Game Design!
  If you're someone who enjoys games, you might have enjoyed a certain mechanic of a game, or you might have hated another. You might have found some that you were neutral towards. These decisions are taken by a game designer. A dash feels too slow at 1.5 speed, but too fast at 2.5, so find the right balance at 2. But what defines "the right balance?" If it were that easy, there wouldn't need to be a game designer's job 😉

  I've been playing the LinkedIn games since they pretty much launched, and I've somehow loved taking that quick break to play those 3-5 games a day. I didn't even notice I have been playing Queens for more than a year, the game has fun mechanics that made me stay hooked. But with that, I've played the game across multiple devices in that 1 year.

  Despite being a fun game due to the mechanics, one of the key interests for the game is to clear the game as fast as possible, possibly the top ranked amongst your connections. So saving even a second becomes crucial to become the fastest to beat the game. But, herein lies the problem. LinkedIn is available on Android/iOS browsers/app (portrait, smaller screen) and PC/MacOS browser (landscape, bigger screen). You'd think clearing the game on the bigger screen might be faster, but that's not the case always. I've personally lost quite a few seconds, because when playing on a PC/MacOS, there is no drag functionality to mark the "wrong" candidates in the entire grid. I have to manually click on the individual tiles, rather than dragging my mouse, thus wasting those precious seconds.

  The decision to use the same ranking for all these platforms, which uses a different 'mechanic' of the game, is a tough decision to take. There may be programming or QA oversight as well, but should ideally not be skipped by a game designer.

  Take the LinkedIn game Zip! for example, where dragging with your finger on your mobile screen seems so much simpler, compared to dragging your cursor using the MacOS trackpad. Compare that to an externally connected mouse, and that's another smooth movement source, and would affect the time to clear the game.

  While game design might seem easy and just a 'provide great ideas' job to a stranger, only those who do it on a regular basis understand the challenges that come with synchornizing everything. Cross platform, Co-op, Multiplayer, so many complicated things to worry about, while keeping the project realistically achievable is a skill very few master.