Monument Valley was created by British indie developer Ustwo Games in 2014, brilliantly redefining the experience of puzzle games as a breathtakingly beautiful, tranquil journey in a small, mysterious world. Even now, with the release of the third instalment, Monument Valley 3, the series as a whole feels like a finely crafted work of art.

The rules of the game are simple: guide your wayward protagonist through a maze made of fantastical shapes known as ”impossible geometries“, manipulating and rotating the stage, moving floors and pillars to create a path. But what does it take to put a game like this together? David Fernández Huerta, the studio’s art director and lead artist for the first and second instalments, reflects on how quickly it all came to be.

“This sounds strange because, to be honest, it‘s never happened this quickly with any other game I‘ve been involved with in my career,” says Huerta. But the team had locked down the striking visuals and key feeling of the game within the first week of development.

“Nailing that satisfying feeling of clicking a Penrose triangle into place and creating a new pathway to walk over – that was there by the end of the first week, maybe second. It was lightning in a bottle and incredibly lucky; we wish every game revealed itself that quickly.”

The first Monument Valley game follows Princess Ida’s journey of redemption – her guiding mission is to return treasures to their rightful places and seek forgiveness for past wrongs.

Architecture undoubtedly plays a huge part of the game’s world. At the start of the series, the design moved beyond a mere collection of impossible geometries, instead featuring elegant domes defined by graceful curves.

”We found that these onion-shaped domes were great for unifying the design language of the game, providing a distinct visual identity, although we had originally planned more variation in architectural styles. The idea of world-building in the first game was all about following a poetic, abstract form of storytelling similar to music videos, where you sense that there is a story, but not everything has to make perfect sense or be strongly interlinked.”

From sketches illustrating the game’s early world concept, we see the Crow People who repeatedly get in Ida’s way. And the development team began thinking about the possibilities of the Crow People as characters in the game, both mechanically and emotionally, and what kind of impact players could have on them.

”We knew [the Crow People] were useful for blocking the player’s progress and creating puzzles, but we wanted to create scenarios where they would become more sympathetic characters.

“In the sketch, you can see the idea of the player being able to drag a platform to protect the Crow from the rain, and how the Crow would react, having different emotions depending on whether they were sheltered or not. We wanted to explore what the player would do if they could affect the emotions of these antagonistic creatures.”

Monument Valley 2 is led by a mother named Ro and her daughter. The young daughter faithfully follows in Ro’s footsteps, and the player needs to lead them both out of the maze. Along the way, there are moments when the two become separated. But their deep trust in one another ultimately brings meaningful growth to both mother and child.

Players may notice that each stage here is designed with greater freedom than in the previous game. Huerta explains the balance between the more clearly defined story of the mother and daughter and the distinct world of each stage:

“With the second game, we decided to tell a clearer story, drawing from personal experiences of our team members. This means we could explore the feelings of the characters in more abstract environments. As a result, there is a lot more variation in Monument Valley 2’s architectural style to show that rich emotional range of the characters, and to portray the changes they are both going through.”

Once their journey comes to an end, be sure to try The Lost Forest, a stage added in a later update. This beautifully designed puzzle was created to inspire better understanding and engagement in forest conservation efforts.

Set in a world bathed in soft sunset hues, Monument Valley 3 returns eight years after the previous instalment. Maze navigator Noor holds a staff imbued with a mysterious light and bears the mission of illuminating a world that is slowly being enveloped in darkness. She must also courageously travel in a small boat, sailing waters where giant fish roam.

Lili Ibrahim, lead artist of Monument Valley 3, shares insights into the creation of this long-awaited arrival.

“Each instalment of the series brings new team members into the mix. Each person brings their own influence, and for the third instalment, I wanted to bring some of my own heritage into the Monument Valley universe. Together with the art team, I looked for ways to bring in East and South East Asian architectural silhouettes into the game – a part of the world that had not been visualised in Monument Valley before.”

Noor’s voyage unfolds through mazes adorned with large flowers blooming across the water’s surface and temple-like rooftops. And ahead of her lie far more character encounters than in the previous two instalments. As Noor keeps the light alive in her universe, the warmth of Monument Valley also lives on, telling stories shaped by the evolving personalities of each development team.