CASE STUDY

KICK2BALLS

A USA software company.

Solution

Game development

Industry

Computer Software

Outcome

The coordinated work of the Computools’s team allowed to achieve the project's goal. The client received the desired result: in a short time, a large amount of statistical data and opinions of the society on the actions of President Trump were collected. Sales statistics and customer profit also increased several times. Many potential investors showed interest in the company of the customer and offered cooperation on beneficial terms. The next client's project has already been successfully implemented with one of the investors.

Several key options we solved:

  • Implemented strong analytical tools.
  • Cross-platform development for accessibility on any device.
  • Simple 3D graphics for high application response speed.

+ 138%
Throughput, Users
+ 83%
Average Order
+ 59%
Increasing Productivity
+ 65%
Increasing Revenue
- 69%
Reducing Costs
41%
Business Process Automation

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Mantra Imports LLC is a software company situated in Michigan, the USA. The main goal of the project was to get clear, based on emotions, analytics from different states on President Tramp actions. An additional feature is checking comments by date. Studies have shown that through gamification, it’s easier to collect statistics from real people. Entertainment content attracts the audience, so the gaming application is the best replacement for boring polls and tests. The principle of the game is quite simple. If users like new news about the President, they give high-five with him and can leave an anonymous comment. If they don’t like the news or they feel negative emotions about the President’s actions, then they can kick him in the balls and describe the reason for their dissatisfaction in the comments. Statistics are collected by state and allows to see the full picture using a map of the United States. Monetization of the game is carried out through the sale of statistics.

Doesn’t support global statistics by map

Doesn't have auto-embed tools for easy integration map to the website

Not very strong game part of the service

Lack of time for testing and launching the application

Doesn't have additional monetization for usual users

Tight schedule

Opportunity to get real data from gamification

High popularity among lots of users

Opportunity for users to stay Anonymous while leaving a comment.

Availability of all the necessary tools and data

Possibility to use Map in news or embed to a website (by request only)

Quick decision making on various issues

Communication Framework

Computools
Business Analyst
Project Manager
Team Lead
Business Development Manager
Mantra Imports LLC
CEO
Communication

One of the important points of work on the project is the establishment of a stable and high-speed communication system. This allows to make decisions and get approval quickly. At the initial stage, email and Skype were used for interaction. This allowed exchanging information, conduct video and audio conferences during the discussion of the project. Later, telephone calls and Viber, as an additional messenger, were added to the above communication methods.

Digital Platform & Technology

To build a state-of-the-art platform, we have carefully chosen a set of technologies with exceptional performance and security characteristics. Our chosen technologies were also highly efficient in terms of total cost of ownership and support.

Computools
Project Manager
Team Lead
Mantra Imports LLC
CEO
Communication
Unity3D

Unity3D is the best app for Game development. Unity is excellent for cross-platform development. The assets store is also reportedly great when compared to other platforms. Moreover, in the case of the visual platform, Unity is excellent. It is also easier to use compared to many other technologies. It features multiple tools that enable rapid editing and iteration in the development cycles, including Play mode for quick previews of the work in real-time.

C#

C# is pure object-oriented language, this allows to create modular maintainable applications and reusable codes.C# has got a very efficient system to erase and remove all the garbage present on the system. It doesn’t create a mess in the system and the system does not get hanged during execution. C# has a major advantage of a strong memory backup. The rich class libraries make many functions easy to be implemented.

PHP

PHP is a server-side scripting language it creates dynamic pages with customized features. Since PHP does not use a lot of a system's resources in order to run, it operates much faster than other scripting languages. Hosting PHP is also very easy and a lot of hosts provide support for PHP. Also, PHP is extendible. A large number of databases are supported.

MySQL

MySQL is a free-to-use, open-source database that facilitates the effective management of databases by connecting them to the software. MySQL is globally renowned for being the most secure and reliable database management system used in popular web applications. It offers unmatched scalability to facilitate the management of deeply embedded apps using a smaller footprint, even in massive warehouses that stack terabytes of data. On-demand flexibility is the star feature of MySQL.

System architecture

Specification

There was no technical specification on the project, as everything was created in the process. However, a series of sequential actions was enshrined in the following algorithm. This made it possible to work out all the necessary tasks of the project deeply and completely.

Goal - Freely leave the comment about brand new President's action.
Precondition Open Web site or download application from links
Main Flow Agree with the terms of use (one time) Watch what new in “Watch TV” on the scene. Click on “Watch TV” to select last news. Select the news that you like. Leave a comment and select kick2balls to high five. Click on the map to look statistic by United States (limited for user) Play with Trumps 3d model.
Postconditions On current President's news user leave his mind about this action.
Alternative Flows 1. There were no last news from Trump recently The left comment will be on a new date.
2. User leaves a comment from different countries. The flag will be shown in comments, but the user won't be in US game statistic.
3. The user wants just to watch statistics. Move to the bottom of the website and move to Statistics section.

COMPUTOOLS TEAM

Computools choose specialists, whose experience and skills are best suited to accomplish the task. The team included development engineers and managers. Since the project involved the use of 3D modelling and animation, the team necessarily included a 3D artist and a UI designer.

Team Lead
Nikolay Smorgun
Business Development Manager
Denis Dubinskiy
Business Analyst
Nikita Abelmasov
UX Designer
Denis Gubrienko
3D Designer
Alexander Sosin
Computools’s Engineering Team
Project Manager
Andrey Melnichenko
Quality Assurance Engineer
Gleb Kovalenko

BACKSTAGE

Productive collaboration between the project participants is key to success in any difficult situation. A well-organized communication system allows for solving various almost immediately. Each type of meetings, face-to-face brainstorming, video or audio-conferences, helps to achieve the main goal of the project.

Dev meetings
Well-coordinated collaboration at all stages of the coding and testing process increases the pace of the development. This works especially well when our software engineers cooperate closely with their client counterparts.
Team Brainstorming
The brainstorming sessions help our engineers to find a really innovative solution. They stimulate creative activity and each participant has an opportunity to offer as many options as possible, including the most fantastic ones. It helps to hit the necessary ideas and solutions.
Feedback
After finishing a large part of the work we conduct team discussions and arrange feedback sessions. Thanks to exchanging opinions and emerging ideas, our developers find truly innovative solutions, improving their personal efficiency and the efficiency of the entire team.

Internal Communication Flow

One of the main goals of the Compotools team is to finish the project in time and meet all intermediate deadlines with completed tasks and solved issues. To provide quick decision making and solving any difficulties during work on the project developers used Skype, Face-to-Face scrum meetings and retrospective meetings. Project Manager used Trello to set tasks to team members and to monitor assignments.

Project Management Methodology

Since the project needed to be implemented quickly and maintain the productivity and efficiency of the team, Scrum was chosen as the project methodology. Using scrum as one of the most popular methods of the Agile approach has repeatedly proven to be effective. Especially while working on projects where the result is needed in a short time. Continuous testing and verification of the results lead to high efficiency and operability of the application. Moreover, this way the developer can complete tasks faster. The team remains motivated throughout the work, and the manager can control the work at each stage. As a result, the user is more satisfied with the application, which was released in a short time and with minimal improvements during maintenance.

PROJECT TIMELINE

1 week
2 weeks
3 months
1
CONSULT
Defining Goals
  • Identifying high-level project goals
Analysis & Exploration
  • Researching and analyzing the existing and ready-made solutions
  • Defining main restrictions and providing solutions for them
  • Identifying the main risks
2
DESIGN
High-Level Architecture
  • Selecting basic architectural patterns and tools
  • Forming an application stack, work processes with VCS
  • Forming the main development guidelines
Interactive Prototypes & Specification
  • Development of a prototype in parallel with specification
  • Modelling environment and character
  • Preparing animation and collect sounds
  • Native web implementation (page, work with database, comment update system), date picker, etc)
Build Development Process
  • Choosing project methodology, calculating the number of project teams, forming process configuration
  • Forming of work format
  • Configuring the technological processes and interactions between roles
3
ENGINEER
Build The Team
  • Making the initial scope based on the specification and estimate, calculating the optimal number of specialists for each role
  • Adding executors to the team's core
  • Conducting an intro meeting
Development
  • Unity3d game logic, working with animation and API of CNN, applying the color map
  • Secure system for additional data needed for selling
  • Optimizing and baking light for fast appear of WebGL Window
Testing & Stabilization
  • Developing a testing plan
  • Testing following a test case
  • Applying improvements
  • Code stabilization/refactoring, increasing system stability, reducing the probability of bug emergency and speed up development

Design

We develop the architecture of the product to build a solid design, to ensure the functions' flexibility and their harmonious interaction.

Computools
Architect
Project Manager
3D Designer
UX Designer
Mantra Imports LLC
CEO
Communication

Engineering

Due to the use of the Scrum methodology, the development of the code was carried out continuously, dividing only into short sprints. Testing was manual because all systems work only on real platforms and accounts (for example collection user data, and CNN collection).
The client and his team also took part in the testing.

CODE SAMPLE

Scan QR code to find code sample

Or use link below

https://github.com/computools/Kick2Balls

What our client said

Petrus Alcindor
CEO at Mantra Imports LLC

«Computools was able to quickly understand my requirements, and provide expert results before the posted deadlines.»

Contact Us

Let's talk about your project.
Use the form to drop a line or write us an e-mail: info@computools.com

Thank you for your message!

Your request will be carefully researched by our experts. We will get in touch with you within one business day.

GET EXPERT ADVICE!

Computools will guide your company through a digital transformation.