Melon Merge 3D

Melon Merge 3D is a physics puzzle game where you combine fruits into increasingly larger fruits. It was created mobile-first with the goal of designing the best fruit merging game on both major app stores. The game has been downloaded over 300 times across the App Store and Google Play Store.

Early Development

Miles Wilson and I developed the game as part our final project of our Game Design, Development, and Technology course. This course involved learning software development workflows, Unity & C#, and game development fundamentals.

The core gameplay loop was finalized during this period. Players expressed that this iteration sufficed as an engaging gameplay experience. The presentation, not so much.

Taking It Further

After finishing my junior year, I alone continued the development of Melon Merge 3D, aiming to improve the aesthetics and feedback of the game. Haptic feedback, particle effects, and improved physics were a must-have. Additionally, the fruits could no longer be spheres with a stock fruit texture slapped on.

I learned Maya and brushed up on my Photoshop skills to model and paint the fruits and the background elements. I used Illustrator to design vector graphics like icons and UI elements. Fruits like the pineapple and cantaloupe took a few revisions until they looked just right, as I really wanted the fruits to look as fruity as possible. Overall, I'm quite proud of what I accomplished. Only a few visual assets, like the music and skybox, were not designed by me.

Release

The next big hurdle was releasing the game on app stores. Releasing the game on the App Store was as challenging as registering and paying for an Apple Developer account and then publishing for approval on App Store Connect. However, releasing the game on the Google Play Store would prove to be a tougher challenge.

Google instituted a 20-tester requirement to distribute on the play store. This meant I needed to find 20 people with an Android phone willing to download my game, play the game, and keep the game installed for two weeks. To find my testers, I asked professors if I could briefly preview my game during class time. Sure enough, after advertising the game in two classes, I had enough Android users to apply for distribution on the Google Play Store!

What Now?

Although the game is at a complete state, I wouldn't mind working on this project again. There are so many features I could add, like saves, a leaderboard, and new modes, but it's difficult to justify spending the time on those features over working on other projects or learning new skills. If I were to return to this project, I would also try refactoring many of the core systems, as they were not developed with future me's sanity in mind. We'll see if I return to Melon Merge 3D!