At the start of the pandemic, during a conversation with a developer friend about the volume of parcels being delivered to our homes, the idea to create a fun postal-themed game was born. It launched in July 2020 and quickly climbed to the top 10 Paid Adventure Games in the Apple download charts.
In Postman Tap, players master the art of flying through the fictional village of Windminster. As they glide around the picturesque postal route, players are awarded with stamps when they pick up and deliver mail.
I worked with developer Emerick Gibson on the controls of the game. We created multiple prototypes before the graphics, as we wanted to make sure that the flying controls were fun and easy to play but difficult to master.
I then set about drawing the world of Windminster - trying a few different art styles before landing on a flat geometric style. The creative advantage of this style was I could scale the design quickly to make a world that was instantly interesting to play in. We also developed the idea that the game would take place over the course of a day, so we prototyped light effects that would change to indicate how long the player had left to play.
Emerick and I collaborated closely on the core loop of Postman Tap to keep players engaged. We believed we’d be able to create a sticky game if players’ could see their performance improve, so we created a world where they could upgrade their postal working using stamps, which in turn would allow them to earn more stamps.
Once we were happy with the core loop, I set about creating a UI that matched the style of the game. At this point I enlisted the help of brilliant musician Jack Patchett who came up with a playful yet wholesome soundtrack to accompany the game.
Without any money to spend on User Acquisition, we believed the best way to encourage users to download Postman Tap would be if it featured on the Apple App Store. In order to do that I created a website and marketing materials which were used in the feature application sent to Apple.
Postman Tap launched in July 2020, and was featured in Apple's New Games We Love category. In the first week, it reached the top 10 Paid Adventure Games in the Apple download charts.
