Ben Kuchera, writing about the creation of Threes (which we covered today) at Polygon:

That year-long journey of adding mechanics and art for testing, only to strip them away and get back to the core game again and again wasn’t wasted; the amount of testing and failed experiments gave them a sense of purpose and clarity when it came to the final game. It needed to be small, simple and easy to understand. The visual information needed to be clear and readable. Every other concept or theme was thrown out in deference to the original idea of matching tiles in multiples of three.

The article shows some of the concepts that the developers decided to throw out, and I think they made a good call. I don’t play many puzzle games, but Threes is fun and entertaining and challenging because it focuses on a simple mechanic: matching threes. Reducing the game’s feature set actually augmented the experience because it made the essence of the idea – numbers – immediate, easy to grasp, but hard to master.

I’m loving Threes. Its animations and sound effects are quirky and cute, the music is good, and the entire game can be played with one hand; you can pause and resume at any time, and there are no In-App Purchases or other tricks to let you win faster/more by paying. You either come up with a good strategy for matching and multiplying numbers, or you don’t get a high score – simple as that.

Go read Ben’s piece here, then get Threes for $1.99 because it’s a great iOS game.