Game Insight invites players to paradise with Sunshine Bay on Facebook

Image via Game Insight

Casual game developer and publisher Game Insight has released its newest title on Facebook: Sunshine Bay. Developed by Road 404, the game challenges players with creating a bustling resort on a tropical island while managing its economy.

Sunshine Bay asks players to balance the use of a variety of resources, including coins, fuel and travelers. Homes can be built on the island to produce more travelers over time, and a boat dock can be used to manufacture new cruise ships that will take those travelers on voyages. Fuel is required to power ships, and can be spent in bulk to speed up the time required for those ships to return.

The game’s quest system guides players through their island’s progression, while social features allow users to visit other players’ resorts and complete five tasks while there. These actions produce extra fuel and coins, continuing the cycle of progression. Players can spend coins on decorations and buildings for the island, but many are level-locked until they’ve earned the required amount of experience points.

In addition to sending their own ships, players will also quickly gain access to neighboring yachts that may wish to dock on their piers to unload and refuel. Players must strategize before letting these yachts dock, as they take longer to leave and may delay the progress of their own ships.

Image via Game Insight

Sunshine Bay comes with multiple opportunities for monetization, as players can purchase coins and Cash, the game’s premium currency, and can then turn those items into additional fuel, as one example.

Sunshine Bay is currently growing, and has over 562,000 monthly active users (MAU) according to AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers. The game has 55,000 daily active users, and has gained 49,000 MAU in the last seven days. It’s available to play for free on Facebook.

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Ludia invites players to “come on down” for The Price Is Right Slots

The Price Is Right Slots, released to the public on February 29 of this year, is a Facebook-based slot machine adaptation of the popular game show developed by Ludia, Inc. At the time of writing, our traffic tracking service AppData shows the game as the No. 8 top gainer by MAU in the last week. The game has appeared on the top gainers chart in the past day, with a gain of 460,000 MAUs or a 1,150 percent increase.

Basic gameplay in The Price Is Right Slots takes the same format as the many other slot machine games Facebook currently plays host to. Players select a machine loosely based on one of the Pricing Games from the The Price Is Right TV show, purchase up to 20 “win lines,” choose how much they are going to bet per line and then spin the reels. If a winning combination of symbols comes up, they win soft currency. If it does not, they simply spin again until it does, gaining experience points equal to their total bet with every spin. Leveling up allows players to unlock additional machines and to increase their maximum bet. It also increases the size of their “special bonus” of coins which can be collected every four hours.

So far, so predictable, but it’s the addition of minigames and their implementation that helps add an addictive quality to The Price Is Right Slots. This particular mechanic helps set the game apart from its numerous rivals, many of which demand nothing more from their player than the patience to keep clicking the “Spin” button.

Rather than making the ability to play a minigame dependent on getting a correct combination of symbols on a single spin, The Price Is Right Slots allows players to collect tokens when they match three or more special “token” symbols on a machine. These take two forms — “Contestant’s Row” tokens and a token unique to the specific machine they are playing on. Collecting three of the same token types lets players take on a gambling minigame based either on the theme of the machine they are currently playing or on the show in general. The games are very simple and the rewards often disproportionately small for the amount of effort required to start a minigame, but the token acquisition process adds a sense of tension and the desire for “just one more spin” that simply isn’t present in simpler Facebook slots games.

Also worthy of note is the “Showcase Jackpot” mechanic. Each machine carries a gradually-increasing jackpot total, beginning at 50,000 coins and gradually increasing over time as players place bets. Should a player succeed in spinning five “Wild” symbols on a single line, they win this jackpot, which then resets to 50,000. The “Showcase” part of the mechanic comes with the fact that the player’s profile picture and name is then displayed next to the jackpot total. Again, it’s a simple mechanic, but an effective one that makes playing the game feel a little less “lonely” for players — seeing the name and picture of a previous winner helps promote a small sense of community and may encourage some players to seek out the winners and congratulate them on their victory.

Monetization is kept simple with Credits-for-currency transactions. There are no boosts or powerups for players to purchase, and no virtual items to collect. Social features are limited to gifting packs of five free spins to friends and comparing levels on the in-game leaderboard.

Slot machine games are rarely the deepest titles on Facebook and this often makes them feel unimaginative, uninspiring and predictable. The Price Is Right Slots doesn’t deviate significantly from the basic formula used in every game of the genre, but the simple addition of the token collecting mechanic and the minigames set it apart, giving it an addictive quality that many of its rivals lack. It’s a good example to look to when considering how to create a video slots game which may retain its users beyond the point where their chips run out for the first time.

The Price Is Right Slots currently has 500,000 monthly active users and 180,000 daily active users. Follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

While not deviating significantly from genre conventions, The Price Is Right Slots has an addictive quality that many of its rivals lack.

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Lucky Cruise invites players to gamble their way around the world

Lucky Cruise is a new Facebook game published by 6waves and developed by Large Animal Games. It’s the second collaboration between the two companies following their recent Spartacus: Vengeance tie-in. The game has been showing steady growth since its launch in late January, and provides an original take on the increasingly common slot machine genre.

Lucky Cruise combines elements of slot machine sims and time management games to produce a game with an addictive quality and a strong sense of progression.

Players are placed in charge of ensuring a cruise ship gets to its destination on time. This isn’t just any cruise ship, however — it’s a cruise ship that runs on luck. As such, it’s up to the player to help earn the luck necessary to reach various worldwide destinations and, upon arrival, to acquire various rewards for their hard work through playing a chance-based tile-flipping minigame.

Luck can be acquired in several ways. The main means through which players earn luck is simply by playing the game’s slot machines, all of which are based on WMS Gaming’s various video slots products. Playing a machine earns luck every time the reels are spun, with higher-stake machines earning more luck per spin. Players must also keep track of their chips, since running out means they’ll be unable to play any more, though these are replenished every few hours and can also be topped up by spending Facebook Credits.

Players also have a number of powerups including reel nudges, holds and re-spins which can be acquired either with Facebook Credits or won during the minigame at the ship’s destination. Causing a win after using one of these powerups earns the player a certain quantity of the game’s other currency Emeralds, which are used to purchase additional machines for the cruise ship’s casino.

When not playing the slots themselves, players see a representation of the inside of the cruise ship, and avatars representing the player’s friends — even those who are not currently playing the game — show up regularly. Assigning these avatars to the available machines allows players to earn Friend points, and upon reaching a certain threshold of these points, a Friend Frenzy is triggered. During this time, players must correctly assign friends to their favorite machines, with appropriate assignments resulting in large Luck rewards, offering a degree of variety to gameplay besides simply staring at the slots. The more friends a player has actually playing the game, the greater the rewards from Friend Frenzies. Friend points can also be earned simply by winning on the slots, so Friend Frenzies become a regular — but optional — part of gameplay.

The game also features a leveling system allowing for the gradual unlocking of new machines and new destinations for the cruise ship. Higher level items result in greater rewards for the player, though those who do not wish to grind for experience may unlock these items early in exchange for Facebook Credits.

Like many video slots games, Lucky Cruise assumes that players are already familiar with how the machines work, and as such the only tutorial the game features demonstrates its own unique mechanics such as Friend Frenzies and the powerups on offer. This may prove a barrier to entry for those unfamiliar with the genre, but the machines introduced at the outset of the game are simple enough to pick up easily, and the player is rarely overwhelmed with on-screen information.

Lucky Cruise provides a user-friendly and original take on video slots that distinguishes it from its numerous competitors. If its growth continues at its current rate, 6waves and Large Animal Games look set to have a modest success on their hands.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Lucky Cruise currently has 690,000 monthly active users and 110,000 daily active users.

A worthwhile take on video slots that doesn’t daunt newcomers and offers some pleasing variety to its gameplay.

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Digital Chocolate’s New In Town invites players to find a life, love and gainful employment in the big city

Digital Chocolate have decided to take on the life simulation genre with their new Facebook title New In Town, which launched on Feb. 6. Casting players in the role of a recent college graduate out to make it big in the city, the game tasks players with the management of several precious resources essential to survival even in the real world — time, money and happiness.

After customizing their avatar’s appearance, gender and name, the player is introduced to a number of fellow graduates who will later become the source of the game’s quests. Through some initial tasks, the player is shown how to get a job, how to perform the job to earn money, how to get food and how to buy new clothes. Following these introductory missions, future quests are presented as “challenges” against the other characters to see who can complete them first, with greater rewards on offer for quick completion. These quests must be juggled around the player’s other needs, however, lending an unusually deep degree of time management to the game.

Everything the player does costs a certain number of time units to complete — including moving around the city, though the amount spent on movement can be reduced by purchasing various means of transport. When the player is out of time units, the day is over and they must go to bed. If the player’s happiness level is too low or they are hungry, the following day has a penalty to the time units available, representing the avatar’s tiredness, or lethargy due to depression. Conversely, going to bed before depleting all the time units provides a bonus for the following day. Happiness can be restored by eating food (which only has to be done once per day in order to stave off the hunger penalty), shopping, socializing with friends or attending fun activities such as going to the movies. Happiness drops while working or studying, though both are necessary evils — working provides the player with money, while studying increases skill levels, certain levels of which are necessary to secure higher-paying jobs.

The “time” mechanic has an additional consideration: the number of “working days” available to the player. Working days are a finite resource that is restored over time, similar to an energy bar in other games. On working days, players are able to complete tasks that earn money and improve skills, but when they have run out, the player is only able to do things that cost money and/or restore happiness. This “downtime” is referred to as “leisure days” and allows the player to keep enjoying the game even as they wait for their allowance of working days to refill — though spending all their hard-earned money without any means to recover it is counter-productive.

The life simulation genre may have been dominated by The Sims Social for some time, and indeed a simple description of New In Town (“find job, improve skills, cultivate relationships”) may sound remarkably similar to EA Playfish’s title. Rather than resorting to copycat game mechanics or simply pushing out a clone of the established game, however, Digital Chocolate have chosen to take a fresh, original approach and present the game in a manner which works well. The player is offered freedom to explore and develop their character as they see fit while at the same time working their way through a more structured set of challenges offered by the game’s characters. In this sense, the player is given a lot more ownership over their avatar’s development than in some other social games, and this will encourage players to take a more protracted interest in the game. In other words, it becomes “their” story rather than a predefined one laid out by the developer. This sense of ownership will be a key factor in user retention in the coming months.

A solid suite of social features, a wide range of premium vanity items and the ability to use premium currency to eliminate “grinding” to a certain degree mean that the game has the potential to be both popular and profitable in the long run. Its original gameplay and high degree of technical polish may attract a wider demographic of players than many similar titles, and Digital Chocolate has plenty of plans in place for the future of the game, including ways for players to directly interact with one another’s avatars rather than simply visiting their apartments.

Due to New In Town’s recent release, we do not yet have any data on its monthly or daily active users. You’ll shortly be able to track its progress in the charts with AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

An original, innovative take on the life simulation genre with the potential to be a great success.

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Facebook Revamps Page Suggestions, Adds Page Invites Manager to Page Browser

Facebook has changed the way users send, receive, and respond to Page suggestions — also called Recommended Pages or Page invites. Only Page admins can send suggestions, and they can only suggest their own Page. Users now receive these via “Recommended Pages” sidebar modules that show the name of the suggester and an option to Like. If users click “See All” on the module, they’re taken to a new “Page Invites” section of the Page Browser where they can delete suggestions or view the Pages.

Page suggestions are now less visible than when they appeared on the friend requests page and the now-removed home page Requests panel. However, their more social nature should help to offset harm the channel change’s harm to growth of small Pages that use the feature to start building their fan base.

Facebook introduced Page suggestions as an option for both users and admins in March 2009. These suggestions appeared on the friend requests page and on the home page Requests panel next to friend, app, group and other requests until January 2011 when Facebook began phasing out the panel in favor of bookmarks. Later that month, Facebook changed Page suggestions so they could only be sent by admins, not users, significantly reducing the amount of Page suggestion spam sent. Facebook has also dropped the cap on how many suggestions can be sent at once.

Now, the Requests panel is gone and Page suggestions don’t appear on the friend requests page. Instead, users will see them within the Recommended Pages right sidebar module that occasionally appears when browsing the site. Previously, this module only showed Pages that Facebook automatically recommended because they had similar audiences to a user’s existing Likes or were Liked by their friends.

Page suggestions in the module show the name and picture of the Page, a Like button for the Page, and the text “[Friend who is the Page's admin] suggested you check out his / her Page.” This informal language makes the suggestions seem more organic and compelling, and less coercive than the old request-style language that informed users they’d been “invited” and should “Confirm” or “Ignore” the suggestion to Like a Page.

Users can hover over a suggestion to see an ‘x’ that allows them to delete it, or they can click “See All” to be directed to the Page Browser, launched in September 2011. Now, the “Friends Similar to You” panel has been pushed down the right sidebar to make room for the “Page Invites” manager. This shows all of a user’s Page suggestions, with links to each Page and persistently visible ‘x’s for deleting invites.

Facebook has succeeded in revamping Page suggestions in a way that cleans up the home page and requests channel while reducing suggestion spam. Some Page admins might not like the reduction in their visibility, but because the remaining visibility is now a more social and seamless part of the user experience, we don’t expect a significant drop in conversion rate of Page suggestions.

[Thanks to Brittany Darwell for the tip]

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