King.com breaking into match-3 genre with Candy Crush Saga on Facebook

King.com brings its popular “Saga” series to the match-3 genre today on Facebook with Candy Crush Saga.

The game is based on Candy Crush, available on King.com’s web portal. Players are tasked with helping Mr. Toffee and his daughter, Tiffi, travel through 65 levels in a Candyland-like world, solving candy-themed match-3 puzzles and acquiring items for candy recipes. The game monetizes similar to the other Saga games, with extra lives and gameplay-boosting charms and powerups available for Facebook Credits.

Candy Crush Saga will eventually be playable via open web, Facebook, and mobile devices;  somewhat like King.com did with the match-3 game Miner Speed. Unlike Miner Speed, Candy Crush Saga won’t offer crossover experiences: CMO Alex Dale tells us the Facebook and open web versions play significantly different from each other. Dale also tells us the various Saga games will be launching for mobile devices in the near future, coming to as many platforms as possible. The titles are expected to launch for iOS and Android devices, but King.com CEO Riccardo Zacconi recently showed us Bubble Witch Saga on the Kindle Fire, too.

Clarification: Bubble Witch Saga on the Kindle was a prototype version and is not currently available.

“On our King.com portal, you’ll typically have a couple of levels of gameplay where you play head-to-head in a match or a tournament. The excitement is very much driven by the direct competitive challenge,” Dale says. “On Facebook, it’s a much more a relaxing experience about progressing through the game with your friends, and the mobile version will be ‘snackable’ so it can be played whenever someone has a free moment.”

Candy Crush Saga marks the sixth Saga game for King.com,  after Hoop De Loop Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Mahjong Saga, Bubble Saga and Puzzle Saga. Bubble Witch Saga is currently the most popular of these titles on Facebook, holding the No. 6 spot for daily active users. Between the launch of Puzzle Saga in October 2010 and Bubble Witch Saga a year later, King.com’s Facebook traffic has rocketed the company to the No. 3 games developer in terms of DAU. Both Bubble Witch Saga and Bubble Saga maintain positions on our Top 25 Facebook Games list for the month. The latest game in the series, Hoop De Loop Saga, is also rapidly acquiring DAU, so it may show up on next month’s rankings.

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Familiar Ville: a lushly-presented take on the pet care genre

Familiar Ville is a new Facebook-based pet care game from Korean developer Iustice, Inc. Despite its generic name, it’s worth checking out if only to see the striking difference made by deviating from the common, simple cartoon visual style which many Facebook games favor. Featuring lush, detailed backgrounds and a cast of memorable, quirky characters, the game makes a bold effort to set itself apart from its many competitors — at least in its aesthetic.

Familiar Ville puts players in control of a small house which will eventually become populated with a variety of pets and things for them to do. After choosing and naming a pet with which to start their collection, the player is led through a brief tutorial explaining the basic concepts of the game, which include how to generate food for pets and batteries to power the toys which entertain them. The training of pets to perform increasingly-complex tricks is also introduced, and within a few minutes the player is let loose in the house to begin managing their fledgling pet empire.

Familiar Ville requires players to keep track of quite a few things at once in order to be as successful as possible. Pets have both hunger and cleanliness statistics, which can be managed by feeding and bathing them. Feeding pets requires the production of food using food creator machines, while toys — the game’s primary source of income — require batteries in order to work. When pets play with a toy, the item becomes “charged” with coins which can then be collected, but at this point it must be recharged with additional batteries.

The game incorporates an unusual “combo” system to encourage players to time their collections carefully — collecting items which drop to the floor gradually fills a meter as the number collected in rapid succession increases. Upon reaching certain milestones, the player receives a bonus to the rewards they have collected, meaning that players with a wide variety of pets and income-producing items in their virtual home will be able to rack up some massive bonuses easily. The simple addition of this arcade-style feature adds an element of light strategy and timing to the game which is not seen in many other similar examples of the genre.

Where Familiar Ville really stands out is in the art and presentation. The game features detailed backdrops, animations and an unusual cast of characters delivering the various quests and challenges the player is presented with. Rather than the generic, dull characters seen in many other Facebook games, Iustice has taken the time to infuse each of these characters with visual distinctiveness and their own personality quirks. A likeable cast and good writing can be a strongly contributing factor in encouraging users to return after an initial “trial run” of the game.

The pet genre may be one of the most over-saturated categories on Facebook, but Familiar Ville is a solid game. At this time, there are not many items for players to purchase with hard currency, though players may also top up their soft currency reserves using Facebook Credits if they want to make quicker progress. With a wider variety of monetization strategies coupled with a strong drive for user acquisition through various channels, Familiar Ville has a lot of potential for success despite a slow start so far.

Familiar Ville has picked up just 600 monthly active users and 200 daily active users since its launch on February 20. To follow its progress, check out AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

A good game that features some lovely presentation and gameplay innovations, but which is yet to prove it has the “legs” for long-term success.

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Hidden Haunts brings photorealism to the hidden object genre

The recently-launched Hidden Haunts from News Corporation’s social game developer Making Fun represents the company’s attempt to innovate in the hidden object genre. Its main hooks are the game’s photorealistic visuals and a modular city that grows along with the narrative rather than the usual freeform construction we see in other hidden object games.

It’s impossible to see a new hidden object game and not compare it to the more well-established big hitters in the genre such as Zynga’s Hidden Chronicles, Disney Playdom’s Gardens of Time and, to a lesser extent, Vostu’s World Mysteries. Making Fun president John Welch is well aware of the strong level of interest the genre is currently enjoying and cites Facebook’s naming of Gardens of Time as its number one title of 2011 as an inspiration for the development of this game. Speaking with us earlier this month, Welch noted that company “didn’t want to be left behind” by rival titles, so the decision was made to release the game early rather than its previously-intended March release date.

The game’s narrative focuses on a team of specialists with a “sixth sense” seeking to resolve ghost problems in the town of Lost Haven. It was originally intended to incorporate the cliched “missing uncle” narrative hook, but this was removed in order to distinguish the game from Hidden Chronicles and World Mysteries, both of which focus their plots around this fact. Instead, the player works their way through a series of episodes which focus on separate preset buildings around the town rather than a single mansion. The player is then able to construct their own houses and decorations around these fixed buildings, with the map expanding as the plot proceeds.

The supposedly photorealistic environments for the hidden object puzzles certainly look nice, but given the amount of post-processing applied to the picture — not to mention the bizarre objects strewn across the top of them — it’s actually difficult to see a huge difference between the visuals of this game and those of, say, Hidden Chronicles. If anything, using photographs for the settings rather than stylized hand-drawn or computer-generated visuals makes it frustratingly difficult to find the hidden objects in question at times, going beyond the usual fun of the genre into genuine annoyance at times. Mastering the various scenes becomes more a case of memorizing where the fairly limited number of possible objects are rather than having strong powers of observation.

This problem is compounded by the fact that after ticking off the list of objects to find, the player must then identify a final object using a picture which is covered in mist. When the objects are already muddy and shrouded in shadow in most cases, finding this final object is often best left to the Hint function. Offering some challenge to players potentially keeps them interested for longer, but it’s a fine line — dip into “frustrating” territory as this game frequently does and there’s a very strong risk of players giving up and not coming back.

Outside the hidden object scenes, the citybuilding gameplay is very conventional, with the construction of buildings contributing towards unlocking more scenes. Players are also able to visit friends’ villages, though the game does a very poor job of explaining exactly what players are supposed to do when there. Early in the game, the player is given a quest to “hunt a poltergeist” in the obligatory fake friend’s village, but is given no guidance on how to achieve this, leading to further frustration.

The citybuilding component’s visual style also clashes enormously with the photographic puzzle scenes. All game characters are presented as somewhat creepy doll-like personae with disproportionately large heads and don’t quite seem in keeping with the game’s desire to be more “realistic” than other examples of the genre. Similarly, the buildings that make up the city are obviously stylized pixel art rather than photographs or 3D models, giving the whole game a rather inconsistent visual style throughout.

Hidden Haunts has its good points — its production values are good, and players looking for a new challenge in their hidden object games may find things to like here. The game does, however, feel like an obvious attempt to capitalize on the genre’s popularity rather than an effort to genuinely innovate. The frustration factor of the photographic puzzles coupled with the inconsistent presentation makes this feel like a title that needs a bit more work before it can hope to compete with the giants of the genre in the long term.

Hidden Haunts currently has 220,000 monthly active users and 50,000 daily active users. You can follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

A hidden object game with some nice ideas that are overshadowed by frustrating, conventional gameplay and inconsistent presentation.

Correction: A previous draft of this story incorrectly stated Facebook named Hidden Chronicles its No.1 Facebook game of 2011.

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Animal Land aiming for unprecedented freedom in crowded city-building genre

Animal Land is a new city-building game from the American subsidiary of Japanese developer CyberAgent, whose other social games include Pico World, Tinier Cafe and Magical Saga. While similar in aesthetic to the company’s iOS title Animal Bakery, Animal Land is a Facebook-based game focusing on the larger-scale task of building a community rather than its iOS cousin’s restaurant management gameplay.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Animal Land currently has 250,000 monthly active users and 10,000 daily active users.

Game producer Saori Koizumi describes Animal Land as a “city management game where players must explore land, build houses and shops, and decorate their own city with trees and facilities to attract cute animal residents.” It is similar to established takes on the genre, including such well-worn mechanics as farming, stocking businesses using a finite “supplies” resource and gradually expanding the community’s borders. Players can build a variety of housing, businesses, farms and special structures by placing them on the map and then clicking several times to complete building. Businesses and housing generate income at a regular rate, while farming allows for the production of supplies, allowing the player to create a self-sufficient community.

The animal theme is used to power a “collection” aspect to gameplay. Different houses attract different animals to come and live in the player’s town, with each new animal being recorded in the in-game “Animal Book.” Completing pages of the book offers rewards which can’t be acquired in any other way.

Progression through the game is tied not only to collecting experience points and leveling up, but also to the construction of “community buildings,” which must be staffed with the player’s friends. Successfully building and staffing a community building such as a City Hall allows the player to increase the population limit of their city, thereby allowing them to construct more housing and increase their income further. As Animal Land is an entry into a highly saturated genre, CyberAgent America is likely hoping that this viral promotion mechanic will encourage greater numbers of people to try the game.

Animal Land’s monetization is entirely handled through Facebook Credits, which are integrated directly into the game as its hard currency. Credits can be spent on acquiring additional soft currency; purchasing limited-edition city decorations and instant-growth crops from the in-game store; acquiring Expansion Permits, required to increase the usable area of land; completing quest objectives without having to wait; and restocking energy. Facebook Credits can also be used to staff community buildings with virtual friends, allowing players to continue progression through the game by spending money if they don’t have enough friends playing.

CyberAgent America believes that Animal Land offers an unprecedented level of freedom in the crowded city-building genre. This is achieved in part by the fact that players are free to modify the land mass on which their city is positioned using an “Edit Land” tool. This lets players swap tiles between being either land or sea, allowing for the creation of customized play areas. Converting land to sea does not mean the player will lose the use of that land, either — available buildings are split roughly evenly between land and sea-based structures, so it’s a matter of personal taste — or a desire to complete the game’s many quests — that will determine whether a player wishes to make their community more land or sea-heavy.

“The impact of Animal Land on Facebook will be the huge degree of freedom each user can experience in designing their very own land with their friends,” explains Koizumi. “The quality of illustrations and the degrees of freedom users have is unlike none before.”

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Monster Fusion Brings a Twist to the Facebook Collection Genre

Monster Fusion is a monster collection role-playing game developed by Headlock, Inc. of Japan and published by Tetris Online. This is the third Japanese style RPG game that Tetris Online has published on Facebook after Lost Trails and Monster Fantasy. Monster Fusion launched in June and first made our list of top 20 emerging Facebook games in late July.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Monster Fusion currently has over 314,809 monthly active users and over 39,993 daily active users.

In Monster Fusion, players create monsters by paying soft currency for Gacha machines that generate different types of monster depending on machine type. The machine types range from silver, gold and platinum; the monster types are common, uncommon and rare. Each machine has the chance to produce higher level monsters. With up to a team of three monsters, players can participate in quests by paying quest points or combat by paying battle points.

There are three types of quests: Job, Story, and Battle. Note that a Battle Quest is separate from the Battle multiplayer mode that requires the use of battle points. Job consists of pressing an action button to complete a task while Story has the player meeting various characters and types of monsters as part of a narrative. Battle quests are scenarios where the computer pits your team of monsters against another team in a combat simulation.

The Battle mode differs from the Battle Quests by pitting players against one another. Like the quest version, the only actual action a player takes during battle is selecting an opponent. There are currently no penalties for losing a Battle.

The “fusion” part of Monster Fusion is a distinguishing feature of the game. Players complete the process by first selecting a base monster, then a secondary monster and a fusion material obtained through gameplay or purchase. Once all components are selected, the fusion process produces a new monster that improves on the base monsters’ attributes.

Outside the quests, combat and fusion, players create an avatar and monsters that roam around a virtual “ranch.” Players are free to decorate the ranch, but they must also clean it and feed the monsters as gameplay objectives. Visiting other players’ ranches is the primary form of social feature in Monster Fusion; the game rewards players with premium currency for a first-time visit to a friend’s ranch for the first 10 friends a player visits.

The game monetizes through the sale of its premium currency, Monster Coins, which can be used to buy the platinum Gacha machine along with monster food, monster tricks, soft currency, and other items. With the exception of the platinum Gacha machine, most items can be bought with the game’s soft currency, gold. Note that the game’s first-time visit Monster Coins bonus is currently set to five and that using the platinum Gacha costs 50 Monster Coins — meaning players can only gain one monster from a platinum Gacha machine without spending Facebook Credits on Monster Coins.

Publisher Tetris Online tells ISG that it will continue to work with developer Headlock on improving the game’s social features and overall experience.

“The social component is obviously also a very important part of the game, so we’re exploring new ways to exploit the competitive elements,” Said Casey Pelkey, VP of Marketing for Tetris Online. Localization for other social networks and platforms is also part of the long term growth plan.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Monster Fusion with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

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Pop Rocket Games Marries Social Sports to Text RPG Genre on Facebook in CopaSocca

CopaSocca is a soccer-themed text-based role-playing game from newcomer Pop Rocket Games. The game launched to the public on May 25, though was silently live from the middle of April as an open pre-beta release. There was a complete database reset prior to the official launch date, however, which cost the game some early-adopter players and has caused the game’s MAU figure to decline throughout the first week of June.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, CopaSocca currently has 1,275 monthly active users and 124 daily active users.

CopaSocca casts players as captain of a small-time soccer team. As with other Facebook games in the sports genre, energy can be spent either on training soccer skills or on earning soft currency with part-time jobs. Once players are satisfied with their training and earnings, they can compete against other players’ teams, either watching matches via text commentary or skipping directly to the result. Players can also customize their personal avatar with haircuts, clothing and other equipment. Certain pieces of equipment offer bonuses to match performance, and some are required to unlock special abilities acquired through training. Players can also invite friends or random Facebook users to join their team, which presents the opportunity for better performance than with the default players provided.

The game is presented simply and clearly, and Pop Rocket made the conscious decision to build the game in HTML rather than Flash in order to allow it to be accessible from the widest possible range of devices, including non Flash-capable devices such as the iPad.

Pop Rocket Managing Director Tahsin Avci describes the game as an “egocentric football manager” game.

“On Facebook you are sharing everything about yourself and what you are interested in, it’s always you in the focus,” says Avci. “And that’s where CopaSocca is perfectly fitting in. You start your career as the next big-time pro football player. But football can’t be played solo, so you as the team captain invite your friends or other Facebook players into your own team.”

To encourage regular participation, the game features weekly competitions. There’s a league system, where players can battle for promotion or to avoid relegation on a weekly basis. There’s also a weekly “top scorer” competition. Avci notes that these two competitions have been very effective in motivating players to check back and play regularly, but hopes to add more personalized, customizable “friend leagues” in the near future alongside the global competition.

The game is monetized through the purchase of hard currency, in this case known as Credits, which can be purchased using Facebook Credits. CopaSocca Credits can be used to top up energy or fitness levels, but can also be spent on boosts to improve match performance, premium equipment to improve skill values, and vanity items to decorate the player’s Trophy Room. All seems well with the payment system now, but as Avci explains, it wasn’t always that way.

“Like many other companies we were affected in a recent malfunction period for Facebook Credits that occurred for at least all European countries for nearly a week,” he explains. “From our perspective Facebook didn’t seem to take the issue seriously and reacted very late.”

The future for CopaSocca holds a wider variety of cups and leagues for players to participate in, as well as more robust communication and socialization features. At the same time, the Pop Rocket team is planning to work on another sports management game and is also developing a new IP named Project Luna with Daedalic Entertainment, due out this fall.

You can follow CopaSocca’s progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

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Hero City Layers the Super Hero Genre on City-Building Gameplay, Developer Aiming to Build Distinctive Brand

Hero City is a Facebook game from developer Paprika Lab that soft-launched on the platform toward the end of April. Thought it hasn’t yet had a big marketing push, Hero City saw enough organic growth to come in at number one on our list of emerging Facebook games last week.

According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, Hero City currently has 767,405 monthly active users and 89,571 daily active users.

Hero City combines city-building gameplay and adds a layer of superhero camp on top. Players build and upgrade structures to improve the city and then collect superheroes to come live in their city. More superheroes means more advantages when undertaking the game’s quests, and will also give players the upper hand in player-vs-player gameplay, which the developer tells us is due to be added to the game soon.

Paprika Lab CEO John Kim believes that the superheroes give the game a unique spin over other city-building titles on Facebook. “As developers, we’ve grown up watching superhero comic books and movies where superheroes save the city and the world from villains,” he says. “So it seemed pretty natural to combine the superhero and city concepts together.”

The game is currently monetized through the purchase of “instant finish” items to complete buildings quicker, the purchase of in-game standard currency and resources, special buildings and superheroes. Facebook Credits are used as the game’s sole premium currency. The developer has experimented with using its own proprietary hard currency in its previous game Pirate Legacy, and Kim notes that there are “pros and cons to adopting each system.”

“We’ll be rolling out new features around superheroes where some new monetization features might come in,” he adds. “But as mentioned [previously], we don’t want to hurt the user experience by bombarding users with overwhelming monetization features.”

The developer is planning on expanding the game in a number of different ways. Besides simply adding more content in the form of more buildings, decorations and superheroes, Kim says that the game will also be incorporating battles with supervillains, as well as the ability to challenge other players’ heroes in player-vs-player gameplay.

Hero City is not Paprika Lab’s only project, but Kim hopes that it will help the developer form a distinctive brand for Paprika to trade on with future and other existing games. “Our focus is not only to merely make new games, but also to have some sort of a unique taste and style of experience where users will know that this game is made by Paprika Lab,” he says. “We think we haven’t reached that point yet, but basically, we want to create a Paprika Lab brand gaming experience, such as you’d find from Blizzard, Square Enix and id Software games.”

Hero City has enjoyed steady growth since its late April launch, with slightly larger jumps in MAU occurring at the start of the week for the last two weeks. At its current rate of growth, the game will pass a million monthly active users within a week.

You can follow Hero City’s progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

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Bubble Saga on Facebook brings soothing strategy to a stale genre

by Joe Osborne, Posted May 4th 2011 4:55PM

First hearing word of Bubble Saga evoked just one thought: "Another bubble bursting game on Facebook, seriously?" Many of you might have had the same exact reaction. Well, stop it. Right now. Bubble Saga, for all of its creepy character art and somewhat limited social features, is one of the most original additions to the pantheon of bubble-bursting games this writer has seen in a long time. Developed by King.com, Bubble Saga introduces a framework of a plot that cuts right to the point: blowin' up some bubbles. (If you're interested, Princess Love is looking to reunite with her Prince who happens to be trapped on a small planet, which can only be reached by ... popping bubbles? Never mind.) At first glance, this is just another adaptation of classics like Bubble Bobble, but after a single shot you'll notice what makes this one in particular so special.

Because the colored bubbles surround a flower, shooting bubbles too far in one direction will cause the entire collection of bubbles to spin in that direction based on how direct your shot was. Spinning the board forces players to adapt to new positions, and make constant use of wall shots to make consecutive matches. Not to mention that, in later levels, a bubble touching either wall as a result of a haphazard spin will end the game immediately. This brilliant combination demands accuracy and strategy, something most Facebook games are devoid of these days.

Of course, this is all made possible by built-in physics and some pretty impressive graphics for Facebook that surprisingly don't slow the game down one bit. Speaking of graphics, the character art in Bubble Saga, primarily for the princess, is downright frightening. At times, she'll offer you a warm, cartoon smile, but at others she'll look like a bug-eyed princess demon. But back to what really matters: the fun factor. The game rewards players for consecutive matches with a bonus meter that, once full, will reward 50 percent more points for future matches. Though, keeping the streak is key to maintaining a bonus. In later levels, this is almost required to ensure scores that are sufficient to move on to the next planet.

You also have a finite amount of shots per level, though the game's high demand for planning shots will help you avoid this quota. For even more sound bubble-blasting decisions, players can switch between the bubble that's currently inside their cannon and the next bubble in line. This especially comes in handy during the final moments of each level when you're limited between just a few differing bubbles.

Every social game must have a hook, and Bubble Saga's Heart system is no different, though it's much better than most. Players receive about eight Hearts to start, but only losing a level will remove a Heart from your stash. This means that, for skilled players, your play sessions could go on indefinitely. Players can buy Hearts for Facebook Credits, or they can ask friends for more.

However, friends aren't worth much more than that in Bubble Saga. Well, aside from the ability to taunt those whose scores you beat or pass in overall progress. While this might work to stir friendly competition, some direct multiplayer or even item sharing would have added more depth. Regardless, Bubble Saga is a refreshing take on the tired sub genre of blowing up bubbles, and if its soothing tunes won't calm you down after a stressful day at work, nothing will.

Click here to try Bubble Saga on Facebook >

If you've already tried this game before, what are your thoughts on it? What other genres would you like to see adapted on Facebook? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
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Tags: bubble saga, facebook games, king, king.com, preview, social games

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Waku Waku Blitz Hopes To Break Into The Match-3 Genre With Highly Customizable Gameplay

Waku Waku Blitz is a simple but highly customizable game that fits our definition of the match-3 arcade game genre. Most match-3 games on Facebook that aren’t Bejeweled Blitz or Diamond Dash struggle to retain an audience, but Waku Waku developer Pix Builders hopes to meet the challenge with highly customizable gameplay options. So far, 20 days after launch, the game sits at just 631 monthly active users and 106 daily active users, according to our data service tracking application AppData.

Pix Builders’ Yvan Taurines describes Waku Waku Blitz as a “puzzle/match 3 game like Bejeweled Blitz,” but in practice it’s more like “whack-a-mole.” Square, triangular and circular shapes of varying colors pop out of holes on the screen and it’s the player’s job to smack as many as possible with a hammer in one minute. Score multipliers are given every time the player achieves a “combo” of three identical shapes, colors or both, and as the multiplier increases the player has to work faster to maintain their high-scoring potential.

Taurines claims the game is “one of the simplest games ever,” but explains that a lot of the depth to gameplay comes from “meta gameplay” in the form of experience points, player levels, and unlockable content. As the player progresses through the experience levels, new sets of shapes become available from the in-game marketplace, and completing a set offers the player specific bonuses that will help them climb the leaderboards.

“We have a lot to add to Waku Waku Blitz over the coming months,” says Taurines. “We can’t reveal all the upcoming features, but for example, we would like to add localization, an updated leaderboard that will keep track of one’s highest score ever, and some cool gameplay additions. And of course, we will add new shapes, new weapons and new backgrounds! Actually, cool effects for weapons will be added very soon — if not today, tomorrow.”

The game only monetizes through the sale of its standard virtual currency, which can be spent on new shapes, weapons and backgrounds from the in-game shop to customize the play experience. More buying options are unlocked as the player proceeds through the experience levels, and each successfully completed game also rewards the player with coins, so there is no obligation for them to spend real money, but Taurines says that “paying a small quantity of real money will save [the player] a huge load of time, and will help him to collect all of his missing items.” Taurines is keen to ensure that monetization of the game is “not intrusive to the player” and emphasizes that Waku Waku Blitz is primarily a “free to play game.”

The game currently uses Social Gold to take payments, but this will not be supported for much longer, according to Taurines. The game will be changing over to Facebook Credits in accordance with Facebook’s policy by July, and Taurines believes that Facebook’s system is “a good one — even if [it is] pricey.”

Waku Waku Blitz launched on April 8. Both its MAU and DAU numbers are currently very low, but it’s early days for the game, yet.  The next few months will be critical to determine whether it succeeds or fails based on what Pix Builders can do to support the game with new features — and whether Taurines and his team pursues future plans on Facebook or elsewhere.

You can follow Waku Waku Blitz’s progress on Facebook with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

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Digital Chocolate’s New Game Zombie Lane: Innovating Within the Facebook Sim Genre

Zombie Lane by Digital Chocolate is a comical new take on zombie games on Facebook, complete with bouncy thematic music reminiscent of the Adams Family — and an innovative adaption of a variety of social gaming mechanics seen elsewhere, including farming and quests.

The gist of the story is that zombies have taken over the neighborhood. Players have to rebuild their houses to get their spouses back, clean up the neighborhood, help neighbors, find the dog and kill zombies. All in a day’s work or perhaps two. Zombie Lane is populated by stereotypical characters like Robert, the over-weight, slightly inept rent-a-cop who takes the player through the tutorial and later provides missions and tips and hints.

Players begin the game by customizing an avatar and killing zombies. As they move through the game, they learn to build and maintain fences to preserve a safe area, fix and upgrade their house to craft special weapons to kill quest zombies, grow crops for food and profit, clear rubble, clean up and expand and decorate their yard.

The game is about maintaining timers and visiting a network of friends that also play the game. A typical click for action game with energy required for each click, each action, be it striking a zombie, clearing rubble or harvesting crops, yields coins, experience points (xp) and drops. These are represented in large icons that spill across the screen. They will all be registered by the various stat bars, but players are encouraged to click on the items to fill up a “Combo” bar that then yields even more coins. Drops are parts of collections which can then be traded in for coin and/or xp , resources for building and crafting or specific items required to complete quests.

Energy regenerates every 1 to 5 minutes (similar to Zynga’s CityVille) and tougher zombies take more than one click to kill. For the lower level player, this could translate to two minutes of gameplay (15 to 20) clicks before they are out of energy and over an hour’s wait before they can again engage in any significant gameplay. Luckily, energy can be gifted by friends, gained through visiting neighbors at one per neighbor per day, exchanged for in-game food or of course, purchased with Facebook credits. Players running out entirely of gifted energy and friends to visit, can hire their neighbors for in-game coin to kill zombies and clear rubble for them.

Most items required to complete quests within the game may be requested from friends or purchased with Facebook credits. Digital Chocolate takes the path of micro-transactions in their monetization. Instead of having to purchase the typical $5, $10 or $20 worth of game coins, items can be purchased with as little as one Facebook credit, tempting the player who needs just that one more uncommon drop from the uncommon zombie to purchase the item in order to complete the quest. Even players who prefer not to pay for their Facebook gaming fun will be tempted by the SMG – a ranged weapon available at level one which does not require ammo, for only 10 Facebook credits.

In a single game, Digital Chocolate has managed to include a quest story line, empire building, virtual farming, collections, achievements, maintenance and of course the main fun, killing zombies with extreme prejudice — using anything from a shovel to a crafted flame thrower. They explode with a satisfying splash of greenish goo and a flying eyeball or two. Zombie Lane launched on March 15th and has climbed to 84,000 daily active users and 121,000 monthly active users since then, according to AppData.

Although the game is brand new and designated as in a beta state, it has shown to be impressively bug free. It will feel familiar to many players at it shares the same mechanics as many other games out there, such as Ravenwood Fair and CityVille, but it brings a fresh look and their own twist and take on the mechanics. This is definitely a case of innovating within the genre and with a promise of a steady wave of enhancements and content in the coming weeks, we expect Zombie Lane’s numbers to continue to climb.

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