Behind the scenes: How the little details in game development can make the biggest impact

• Rockbite Games not only wants to bring the PC games experience to mobile but to also make the finer details count
• “You don’t know if the project will take off yet, but these little touches can increase its chances.”

Avetis Zakharyan and Gevorg Kopalyan are founders of Rockbite Games.

It wasn’t that long ago that generic stick men were the go-to character model in idle games. While that can still work, few are willing to take the risk these days.

The market has changed so much that, even though mobile games may seem simple, developers now have to dive deeper into the details of a project to grab players’ attention. It’s almost impossible for solo developers to break through now – that kind of success is closer to a lucky accident.

For us, creating rich, immersive content for mobile games wasn’t a surprise. Our goal has always been to bring the PC gaming experience to mobile.

The kind of experience where you notice small details and a certain atmosphere builds around you. This was ingrained in us from the start, even when it wasn’t seen as profitable. Now, it’s essential.

Of course, we made our share of mistakes in our early projects – focusing too much on the wrong details, trusting our instincts over reality, and almost shutting down in the process.

We avoided working with publishers for as long as we could, but when things got critical, we teamed up with AppQuantum, overhauled our processes, and learned a lot. We’ve already shared that story, but today we’re zooming in on a narrower topic: our subjective approach to content development and Easter eggs – details that have become part of the Rockbite Games signature style.

How deep do we go at the prototype stage?

Take Idle Outpost, for example. The development process for this game was radically different from our previous projects. Each step was tied to a hypothesis that we tested before moving forward. When developing the prototype, there were two key focuses:

1. Avoiding overkill with the amount of content and animations by having no clear standards about it.

2. At the same time, we need to maintain a unique visual style that would give us a favourable CPI according to our tests and hypotheses.

For these reasons, we deliberately rejected the use of any pre-made assets, even paid ones. The visual style was chosen through tests, but we knew that if players saw something familiar, it would backfire. The market is so saturated that you can’t just show up with another game and say, “Hey, we made something you already saw yesterday.”

Early on, when the project’s future was unclear, we kept content minimal. But what we did have was unique. Sure, it might be just a zombie animated in a way that’s far from perfect, but it walks just fine, and it’s our zombie in our own style.

When it came to gameplay time and unique levels, the entire team sat down together in the office and played through the prototype, gathering feedback. If we felt like something was missing, we added it. In the end, we had four levels and about two hours of gameplay: the first level took 5-10 minutes, the second 15, the third 30, and the fourth around 45 minutes.

These days, even with hypercasual projects, you can’t get away with testing prototypes on a real audience unless you’ve got at least a few dozen minutes of unique gameplay. The more complex the game, the closer it is to casual and midcore, the more captivating it needs to be.

Even at this early stage, you can add little extras that make your game memorable. The trick is to keep the workload manageable.

You don’t know if the project will take off yet, but these little touches can increase its chances. Nothing crazy, just some nice bits and pieces that give players an occasional sense of newness. We thought, “Why not add rain in the third level?” It was quick to implement, and it gave the player a feeling of being in a living world.

This kind of variety is more important than you’d think at first glance.

How do you know when it’s time to add more variety? Play until you hit a moment where nothing interesting has happened for a while. When that happens, we jot it down, share it with the team, and figure out where to add something to liven things up.

Because the whole team is playing along, from the artists to the developers, no one really needs prompting most of the time. We often hear, “Something feels like it’s missing here, let me tweak it for a few more days.”

This approach works wonders for team morale. We love it.

So, what did we achieve at the prototype stage?

1. A unique story. I’ve talked about this before, but the idea of an apocalypse survivor just trying to trade, who ends up losing his beloved to zombies, hooked me immediately. And it only gets more complex from there, which is rare for mobile games. Players have noticed.

2. Unique visuals and setting. We included nods to old PC flash games and made everything from scratch. No reused assets – otherwise, players would instantly feel like they’ve seen it all before. If we’re all about depth and uniqueness, we’ve got to have something to show for it besides just ideas.

3. 1.5-2 hours of unique gameplay without overdoing it on animations. It was just the right amount to avoid getting repetitive.

4. Atmospheric and visual hooks embedded in the progression, hinting at a deeper game world that evolves over time.
   

Okay, what’s next?

After the initial success, the real work begins – adding content and refining details. When you’ve only got four levels, things like Easter eggs and extra animations aren’t top priorities, but we still started adding those touches. To be honest, we didn’t get it right straight away.

In earlier games, we got too carried away. We added riddles, puzzles, and even links to YouTube explaining sci-fi concepts like the Neumann machine. Basically, we over-engineered things.

It was fun, and players loved discovering these hidden gems, but it didn’t translate into growth. In fact, the core community was incredible and super engaged, but it wasn’t enough to sustain the studio financially. A tough lesson we learned: no matter how much passion we put into these details, you have to remember who you’re building the game for.

With Idle Outpost, we dialed things back. Now, when we add small details, it’s done with purpose – whether to enhance the atmosphere or deepen the gameplay.

For example, in level three, there’s a crashed plane surrounded by debris. Players can tap to clear it away. While it doesn’t impact the core gameplay directly, it hints at mechanics like future loot collection with shovels, connecting it to level-up progression.

But it’s important to leave this kind of stuff until later in development – when the core content is done. Adding these extras too early can distract from the more urgent tasks at hand.

If we do decide to layer in deeper lore (and we usually want to), it has to benefit the game’s metrics or monetisation.

Take our skins and items from the in-game store, for example. Each one comes with a backstory. If it’s a firefighter set, it’s not just a random costume – we’ve built a legend around the hero who once wore it, where they fell, and how their gear ended up in the player’s hands.

Even names of rare and epic items have stories. Like a “Helmet of a Freaked-Out Witch” – players wonder why she freaked out, which sparks interest and makes them more eager to participate in events and earn the set.

This ties into the player’s immersion. One thing connects to the next – whether it’s events, skins, the story progression, or the items themselves. We think these things through before they ever make it into the game.

For instance, Idle Outpost has an event with a giant cow that needs to be milked or a character that looks similar to a famous US presidential candidate. At first, it seems like a quirky developer joke, but as the campaign unfolds, the player starts to see how everything ties into the game’s lore.

These kinds of details keep players engaged for months, even years.

Isn’t that too much work? What’s the point?

I wouldn’t say this approach is the norm in mobile games today. Many developers still rely on the same methods that worked a decade ago -core mechanics with free assets to reach an audience.

We’re not against this, but based on our experience and AppQuantum’s data, it no longer cuts it. There’s a real payoff to focusing on the details – Idle Outpost didn’t become the top earner in its niche for no reason.

Here’s why we think it’s worth the effort:

For us. It energises us. Coming up with new features and adding hidden gems – it’s the joy of game development that keeps us motivated. We wanted players to have the same thrill we got from finding lore and secrets in PC games. It’s that simple.

For the players. The community is like an extension of our team. That’s not just talk – we read nearly all the feedback, discussions, and suggestions. When players find these Easter eggs or appreciate the details, it feels like we’re in it together.

We love adding Easter eggs and small details, but without an engaged community, it wouldn’t have the same impact. Even before we run the first tests or know where the project is going, seeing player interest gives us a huge energy boost to keep going and give back to them. Their excitement fuels us.

During the development of Deep Town, long before the full beta release, a small but engaged community started forming. We teased content, made videos, and were blown away by how excited people were. That inspired us to add even more details and references before the official launch, even though we were supposed to start doing that after.

There are entire Reddit threads where fans analyse Deep Town lore – sometimes, they even argue! We built the plot gradually, never revealing everything at once, which gave the game a depth beyond the usual mobile experience, that “wow” effect. You know that moment when a twist in a game makes you rethink everything? I’m not going to spoil our storylines, but that’s the feeling we aim for.

For the team. The constant process of creating Easter eggs, lore, and inside jokes adds a lot to the team’s creative energy. 

Artists love it when we ask them to draw something fun with a reference. It helps them avoid burnout and keeps their imagination sharp. Adding some variety to the team’s daily tasks is great for employee retention too.

We don’t schedule brainstorming sessions for these things because they waste time. It’s more spontaneous, part of the creative atmosphere we foster. Someone in the office might say, “Hey, how about we add this?” If everyone’s immediately on board, it gets into the game. And it wasn’t just some abstract idea from the backlog, it was something we came up with and implemented together.

Some of the Easter eggs are just our inside jokes. Take the old lady with a walker, for example. She’s been in every project since the first DeepTown prototype. Back at the prototype stage, you had to demolish a building from top to bottom instead of digging.

We’ve put a grandma on the ground where the debris fell. She moved slowly, but no matter what chaos happened, she never got hurt. It became our local meme.

Now, the whole team can’t wait for grandma to appear when we play a new level. Moments like this make development and playtesting even more fun. 

Small things keep the team excited about working on the project, no burnouts in sight. 

For long-term project growth. In short, we’re building the project’s core gameplay and architecture in a way that lets us keep expanding the game. Right now, we’re focusing on Idle Outpost and refining that core.

We already mentioned the event with the giant cow. It’s actually even weirder because it’s being milked by other cows. It makes the players wonder what the hell that actually means, given the fact there’s a sound and logical plot in the game. Wouldn’t you be interested to find out how it all ties together? 

Remember Lost? How every episode had clues that didn’t make sense at first but were eventually explained? We’re applying that same principle. And we’re already preparing story cutscenes to gradually reveal more of the game’s mysteries.