Improving the Mobile App

So, as you may know, since last year you can also play Grepolis on your mobile phone. And we are really proud of what our team has accomplished so far, but we are also keeping an eye on the future, looking forward to improving the gaming experience of our game on your mobile devices. To do that, we are continuously collecting feedback via your reviews, comments and suggestions, but also conduct usability tests here at InnoGames to find out what is working good for you, what works well or maybe – what works not so good at all. With all the findings in mind, we are going back and forth to the drawing board to make the app more useful for our existing players and, on the other hand, to make it really easy and nice for new players to get into the world of Grepolis.

So, let’s have a look at the improvements that we are working on right now:

The first big change that you might have noticed are the two big buttons in the lower part of the screen, where the swipeable navigation bar used to be. Why did we change this? Some of you complained about the need to swipe to access several options in the old menu bar while new players had issues to find the option to switch between island/town – the old layout was just not clear enough for them. To address those issues we decided to get rid of the old menu bar and exchanged it with this 2-button solution: 1 button (the left one) to switch between island/town and the other one (on the right) to open the menu with enough screen space to carry all the important items at a glance without the need to swipe. As a nice plus, this layout does not eat up that much space as it’s predecessor did – and leaves more room for the island/town graphics. Without the swiping, you will hopefully save some time to be the greatest ruler in Grepolis!

We also decided to work on the town overview (new players where simply overwhelmed by all the informations and options available there, also they issued building orders in the senate and were missing the more common approach to expand towns directly in the town overview by just tapping on the landscape. We are working on that as well; soon, you will be able to construct buildings by tapping on construction sites in your town, making the construction process really easy – without the need to open the senate.

Of course, we will keep the senate as well, so players that are used to work on the buildings that way can still use it. For quick access we added a sidebar where you are able to observe the progress you make in terms of construction, research and recruitment, without the need to enter the related buildings. We are also working on a communication hub, where you will be able to access your inboxes, reports and some other functions that might be created in the near future.

Map: we really want to improve the way of how a player can interact with the map. New players really liked to explore their islands and it’s surroundings but had issues to find their way back to their own town. The button on top of the town overview/island switch will help them to find their way back.

We also added visual feedback to the items on the map to give you more a secure feeling on what exactly you actually tapped and get the most important information without the need to enter the corresponding “info” screen.

We have worked on the ring menu, making it more convenient to use it on a touch device. Have a look for yourself:

That’s it! We are really happy with the improvements that we have made so far and are really looking forward to see this stuff coming to life. Feel free to comment and give us feedback, you are a crucial part of our work to improve  Grepolis on mobile devices!