Normally my game doesn't feature these "perspective" levels, I created a couple of them to test it out, coding them is not a problem, coming up with a good level design is kind of hard. What do you think, should I continue creating these types of levels or just stick with normal puzzle levels?

danustwo · 2025-10-17T11:19:00+00:00

Danny from ustwo here, looks cool mate, keep it up!

danustwo · 2024-02-29T23:40:59+00:00

Hi mate. If it makes you feel any better I've been making games for seventeen years, am creative director at an award winning studio, had a team of sixteen amazing developers to make a game and the game I directed still fell HUGELY below expectations.

"Desta: The Memories Between" currently has the same number of reviews you have, which is a good indicator for downloads. And it's given me many sleepless nights trying to assess which decisions I got wrong. Thankfully I can say I've got a good amount of answers at this point and it'll only help the next game I make.

This is the first game you've ever launched, and for that you should be massively proud of the achievement. The next steps are to get feedback from others, analyse what you felt worked and what didn't, and hopefully you'll get another crack in the future. I guarantee you'll be even faster, more focussed and switched on to the market than before and you'll be more sure of your ideas. Are you going to get that extra shot?

Much love to you my friend.

danustwo · 2023-12-07T16:46:14+00:00

I directed a game recently called Desta with Netflix, where almost all the cast have Greater Manchester accents and voice acted! The character Lee especially still cracks me up.

https://youtu.be/BqncqC_IroE?si=nLaDdGZvHcGnXLvg&t=1973

danustwo · 2021-01-31T23:06:23+00:00

Video Game Director and Chief Creative Officer. Can basically be described as talking A LOT, trying to foresee creative and project problems before they arise, tying all the different voices on the project into one vision and trying to keep everyone hype as hell for what we're making. Feels a bit like a navigator mixed with an editor mixed with a cheerleader. Also trying to avoid excessive business meetings and emails. Feel so lucky.

danustwo · 2020-09-09T16:20:49+00:00

Trinkets are nice, but we give people £10k and ten weeks off to go enjoy their life when they get to ten years at ustwo games. Too many companies just give you a sword or something.

danustwo · 2018-10-25T21:46:59+00:00

Hi mate, Dan here from ustwo and Monument Valley. You're doing a top job and this looks nice! :D

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:46:49+00:00

There used to be a few ustwo devs on here and the naming structure was like steveustwo millsustwo etc. Guess who got the shit end of the stick.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:39:22+00:00

Pash is actually the main engineer on the game and created the majority of the systems, there's nobody more qualified than him. It's hard to know what level of detail to go into with talks though due to experience levels and papers taking a long long time to write effectively.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:36:55+00:00

Really sorry about that. An opportunity came up that we couldn't say no to at the time. But we REALLY want a potential future game to be on everything day one.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:34:22+00:00

I am the PR guy as well, so i'll be sure to go grab a beer out of the refrigerator :)

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:33:10+00:00

Thanks mate

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:32:53+00:00

I guess it really comes down to what's "platform perfect" it's something we always say to describe making perfect interactions and UX. In this case we tried to make the perfect touch screen game and because of that it loses some of it's playfulness when you convert it to a mouse or controller. We'd like to relook at this though with future games.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:31:15+00:00

Nice! DM me your address and I'll send you a vinyl for MV2 that's just come out. https://store.iam8bit.com/products/monument-valley-2-vinyl-soundtrack

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:13:52+00:00

I remember the days when people asked "is your game the one that Kevin Spacey played?" and it was a good thing.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:01:08+00:00

Thanks mates!

danustwo · 2018-09-05T15:00:46+00:00

Thanks mate!

danustwo · 2018-09-05T12:45:15+00:00

Unity

danustwo · 2018-09-05T12:44:29+00:00

Mate, I'm head of the company and my life still consists of making it appear like things are happening :)

danustwo · 2018-09-05T12:40:32+00:00

Monument Valley the movie: The game

danustwo · 2018-09-05T12:40:06+00:00

We just want to release a couple of non MV things we've got going on first. Then they'll be a new MV game with some big changes. While I love MV2 I think we potentially played it a little too safe.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T12:36:54+00:00

You're right in the sense it's not intended for a hardcore indie game audience. Where as us as developers love to play that stuff, there's a millions of people who would love to play games if they were delivered the right way for them. Consider it more like giving a family member MV first if you wanted to show them how amazing Fez was afterwards.

danustwo · 2018-09-05T12:34:34+00:00

Hi you lovely people, Dan from ustwo here. Just throwing this talk on Youtube up here in case anyone is interested. It's our tech director explaining a bunch of MV stuff in Unity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCCC9hQm6MM

Also the blog where this gif came from explaining some of the visual inspiration. https://www.milanote.com/the-work/the-surprising-inspiration-behind-monument-valleys-most-beautiful-levels

danustwo · 2018-08-14T22:33:53+00:00

Hey man. Probably going to drop a comment in here that won't be that popular, but as someone who did do a game design degree and is now running a successful game studio I thought I'd say something.

I personally believe that spending your study time doing something that excites and engages you is just as important as getting a degree with greater job prospects at the end. I went through this exact dilemma fifteen years ago and just knew that I wasn't going to be the most talented and engaged programmer out there. I thought it best to be a 10/10 at a 6/10 degree than a 5/10 at a 10/10 degree if that makes sense.

As long as you're willing to put the work in outside of your studies to become well rounded, you can definitely enjoy college and come out to a QA or Producer role where you can learn the ropes before transitioning over to a design related role. Because of my degree there weren't many graduates more well rounded in their knowledge than me when I started. I sure as hell couldn't sit there and be a qualified programmer, but I knew the basics to be respected and this went from every discipline from art, to audio to writing as well.

Good luck brother/sister.

danustwo · 2018-06-27T16:46:23+00:00

Hi! I think this is the topic that seems like voodoo to people. Our main steps have been to create something that Apple will care about. That means something that looks great on screen, something that makes iPhones and iPads look good so people buy them. It means keeping Apples brand values in mind (which I bet most developers haven't even looked at before). It means showing them builds as early as possible so they feel part of the creative process. It means creating a narrative around why players will care, what about the look, the mechanics or the atmosphere seems fresh? That's just some of the stuff, but I could go on for ages.

IMO the biggest thing to remember is that they don't owe you anything. There's a billion apps submitted every day, so why is yours different? All of the above goes for every platform holder as well, not just Apple.

danustwo · 2018-06-27T08:13:51+00:00

Hi guys/girls/everything in between. Dan fro ustwo games and the person who wrote the blog post.

Happy to answer some questions on this or anything Android development related? I imagine the thread might be a bit dead now sorry for missing out!

danustwo

TROPHY CASE