The dazzling result is the true reward for the pattern-seeking brain.Īs you know, variable rewards (sometimes a small prize, sometimes big, sometimes none) is a recipe for addiction in games, and not only in games. The animations never occur in parallel, but one after the other in 0.1-second intervals. The player doesn’t stop for a second to think, plays in 50 MPM (match per minute), and the board responds to the player’s actions accordingly, resembling a lightning storm watched from space.įruit chains collapse into themselves, flowers fly into the progress bar on the right, the powerup meter fills up and flies into the board, garden gnomes fly out of the board, and so on and so forth. Watching the game board when a seasoned player is playing is mesmerizing. Whatever Gardenscapes lacks in art it makes up for in animations. The result that came in was staggering: Over 5% increase in first day retention. In one of the endless A/B testing situations that Nitako were committing, they decided to simplify the art and remove some of the details. They all had eyes, facial expressions, and cute little animations. At the time of the game’s launch, their game pieces (cute little vegetables), were designed in great detail. The more visually complicated the fruits are, the harder it is to find these patterns, and the barrier to entering “the zone” is higher.Ī while ago I had a chance to work a little bit on Epic Dinner Spinner, Nitako’s wonderful match 3 game. Playrix avoided a beginner’s mistake and created the art to be effective at the cost of its beauty.Īt the end of the day (literally speaking), the player is gazing at the match 3 board, filled with colorful fruits, searching for patterns. One might have expected from a company like Playrix to produce a higher quality art, especially when it comes to the fruits, which are the main game component. The fruits are simple and schematic, drawn in 2D. Now let’s see what we can learn from Playrix, who truly mastered the art of the match 3 games. This combo of the brain’s favorite sport, pattern recognition, the infinite feedback loop, and the tailor-made balance make match 3 games perfect for mobile experiences. It’s almost a tailor-made game, something that is hard to accomplish in other genres. In Gardenscapes’ case, this is starring Austin the game’s presenter and mansion’s butler, who stares at the player with a scowling expression and says, “Hey, wanna get back in the loop? Put in some money and jump right back to it!”īalance in match 3 games, in the right developer’s hands, can be truly adaptive to the player’s skill and even current mood. When all turns are gone, the player is blocked immediately by a pop-up. There’s no punishment for wrong moves, turns are not spent, and the player stays in the zone as long as she has more turns to take. When the player tries to match fruits that do not match they will snap back to their place automatically. You cannot make a mistake in a match 3 game. Playing at a fast pace, the player transcends to a semi-meditative zone, going through this loop dozens of times in a level. Search for a pattern, find one, match three of the same kind, get a reward. The feedback loop it enhances is addicting. In this sense, a match 3 board is like a playing ground for the brain. Our brain is constantly looking for patterns and rewards us for finding them.
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