Ukrainian game Towers: Relaxing Puzzle is on Google Play’s Best of 2021 list
Google annually publishes a ranking of the best apps and games on the Google Play Store. In 2021, Towers: Relaxing Puzzle from the Ukrainian studio JOX Development made it to the list. The game was named in the “Best Pick Up & Play“ category. AIN.UA’s journalist spoke with representatives of the studio and will tell you about special features of Towers: Relaxing Puzzle.
About Towers: Relaxing Puzzle
Towers: Relaxing Puzzle is a casual game aimed at training users’ spatial thinking. Playing the game, users have to drop towers in free cells and reach their goal. The game has five modes and 6,500 levels, including 100 bonus ones. The game has a Ukrainian localization, as well as other JOX Development projects.
Although the studio came up with the idea for Towers: Relaxing Puzzle back in 2019, the launch took place only in 2021. According to JOX Development, the team spends a lot of time working on the details and implementation of high-quality graphics. The latter has minimalistic 3D elements that keep players’ eyes from getting tired. Three full-time developers of JOX Development worked on the game, as well as a sound engineer and a team of translators.
JOX Development says that the idea of the game is unique. This kind of gameplay had not been seen before the release of the Ukrainian Towers game.
“Many developers try to work with tried and tested mechanics. They only make clones of the basic original idea. Now there is a huge number of games. So it is not easy to come up with something new. The mechanics of Towers: Relaxing Puzzle are unique,” comments Denys Moisin, co-founder of the studio.
In 2021, the number of downloads of Towers: Relaxing Puzzle on Google Play exceeded 250,000. The figures on the App Store are also growing — 80,000 installations as of early December 2021.
About JOX Development
JOX Development is a Kyiv-based development studio launched in 2017 by Denys Moisin and Pavel Glagolev. As of 2021, the team consists of 4 full-time members and several subcontractors working remotely.
The studio’s first game was Tap Tap Dash, created in collaboration with Cheetah Mobile. According to the developers, this reaction training game became a success shortly after its release. By the time of this publication, it has been downloaded by over 100 million of Android and iOS users. The next JOX Development product, Orbia: Tap and Relax, became popular too. In 2018, the game was nominated for Google’s best casual games.
“Tap Tap Dash is unique as well. It has influenced the entire casual gaming industry (nowadays, many make their levels seamless in arcade games). Simultaneously, there were over 40 clones,” Denys Moisin recalls.
JOX Development is currently working on two projects. By 2022, the team has planned to release new games and increase staff for better efficiency.
“We are quite busy now. But considering our quality and detailing standards, the process is not that fast. We do a lot of revision, monitoring, testing. Possibly, new games will be released next year.”
Denys Moisin