Goodville is an original blend of a classic farming simulator game and an emotional well-being care app. It combines gaming industry expertise with a scientific approach to address mental health issues from a completely new angle.
We spoke with Alexey Meleshkevich, Founder and CEO of Goodville, about the team’s experience working with Unreal Engine and what it means for graphics quality, product optimization, and AI and ML integration for Goodville.
How did you develop the idea of Goodville and combining emotional well-being with mobile gaming?
Mental health and emotional well-being are among the greatest challenges humanity faces today. The rapid advancement of technology and information systems has introduced new difficulties, leaving us evolutionarily unprepared to cope with modern realities. According to the WHO, nearly half of the global population experiences depression and anxiety. Our own data from players reflects this troubling trend.
Addressing this issue is crucial. Leveraging our expertise and collaborating with medical professionals, we developed a game designed to help people feel better.
The game focuses on three key areas: education, diagnosis, and research.
A major emphasis is placed on dialogues and storytelling. Players engage with characters, answer questions, and immerse themselves in the virtual world of Goodville. Through this, they learn about psychological issues and receive practical advice on prevention and management.
The game also integrates classic cognitive and psychological tests, enabling us to conduct global research and monitor mental health trends. We regularly share our findings on our website. Beyond its purpose, the game itself is high-quality and engaging, offering both entertainment and meaningful support to players worldwide.
What flexibility does Unreal Engine offer for games like yours? Why is it important for Goodville where visuals enhance and support an emotional response from the players?
Unreal Engine is a game-changer for projects like Goodville due to its extensive customization capabilities, robust asset management, and high-end tools that allow the development team to tailor every aspect of the game to meet design and player experience goals. Here’s how we leverage Unreal Engine’s power:
Deep Customization for Enhanced Creativity
Unreal Engine offers tools that enable us to create custom solutions perfectly aligned with our game’s vision:
- Custom Level Design Tool: We developed a full-fledged level design tool integrated into Unreal Engine. This tool allows our Game Design team to quickly create, iterate, and test farm layouts and surrounding environments. With this tool, designers can drag and drop assets from the art team, modify parameters, and visualize changes in real time, significantly speeding up the design process.
- Quest Design Tool: To manage the intricate quest system in Goodville, we built a node-based quest design tool. It simplifies the process of linking storylines, rewards, and dependencies, giving designers a visual and intuitive way to map out player progression.
- Plug-ins: Unreal Engine’s modularity lets us develop custom plug-ins and utilize open-source ones for integrations, covering a wide variety of aspects (from character animation to ad SDK implementation)
- High-Quality Visuals: The engine allows us to create realistic materials and textures that enhance the overall aesthetic of the farm while adhering to our artistic style.
Can you share how Unreal Engine allows optimizing game performance and access to a wider audience for cross-platform titles such as Goodville?
Unreal Engine is a powerful tool for optimizing performance across platforms. Goodville is available on Android and iOS, and Unreal allows us to:
- Scale Assets for Different Devices: We optimize graphics and textures dynamically to ensure smooth gameplay on older devices without sacrificing quality on newer ones. Unreal Engine allows us to scale assets for different devices, maintaining visual fidelity on high-end devices while ensuring smooth performance on older hardware.
- Efficient Memory Management: The engine provides tools to monitor and reduce memory usage, which is crucial for running a resource-intensive game on mobile platforms. Levels and assets are dynamically loaded to minimize memory usage, which is crucial for mobile platforms with limited resources.
- Cross-Platform Development: Unreal’s built-in tools streamline porting the game to multiple platforms, helping us reach a wider audience without duplicating effort.
Unreal’s rendering pipeline supports, for example, Metal API (by Apple), allowing Goodville to maintain impressive visuals while consuming less power—an important factor for mobile gaming.
How does Goodville use AI and Machine Learning technologies to adapt the game to user behavior and create a unique experience?
Goodville leverages AI and machine learning in several ways to deliver a tailored and engaging player experience:
- Emotional Well-Being Integration: AI analyzes responses from in-game questionnaires and adapts accordingly, offering tailored advice or recommendations that align with a player’s emotional state.
- Translation and Localization: Goodville’s script (texts, descriptions, character lines) is already over 350k words, and the game has been translated into 11 languages so far. AI-driven tools streamline the localization process, ensuring that Goodville is accessible in multiple languages while maintaining cultural relevance. Texts, dialogues, and even humor are adapted to resonate with diverse audiences.
What are the benefits (and downsides, if any) of the Unreal Engine community for the game developers like you?
The Unreal Engine developer community is incredibly supportive and resourceful:
- Knowledge Sharing: Developers regularly share tutorials, assets, and solutions for common challenges, saving time and inspiring innovation.
- Access to Updates: Early access to Unreal Engine’s latest updates and plugins keeps us ahead of the curve in adopting cutting-edge features.
- Marketplace Opportunities: The Unreal Engine Marketplace offers high-quality assets and plugins that speed up development and enhance creativity.
Image Credit: Unreal Engine
However, one challenge is that Unreal’s sophistication can lead to a steep learning curve, particularly for newcomers or smaller teams. Balancing the engine’s capabilities with team expertise requires careful planning and investment in training.
