Two Dots
Two Dots is a saga based puzzle game, more precisely a linker game, where you have to link dots and complete different goals to beat levels and unlock new mechanics and features. It is a linker game even though, the gameplay, game feel and art is quite unique, if we compare it to the rest of the competence.
I have been working in this game since late 2022, it is the first live game that I worked in, and it allowed me to expand and improve my knowledge about mobile puzzle games and match 3 games.
Platform: iOS/Android
Studio: Socialpoint, T2, Zynga
Role: Level Designer
My role inside the team is the one of Level Designer, although, designing levels is not the only thing that I do on my daily basis.
My principal task is designing, creating and adjusting levels.
Those are defined by several parameters, like a difficulty tag or the mechanics that will appear on that level. Depending on those elements, the design will have a specific feel, intention and flow.
When designing levels it is very important to take in account, the flow, the variety, the fairness of the intrinsic random factor of the genre, the difficulty and the most important one: the fun factor.
The game has a lot of levels: saga levels, live ops levels, levels for specific features, and so on...
In my time working at the game, I have created hundreds of levels and adjusted thousands of those.
As a level designer, a very important task to do is to define the pacing and difficulty of the game. That, will determine the player experience, funnel and will affect monetization, retention and a lot of different KPIs.
One of the other tasks that I do as a Level Designer in Two Dots is to design and create new mechanics.
The game has approximately 50 active mechanics and those can be classified between different type, behaviour or porpoise.
Designing a new mechanic is a creative process that involves a lot of people from different teams, and that means that team management and time management skills are needed.
Also, the process of designing a new mechanic for a live game as Two Dots is constrained, because the first players that are going to play the mechanic are skilled end of content players that desire a challenge.
So you have to keep in mind that you are creating a mechanic that should bing something fresh to the game and must be on a par with the most experienced players.
It must be simple to understand but difficult to master.
Finally, you have to think about interactions, how this mechanic is going to interact with the others and if so, is it going to create dynamics?
Crating mechanics for this game is a long process that involves a lot of different decisions, but is one of the most rewarding processes for a game designer.
At Socialpoint, I have the opportunity to own processes, meaning that I have to coordinate little teams in order to develop some feature.
Doing that, I was able to acquire some team management skills that are crucial to my work in a daily basis.
Furthermore, I have ownership of part of the production for the Level Design department, in coordination with the team Producer and my Leads. This has been an amazing opportunity to learn more about production and about time and project management.
For the last months, I have also been taking more responsibility in tweaking and adjusting old and new levels. This is a game that has 10+ years, and it's very important to adjust the different level trenches to match objectives.
That lead me to working more closely with the Product and data department. For that, I have been able to acquire analytical and data managing skills and learn about designing with a more data driven approach.
Also, taking in account the knowledge in game design and the data related concepts allowed me to deliver a more polished and rewarding experience for the players.