The Mill – Classic Board Games - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

We make games for the App Store since it opened. The first one was La Briscola, a card game very popular in Italy and among Italians around the world. We are 8 in our independent and the 3 developers among us code since they were 8 years old (that means about 20 years for the youngest of them and 30 for the other 2…).

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Getting the Artificial Intelligence right was quite tricky. The virtual opponent, at any level, has to be challenging enough to give you an interesting match, but not too good otherwise you’d be put off. The Mill is a unique game in its rules, compared to other board games we had made, so having the correct balance wasn’t straightforward.

_OutOfTheBit

OutOfTheBit is an indie studio based in Wimbledon (London, UK) inspired by the classics. Among the first to have games on the Apple App Store, it now counts the most appreciated card and board games around, with some original gems such as Planet Quest. Next in the pipeline is Super Arcade Racing, a 2D top-down retro-style car game for the nostalgic of the 80s. It will be followed by Super Arcade Football, already on Steam for a very successful Early Access and now due to completion.
OutOfTheBit was founded almost 11 years ago by the current director and lead developer Ali Motisi and Italian Computer Engineer whose true passion has always been those that today are known as "retro" games and consoles. He's an estimator of the Commodore Amiga, BBC micro (which was his first computer and that he learned to code on by himself when he was only 8 years old).
Today 8 people work at OutOfTheBit: 3 developers, 2 graphic designers, 1 game designer, 1 sound designer (who can code as well!) and a PR manager.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

In the office, we all love multiplayer games. We spend our breaks challenging each other. And it could be a racing game or a card game. It’s often the best part of testing our new games.

How long have you been working on this app?

It was a 3 months project, with a developer and a graphic designer completely dedicated to it. But we constantly review the game, to correct errors and make it better.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

There are many board games around, and we had already made a few, but The Mill was that classic that was missing. We wanted to give the players a good game, easy to pick up, with a bit of a challenge but still good to play on the go.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

We like to make our games simple in terms of UI. We don’t like to put too many screens between the player and their game. Too many options and choices are just a burden. They have to be able to tap on the icon and play straight away.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

At the moment we are developing some retro-style games in pixel art, for the nostalgia of the 80s. The first of the series will be out in a few days. As per new updates of The Mill, we will continue to improve the Artificial Intelligence and work on a few suggestions that some of our players kindly gave us.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Download the game and start playing straight away. It’s free and it’s simple. And all the rules are explained in just a few paragraphs in the “Help” section of the menu.