The Blog

Behind the Scenes with the Glyder 2 Team

In this series, Dan Sciarrino, Sr Producer at Glu, shares his Glyder knowledge, insights, and experiences.

After completing the first Glyder project, our team didn't know quite what to expect. We had a game that we believed in, but we didn't know if users and the press would like the game as much as we did, and appreciate it for what it was. Some even wondered whether such a unique game had a chance of reaching the top of the charts. Once the first few user & press reviews started rolling in, we were very excited: the feedback was universally positive, and in a short time the game became a huge hit. At that time of the original launch, I wasn't on the Glyder development team, but I closely followed the progress because the iPhone was such a new and intriguing device. When it came time to work on Glyder 2, Daren (our studio head) asked if I wanted to produce the project, and I jumped on the opportunity.

In the very first Glyder 2 preproduction meeting, we tried to establish a set of high-level goals for the project. We had setup an email list to elicit feedback from the most passionate Glyder fans, and we received a lot of really great ideas. While there was no shortage of specific ideas on how to improve upon the original game, we wanted to be sure not to get too caught up in the details. It was important for us to decide what we wanted as an overall theme & user experience, and let that shape the game specifics. By the end of the meeting, we came up with this as the project’s first goal:

Explore, Discover, Comeback:

While the original Glyder certainly had themes of exploration & discovery, there wasn't really a notion of "coming back". Once the player completed a world, there wasn’t reason to go back. We received a lot of feedback from users saying "I want more to do!" With this in mind, artist & lead designer, Brian Collins, created a ton of different lock and key puzzles throughout the world. These puzzles not only helped accomplish the goal of "comeback", but also shaped much of the game's story.

While creating the six new worlds, Brian had all of these features planned, and the team was able to incorporate these ideas into the initial iteration of each world. In the first game, there was a lot of trial and error that went into each world. While this was necessary, it resulted in some lost time. With the knowledge we had from the first game, we were able to create the new worlds much more efficiently.

To those interested, Oasis definitely went through the most iterations. It was initially about three times the size of what we ended up with. It became clear that flying along flat ground for too long just wasn't that fun.

Here is the original sketch and concept screen for Oasis:

Stay tuned for additional blog posts from Dan and team which will further delve into Glyder 2’s concepts and inspirations.

Categories: Glyder, iPhone