Liam Bruno runs the Instagram account @psychological with 2.3 million followers. Liam requested an addictive game that his followers could play and share with their friends.

We decided to make a casual game. Exemplified by Ketchapp, casual games are easy and fun to play repeatedly and they don’t require a massive budget. We also decided to make a feature that would allow players to take a snapshot from the game and share a custom image on social media.

We started by brainstorming concepts. We presented each idea in a couple paragraphs. We recommended Summit, and Liam agreed that an endless runner game would be a good ft for his budget and audience.

After working with Leo on Stake Your Stash and Scratch Phrase, we hired him again to design and develop Summit in Unity.

We made Summit unique by creating targets for the player to land on (indicated in electric blue) and places to avoid (marked in red).

We created atmosphere with falling snowflakes, rotating 3D coins, and a multi-plane dimensional effect as the camera panned.

To monetize the app, we set up ads and created in-app purchases that allowed users to buy coins, remove ads, and unlock clothing. Opt-in ads (also called “rewarded video ads”) provide a better user experience and a higher return on investment than forced ads, so we created an option for the user to resurrect their character once per run by watching a video ad.

In any game with an in-app currency, it’s important to create desirable products that the user might want to buy. We created a wardrobe feature where players can switch out the cap, shirt, and pants their avatar wears. In the game, users can unlock wardrobe items using coins that they purchase or earn during their runs.

To make the app more shareable, we created a showroom feature where the player can rotate their character, adjust the lighting, take pictures, and share their photos on social media.

As in many apps, the biggest challenge was debugging. Sometimes the character would continue running when they should have lost the game. Other times, we’d see two characters running onscreen at once! We resolved the bugs over a few weeks.

Liam, Apple and Google all approved the finished product and the app launched in early 2021. Though people downloaded and played the game, Liam pulled his app account to focus on more profitable opportunities with his audience.