Monument Valley was Almost Called “The Garden of Geometric Delights“

Blockbuster mobile indie game Monument Valley very nearly went by a different name reveals lead designer Ken Wong in a new book.

It’s one of the most loved and successful indie games of all time. While plenty of other titles have been downloaded more times than Monument Valley, despite its impressive 50,000,000 result. Very few have done so as fully paid premium experiences. When the rest of the market was going free-to-play, developer ustwo Games remained unmoved, adamant Monument Valley’s gameplay experience was worth a price. And the studio was right.

Following the release of an expansion, Forgotten Shores in late 2014, a few sequel was released last week to iOS devices. (Android is coming soon.) Following the release of Monument Valley 2 has come a new book, available on Amazon and iTunes. The Making of Monument Valley: Secrets Behind the Best Indie Games was put together with help from Grab It and our interview with Ken Wong. Wong was the lead designer and artist behind the innovative gameplay.

We thought we would share with you an interesting quote from the book, to whet the appetite of those who may be interested in picking it up. It relates to the name of the game, or more accurately, what that name could have been. It turns out the developer circled a number of disparate titles before falling on Monument Valley. Here is the exact quote:

“The temporary name of the project was Tower of Illusion, which nobody actually liked. We spent many weeks arguing over a suitable name, with examples being Crow Season, The Garden of Geometric Delights, While She Wandered and Upper Escherlon.”

It’s a bit tacky, but I kind of like Upper Escheron. Tower of Illusion is way too Mickey Mouse, and Crow Season just makes no sense at all given the final product. The Garden of Geometric Delights is a very indie title as is While She Wandered. But ultimately you have to feel the team lent the right way in falling with Monument Valley. 50 million sales can’t be wrong!



You can learn more about The Making of Monument Valley book at the publisher’s website, or you can pick it up directly now from Amazon or from iTunes depending on your format of choice.

If you haven't yet played this fantastic game, you can grab the original, or the sequel now.

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