The beginning
When Manesh built this first ever optical illusion prototype and we saw it working… BAM! We knew we were onto something. I immediately gave the green light to go ahead and start rowing into this idea. It was just a magical moment.
The Wall
After 3 months of development we had all the core systems and interactions in place. We built this test level and it was a failure….
It was too hard for players, I found it so difficult to remember what to do that I earned the nickname Neil ‘The Wall’ McFarland as I repeatedly couldn’t complete it even though I had previously done so several times.
We threw everything away and using what we had learned created the simple elegant level designs that made the game so unique and beautiful.
Manesh Looks sideways at the game on my iMac for some unknown reason. Ken Wong is seen behind as well as Jane Campbell.
Ken Wong and David Fernández Huerta inspect the colour script of the whole game checking to see how the overall colour changes work.
The Team
L-R: Van Lee, Me, Geet (games team IT support) Manesh Mistry, David Fernández Huerta, Dan Grey, Micheal Anderson, Ken Wong, Peter Pashley
Pash and unknown tall guy at GDC
Unity gave us a booth at GDC in 2014 where we showcased the game ahead of the game’s launch.
The Response
Manesh and me and the Apple Design Award
What most people probably don’t know about Monument Valley is that it was made inside a design agency and the challenge we had been set by our ‘boss’ was to win an Apple design award, which we did.
In fact a lot of what we did with Monument Valley was driven by the design principles of the studio we were part of. The shorthand description of this being ‘imagine if Apple made games, what would they be like?’
Monument valley was a love letter to iOS and the iPad in many ways, even interaction is a core feature of the iOS touchscreen and operating system.
Apple loved us right back of course and we even beat Hearthstone that year!
Varney and Co
We garnered a lot or press as a result of the success and I ended up in some strange situations. Speaking to Stuart Varney on Fox Business News and discussing his northern ‘twang’ (he’s from Derby originally) was a particularly surreal highlight.
The fact we did it TWICE was even more cool.
Awards Galore
Me and one of the BAFTA awards
The extended team with the BAFTAs
Winning TWO BAFTAs was one of the highlights of my career and an unforgettable night. Awards for: Best Mobile and Handheld and Best British Game.
Tip of the iceberg. We won two BAFTAs but you get copies of each so you can share them out with the team/studio.
Webby Award
The Webby Award was particularly memorable to me Beau Willimon (Writer, show runner of House of Cards, writer on Andor etc etc) wanted to meet me afterwards as he had asked us if he could feature the game in the show.
Crazy Bananas
David, Ken, Some guy called Kanye, Manesh, Me
The reach of the game became so deep that Kanye’s people brought him to see us one rainy Saturday at the studio. He was a fun dude to hang our with for a few hours.
At the time he was planning on removing himself from every social media outlet save for his own ‘app’ that was envisaged to include a ‘game’ about his dead mother ascending to heaven. We never intended to work on it but we couldn’t pass up the chance to meet him.
He was very chatting (non stop) and jovial but pulled this serious face for the camera.