PLAYRIX
The first part of this analytical series focused on Rovio Entertainment and how they successfully evolved and matured their multi-million dollar Angry Birds franchise. In the second part of this article series, we put a spotlight on top 10 grossing casual games developer Playrix, who are trying hard to innovate and experiment with casual games, challenging the established norms of this genre, and finding profound success!
Playrix is known for a string of successful top 10 grossing hits like,Homescapes, Gardenscapes and Fishdom.
Source: Think Gaming (20/01/2018)
“But unlike its peers, Playrix is not relying solely on eye candy graphics, super polished VFX , and slick & dynamic gameplay which have become the pinnacle of this genre.”
Instead Playrix is walking a different path.
Playrix: Recipe of success
Combining the simple core loop of match 3 titles with unlockable decorative elements in a niche environmental setting, powerful daily quest system, and a well-crafted story loop is strongly reminiscent of features used in mid-core and hard-core games. Let's see how.
Similarities with Mid-Core Loops:
Getting rid of the saga map in this genre and unlocking and populating the map with a decoration is very similar to a light version of base building tactics used by mid-core and hard core games. Here is how:
1) Light Base Building:
No Saga maps! Which have remained unchanged and are hallmarks of player progression in King and Jam City games. As seen below, Players start on Node 1 and progress linearly to the next node within each world as they clear subsequent levels, offering no other significant interaction
Q & A with Playrix team:
Om: Why did you choose to move away from a Saga Map? What led the team to break away from this established cardinal rule of the Match 3 genre?
Igor Elovikov (Creative Director, Playrix): The roots of that decision date back to the times of casual downloadable games. Back then no one was even thinking about free-to-play mechanics and the market was saturated with lots of similar products. Companies wanted to stand out which led them to try blending genres.
One of the pioneers in that were Tropix: http://www.tropixgame.com/ and Cradle of Rome: https://www.bigfishgames.com/games/1445/cradleofrome/?pc. Both games were released in 2007 (over 10 years ago!) and had a lot in common — players had to beat match-3 levels to earn currency and resources, which were needed in order to construct something. In Tropix it was an island, while in Cradle of Rome it was a whole village.
“Actually, those two games inspired us when we created Fishdom, and then Gardenscapes, so what you see in our mobile games now is something that was actually tried and tested a long time ago.”_ Igor Elovikov
The exact mechanics seen in Playrix titles (first set of images) can be seen very commonly in mid-core and hard-core games with base builder loops as seen in mobile hard-core game (second two sets of images below.)
Q & A with Playrix team:
Om: Was the decision to add a light base building loop made consciously or found to work through trial and error?
Igor Elovikov (Creative Director, Playrix): We just relied on our previous experience with casual downloadable games.
Om: What precautions or change in design if any, did you have to make to ensure these base building mechanics were not too overwhelming for casual players?
Igor Elovikov (Creative Director, Playrix): I guess the key things here are simplicity, and emotional appeal.
“What I mean is that we tried to make the user experience as simple as possible (when it comes to building and constructing) and concentrate more on emotions”_ Igor Elovikov
In simpler words, we put more effort in the dialogue and animation of the fish in Fishdom and in storyline development in Gardenscapes, rather than in designing complex mechanics.
Om: What is the feedback you get from your players? Do they find the decorative/light base building engaging compared to just match 3 mechanics?
Igor Elovikov (Creative Director, Playrix): Well, I can’t say for sure. We definitely haven’t had any negative feedback, players haven’t told us that it bothers them, or that it gets in the way. Usually they say the game does differ, but in a positive way.
