: 1500 points + extra move.
• Street. A combination in ascending order (1 - 5/2 - 6). Bonus: the sum of the drawn numbers * 10.