A mobile game earns its place on a phone when it feels good in the first ten seconds, starts instantly, plays fair, sounds right and respects the player’s time and money. Everything else is decoration.
The ten-second test
Most people decide whether they like a mobile game before the first level ends. So our first question about any prototype is simple: does it feel good to touch in the first ten seconds, with no tutorial at all?
If tapping, swiping or holding isn’t satisfying on its own, no amount of content will save it. We tune that core action before we build anything else.
Start fast, every time
A game you play in a queue has to be ready before the queue moves. We aim for a cold start of a few seconds, no account required, no wall of pop-ups, and one tap from the home screen into play.
Play fair
Players can tell when a game is designed to frustrate them into paying. We don’t sell the fix for a problem we created. If there are purchases in our games, they add something nice, like cosmetics or an ad-free option, rather than removing pain we put there on purpose.
- No energy systems that stop you from playing.
- No fake countdowns on offers.
- No loot boxes.
- Rewarded ads only when you choose to watch them.
Sound is half the game
We’re called The Noisy Fox for a reason. A good sound on a good moment does more for game feel than almost anything on screen. We design sound and haptics alongside the visuals, not at the end.
And because plenty of people play with the sound off, every important moment also has a visual or haptic cue.
Respect the player
Respect sounds abstract, but in practice it’s very concrete: small downloads, low battery use, offline play, clear settings, and a game that remembers where you left off.
The best compliment a mobile game can get is that it never gets deleted.
How do we use these rules?
Every prototype at the studio gets scored against these five points before it moves forward. Most ideas don’t make it, and that’s the point. You can see the ones that did on our Apps & Games page.