Ambitious Dirt

Ambitious Dirt is a colour-matching puzzle game from Playhybrid, available on Andriod and IOS devices.

Ambitious Dirt was a project I never imagined I'd be involved in. To be sure, I've always loved puzzle games - from Tetris to The Witness, I've spent countless hours solving arbitrary problems, (usually to do with matching colours or shapes). But I'd never worked on a pure puzzle game before, or a mobile game for that matter. So when I decided to take the challenge of directing a game for the first time, there was a lot to learn before we could get this project to the level everyone was aiming for.

It's hard to create a product that stands out in an over-saturated field like the "match 3" genre. You want to present players with something simple with elements of their old favourites, but different enough to surprise them, and deep enough to keep them coming back for more. Ambitious Dirt takes the familiar concept of matching like colours, and adds a navigation element to the gameplay. Players need to guide a train of characters through a maze of coloured tiles, matching the characters over them them to remove obstacles, build power-ups and switch turnstiles. Sometimes, there are multiple solutions to a problem, other times there's only one. In the end, we found a balance between the instant gratification of a match 3, and the strategic depth of a classic puzzle game.

Of course, no mobile game today can go to market without monetization and retention strategies. Ambitious Dirt presents players' overall score as a "Property Value" and progression level by the size of their house. The house is situated in a "neighborhood" of other players, (essentially a leaderboard where everyone's progression is on display), and can be customized with decorative items purchased with hard and soft in-game currency. Players can purchase currency, power-ups and other consumables from an in-game store, along with gift certificates which can be sent to friends, awarding them bonus items and random surprises. The ultimate goal is up to each individual player to decide; clear all of the game's levels, or keep challenging highscores until they acquire the biggest house available. Combined with timed special activities and events, there's a lot to come back to here! 

Ambitious Dirt is also a beautiful game; full 3D environments and characters pop right off the screen with vibrant colour and lively animation. A fantastic original soundtrack and great special effects are icing on the cake. I was deeply involved in almost every aspect of Ambitious Dirt's design, and even built over 100 puzzle levels. It's another project I'm proud to say that I was a part of.