Interview: Perchang World's Ben Murch reveals what brought back the hit mobile puzzler to Apple Arcade
- Perchang World sees the hit puzzler return in a major new way to Apple Arcade
- Massive levels, even more complex gizmos and fiendish puzzles
- We got the chance to ask creative director Ben Murch about Perchang World ahead of release
With its bigger, more exciting and complex levels, Perchang World is set to bring the hit mobile puzzler into the hands of Apple Arcade's massive audience. But what caused Perchang to resurrect their biggest hit so far in a new and even more ambitious way?
If you're not familiar already, Perchang World sees you guiding balls along paths to the end of the level. Simple, right? Well, not when there's all manner of loony obstacles, insane gizmos and other hazards to contend with. It turns an engaging if simple puzzler into an exciting experience.
Well, as you might expect, we were curious too. So, a few emails later, and we managed to get the lowdown from Perchang's creative director, Ben Murch. So read on and find out exactly what made Perchang World such an exciting project for the developer, and some extra details you might not have expected!
What inspired you to come back to Perchang and develop it into Perchang World?Perchang was our company’s first game. Pete, my co-founder, and I created and released it on iOS in six months on a tiny budget. Then it sort of exploded. Six million downloads and multiple ports later, we realised there was something about the simple formula that really spoke to people.
But it was basic. Just pure gameplay. And we always knew there was somewhere else we could go with it. So after multiple different directions, including Perchang Pro, Perchang Giants, Perchang Galaxy. Then one sunny day, I created a Perchang puzzle in a low-poly desert city. When I showed it to Pete in our local pub later that eve, he immediately said “yeah, that’s it”, and we knew where Perchang was going.
Once we had that “Perchang in a stylised world” idea, the rest came together remarkably quickly!
At its core, Perchang is about using red and blue gizmos to get balls into goals. So we thought, as long as that’s in place, we can pretty much try out anything.
First stop was to make some test levels and see what worked. That process helped us build a vague set of rules for the structure of the new game. We quickly found that building gizmos “into” real environments was quite limiting. Buildings and roads in cities don’t usually have great big fans or flippers on them. So, we settled on our Perchang World aesthetic, where gizmos just existed in the world. Meaning balls could get batted around environments without being questioned too much.
One value from the original game that we strongly believed in was the music. The plucked strings very much became synonymous with our ball physics puzzles. How to bring that to the next level, though? We’d always really loved Mark Sparling’s work on “a short hike”, so we had a chat with him, and yeah, the rest is history. He totally got the vibe and expanded on our themes, building on the plucked strings and taking them into new areas to match our new landscapes.
The final big things to come from our demo levels was the “oner” camera and the narrator. We were trying to figure out how to tell a story, then someone said why bother cutting away at the end of a level… just keep it rolling. So our zones became these “one-shot” camera moves where each puzzle lives in a shared world. Short cutscenes link them all together. The narrator then binds all that together and allows us to tell a larger story.
Mobile is where Perchang was born, and we wanted to continue the story there. You only need two inputs (red and blue) to make everything work, which really fits with touch screen input. Plus, mobile gaming is awesome; you can take it anywhere and dive in for a session. It’s by far the most convenient way to game.
Personally, I play all sorts of games on my iOS devices. In-depth Civ is always there, but so is the action-oriented Sonic Dream Team. I also play lots of Xbox and PC. Games are great, and it’s pretty amazing to have so many options for where to play in the modern world!
And off the back of that, why bring Perchang World to Apple Arcade specifically?Apple Arcade is a brilliant place for gaming. You don’t have to worry about IAPs or adverts or anything like that. You just have to focus on delivering your vision for a great experience. A natural fit for a level/skill-based game like Perchang… where the story is just as integral to the experience as the gameplay.
Plus, Arcade is cross-platform. If I’m travelling around, I can play on my iPhone or iPad. If I’m at home, I can play on my Mac or Apple TV. And if I’m really feeling fancy, I can crack open the Vision Pro. Our PW save-games are synced across all platforms as well, so continuing the story while switching devices is seamless.
On top of all that, they have Game Center. We wanted every level in our game to have a worldwide leaderboard, so you can see how you rank against your friends, favourite streamers, us lot on the game dev team, even celebrities. Game Center helps with all that!
It starts off simple. You just have to get balls into their goals using the red and blue gizmos. So simple that anyone can play. We say our target audience is 5 to 95. However, as you play, we slowly layer more gameplay concepts in, so that the experience evolves into something quite different by the time you finish the single-player game.
Our story works in the same way. We start off in a simple place that everyone can relate to, but then twists and turns until the player and narrator end in a very different place. Forbidden temples in the deep jungle, an entire paper storybook world, a microchip city, and even a bit of time travel.
If you want a super fun time in a joyous story, where you are rewarded for playing well (and not punished for your shortcomings), then come give Perchang World a try.
Oh, and James Acaster. We have this phenomenal performance from one of our favourite comedians, which anchors the whole experience.
Yes! We’d like to say a million thank yous! We know some of those stages are tricky (and for a while, impossible…oops), but it’s always amazing to hear people say how much they enjoyed our little game. That tiny idea has been given the opportunity to blossom into something really special, so I hope we see all of you on the leaderboards on May 7th!
