![]() It’s interesting to note that, Big Fish, PopCap and Playrix all competed within the casual market in these formative years. Playrix during its early days released many successful titles like Fishdom, Gardenscapes, Farmscapes, 4 Elements and Royal Envoy. They specialized in matching and hidden object games. Playrix as a company started in 2004, building casual downloadable games for PCs. To understand the success of Gardenscapes, we have to go back to the history of Playrix and the Gardenscapes brand. So what has Playrix done with Gardenscapes that so many have failed to do? The History of PlayRix & Gardenscapes It’s the first major successful innovation in the puzzle genre since 2012 when Candy Crush launched on mobile. Gardenscapes has made many companies within the puzzle genre turn their heads. Gardenscapes: New Acres by Playrix has now been a staple in the Top Grossing charts since September 2016, showing no signs of fading. In particular, each of these games has shown that there is more than one way to monetize off a puzzle game audience. Playrix, a veteran casual game developer, has created two huge hits on mobile: Fishdom and Gardenscapes. King’s still on top, but there has been a new contender slowly moving up the charts. Turn back the clock only one year, and it felt like the matching/puzzle game genre was locked up and dominated by one player: King. Looking forward to what’s to come! Gardenscapes’ Big Pivot ![]() A big thank you to Michail Katkoff, Anil Das-Gupta, Dave Cross and Alex Collins for their help with this post. Deconstructor has been an amazing resource for me and many mobile free to play designers around the industry so it’s an honour to be contributing to such an exceptional site. ![]() As announced by BothGunsBlazing, Anil Das-Gupta and I are joining forces with. This post is the first of many to be done in cooperation with Deconstructor Of Fun. ![]()
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![]() You can download it for free from Google Play and the App Store.In the casual game Big Farm: Mobile Harvest, you'll manage a farm and help it grow from a humble homestead to an enormous estate!įirst things first, you'll have to work on fixing up the place: grow wheat in the field and build a granary so you can store grain and use it to feed chickens later. If you’re on the look out for a colourful, detailed and light-hearted farm simulator, Big Farm: Mobile Harvest should do the trick. So even though the pace of the game is relaxed, you can’t just laze about on your tractor doing nawt! ![]() There are regular quests as well as upcoming events to keep you busy, including a Fairy Tale Festival, a tour of the estate, a Halloween party and more to come. You even have to take into account the working conditions and accommodation of the farm hands, since unhappy workers are less productive and thus cost more. The crops you sow can be used to feed the farmyard animals, whilst the animals can be sold at the market, and dung used as fertiliser. It’s really a balancing act between your budget and your desire to grow the farm. The game puts the emphasis on sustainable economics, rather than competition. ![]() You can also connect with fellow Big Farmers online for tricks of the trade, and form strategic co-ops. If that seems like a tall order, don’t worry – Tessa, Benny and the rest of the local folk guide you throughout with tips to help you till your way to success. Your uncle George left it to you in a sorry state, so you’ve got to turn it from scrubland into a farmyard paradise. ![]() As with its computer-bound forebear, Big Farm: Mobile Harvest puts you in charge of an ailing arable plot. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s been one of the better mobile games I’ve played when just running around, doing quests, and punching puny demons in their melon-like heads. I feel weird about the time I’ve spent with Diablo Immortal. Why do I care about my cool new pants, if I’m going to need to spend an absurd amount of money on the legendary gem required to get the most out of them? Dumpster diving for ham scraps But by making it nigh impossible to get the five-star legendary gems that represent the gateway to endgame play – and asking for an absurd amount of money and/or grind to rank them up even if I do have them – Diablo Immortal has kneecapped itself. Normally, the march of time would indicate legendary gems were just the latest in a long line of equipment "Macguffins": the hot new thing to chase at the top of the equipment pyramid. By moving the bulk of power and progression into legendary gems (items which go into sockets on my equipment to provide massive stat bonuses and unique passive abilities), Diablo Immortal has trivialized my interest in my equipment. But Diablo Immortal doesn’t just flood me with a lot of items, it’s also found a few new ways to rob me of my excitement. In recent times aRPG’s have made item drops more common – moving away from the days where I would leap from my chair in excitement when an unidentified Rare or Unique item fountained from the dying body of a defeated boss. These tiny little stories are what draw me into an aRPG, and each item is normally a new roll of the dice on a new story. ![]() Each one could have a weird bonus that sparks an interest in building my character differently, or simply a big stat upgrade to my weapon that has the wrong colored sockets, leaving me to ponder if it’s worth the change. Each new colorfully glowing addition to my inventory from treasure chests and defeated enemies represents the potential for a surprise. Put simply, the microtransactions have compromised some of the most important elements of a Diablo game.Įvery drop in an aRPG is sacred to me. This microtransaction abomination slows its trail of destruction to shove entire features into its mouth, gulping down critical parts of Diablo Immortal. There’s no way to talk about Diablo Immortal without confronting the 55-ton demon in the room, which takes the form of a cash shop, rampaging through the whole of the game. ![]() |
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