Monument Valley: The iOS game that stood for artistry over monetization, fading amidst mobile gaming's free-to-play shift
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Monument Valley was a landmark mobile game that became emblematic of the artistic potential of iOS gaming in the early 2010s, praised for its minimalist design and contemplative nature.
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Its premium price point and lack of aggressive monetization stood in stark contrast to the free-to-play model that came to dominate mobile gaming.
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An App Store redesign in 2017 and shifts in Apple's promotion of games marked the decline of premium indie titles on iOS.
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The rise of predatory design practices optimized to retain player attention above all else has coincided with declines in wellbeing.
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A decade on, Monument Valley's purity of vision seems like a "glimpse into a parallel existence" where quality and artistry were optimized over monetization.