Shadowmatic, the Revolutionary Challenge for Your Imagination!

Imagine a super successful and popular 3D puzzle game created by Armenians. Now think of 7 million downloads in two years and add a bunch of world-scale prizes to that. What you’ll have? You’ll have Shadowmatic, a photorealistic 3D shadow puzzle game for iOS and Android devices created by Triada Studio games. If you want to learn even more, here’s an interesting interview with Shadowmatic team!

WA: The concept behind Shadowmatic is very interesting. How did you come up with that idea?

We chose the idea of Shadowmatic since it would enable us to demonstrate the strength of our in-house experimental engine – photorealistic real-time 3D graphics.

We began working on Shadowmatic on March 2012. During the development, we added a lot of new features to our original idea, so it is not surprising that the development process stretched for more than 2 years.
The team that created the idea of Shadowmatic is small – 4 people. A software developer, a designer, a musician, and a project manager.

WA: In a short period of time, Shadowmatic appeared to be one of the most discussed games in the stores. How could you sum up the facts and figures from when it all started up to now (downloads, users, feedback, awards)?

Throughout the last two years, we had around 6 to 7 million downloads (including non-official ones) on iOS, we are quite new to Android so we can hardly announce any figures even for a month (Shadowmatic was released on Android on March 3rd, 2017). The top 2 countries in terms of downloads and 5 star reviews are US and China.

WA: In terms of Triada Studio Games activities, are there any more apps and games coming?

Of course, we have many projects in mind, but we are keeping them in a stealth mode yet :)
The next steps we are taking are around the second Shadowmatic, as well as few other interesting concepts around new games.

WA: What appeared to be your major challenge on the way to success?

Well, the hardest one probably was that based on the selected silhouette, the artist creates abstract 3D objects in space, shadows of which form the desired silhouette. This is a complex and a fascinating process at the same time. 3D objects for the same silhouette can be very different - an infinite number of false, distracting details. The designer should model the optimum shape object for the particular silhouette. Then it is being tested within the team to make appropriate corrections to balance the complexity of the puzzle.

As the development of Shadowmatic took 3 years, during those long 3 years we were advised to finally release the game and not stretch the release that much for multiple times, and this was way too challenging as well. But we kept polishing and refining the product and released it only when we got the feeling that it’s good enough for the public eye, in other words, we prioritized the quality over the earlier release date; there are millions of apps and games out there and you have to offer a special and seamless product to be noticed by the public.