Ukrainian Unity developer Zoreslav Slobodian has developed a mobile quiz game called Memesick, which is entirely based on popular video memes. The project, which the author has been working on independently for several years in his free time, has managed to climb to the top of the Ukrainian App Store.
Ukrainian Unity developer Zoreslav Slobodian has developed a mobile quiz game called Memesick, which is entirely based on popular video memes. The project, which the author has been working on independently for several years in his free time, has managed to climb to the top of the Ukrainian App Store.
The developer talked about the history of the project’s creation, technical flaws, and changes to monetization in his post on the GamedevDOU forum.
The idea for the game arose from the desire to combine the classic quiz format with dynamic humorous content. In Memesick, after each player’s answer, a short video is launched, which is the main fun component of the gameplay. Currently, the game database already has over 2,000 different videos.
The developer’s biggest fear before the release was the strict moderation of the App Store. Since the memes often use obscene language, there was a risk of publication being rejected. However, downloading the game went smoothly after setting the age rating correctly.
«Initially, all videos were pulled directly from YouTube using a separate Heroku server,» Zoreslav Slobodian shared technical details. This scheme turned out to be unstable: videos took a long time to load on old smartphones, and once the game stopped working altogether due to changes in the service’s API. Later, YouTube removed the developer’s channel with private videos, which forced him to completely revise the architecture.
The solution was to switch to the Unity Addressables system. This allowed content to be cached locally on users' devices, making the game independent of third-party platforms, and greatly facilitating the release of updates.
During the project’s existence, its interface changed three times — from a bright «flash style» to a modern minimalist UI. The financial model also underwent a transformation. The first version worked on the «pay as you want» scheme (from $1 to $10 for disabling ads), but this approach turned out to be ineffective. Later, the author switched the project to a classic F2P model with internal currency, boosters, and an in-game store.
A real breakthrough for Memesick was the launch of advertising in one of the popular Instagram communities. The game instantly soared to first place in its category and took fifth place in the overall top of free applications in the Ukrainian App Store, finding itself next to such giants as Roblox and PUBG Mobile.
Last year, the developer integrated peer-to-peer multiplayer into Memesick using Unity Netcode, Relay, and Lobby technologies, adding an online duel mode. Currently, the game has two independent branches of progress: Ukrainian and English. Previously, the application also had Russian language available, but after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the author completely removed Russian localization from the project.
In the future, Zoreslav Slobodian plans to focus on scaling the multiplayer, regularly updating the video database, experimenting with new game mechanics, and improving the technical base of the application.
