"I'm gonna get your wallet, sucka!"

Clash of Clans

Long-Term Review

By now if you a smartphone, and like games, you probably know about a little freemium game called Clash of Clans. Like that the developer, Helsinki-based Supercell, pretty much makes so much money off of in-app purchases (IAP) over CoC, that they can take money baths every day. 

I first started playing Clash around 6 months ago. Despite my best intents, I am  now very guilty of contributing to their IAP bottom line. I've bought many, many in-game virtual items for hard currency. The very nature of the compelling and addictive gameplay makes it almost a requirement. As in World of Warcraft addictive. But the game does pretty much almost force you to buy stuff after a certain level. Your fort becomes your avatar, and if you have played the game a while, you start to feel very protective of it. Other players can attack you, and steal your hard-won resources. You obviously have military defenses to protect yourself, but sometimes they aren't enough, and gold and elixir you've been hoarding for days gets stolen from your coffers.

So what is a player to do? Build stronger, and increasingly more expensive, defenses. Which can take days to upgrade. And when your defenses are upgrading for days, that don't work. The only protection, is a Shield. If you get really badly mauled in an attack, the Shield will protect your fort for up to 16 hours to give you time to repair and rebuild. But a reasonably strong defensive cannon takes days to upgrade, and costs and atrocious amount of gold. Gold that takes days and days to gather. But once the 16 hour Shield expires, other players can attack, steal your gold, and prevent you from getting enough resources to strengthen your fort. 

So what's a player to do. And this is where the real world, hard currency comes in handy. You can buy a

Shield from the App Store, that will last for up to a week, gather resources and upgrade. Beyond, say, Level 40 in the game, making an IAP is not a luxury, but a requirement if you want to advance. 

But Clans is such a fun game, I don't begrudge or resent the money I've paid over the past months. I've spent much more on PC or console games that were terrible. I've played freemium games that were beyond obnoxious in time-gating the most trivial things for an egregious amount of real money. Clash of Clans is a happy addiction worth the cash. 

Clash of Clans: Update(s)

Version 3.25 Released

and a small confession...

Looks like our good friends at Supercell in Finland have released an update for Clash of Clans. I won't take up (not) valuable space to list all the changes, but you can find the particulars here.  New unit upgrades, traps, hero improvements, and leaderboards, to name a few. Again, if you are not playing this game, you are sorely missing out on one of the best Free-To-Play titles out there. Combat, base-building, compelling player vs. player - you name it, it has your flavor of gaming crack.

And now, my confession. I actually broke down and made an IAP (In App Purchase) in Clash of Clans. 500 Crystals, to be exact, which cost me $4.99 USD. But the game made me do it - seriously. I was hovering around Level 30, and needed to upgrade my Town Hall to Level 7. A Level 7 TH unlocks a slew of additional buildings, as well some much needed upgrades. Unfortunately, a Level 7 Town Hall requires 1,200,000 gold. Unfortunately times two, I would amass around 400,000 gold, and someone would attack me, and steal 100,000+, I'd get a 12 hour or 16 hour Shield, regain the 100K gold, be attacked again, and lose said gold. Lather, rinse, repeat, Sisyphus.  And so, I buckled, and got a 7-day Shield. To me, this is was a shocking discovery, as there seemed to be no legitimate way to gather the necessary resources without paying for the additional Shield time protection. And to date, Supercell have made IAP a 'want', not a 'need', in order to progress in the game. Not sure what the solution is - increased Shield time based on your level perhaps?

But in the end, I can't say I felt all that cheated - for a game that's given me more fun than many a  $60 retail console title, $4.99 for some crystals for CoC seems like a bargain.

Gesundheit!

A Touching Tale of a Little Piggy With a Runny Nose Who's on a Mission

Mini Review

First things first - Gesundeheit!, by Revolutionary Concepts, is free for only a short time, so grab it pronto.

Gesundheit is one of those rare games that appeals to just about every age group - it's your classic 'save-the-princess (pig)' set in a crayon-drawn world. You play as a little pig with a cold? allergies? who uses the power of his boogers to battle enemies and interact with the world.  The gameplay is essentially top-down, and plays much like Mario Brothers or Zelda, with a bit of stealth elements thrown in. Controls could not be simpler or easier, which is critical, as much of the game revolves around your ability to sneeze boogers at a distance to lure enemies and activate switches or traps.

Skylanders: Lost Islands

What Do Skylanders And The Island of Dominica Have In Common?

Part I

Perhaps you've heard of a little 'ole game franchise called "Skylanders"? You know, the one that made $500 million dollars in the US in 2012? To put that number in perspective, the island of Dominica, located in the Caribbean, has a GDP of $490MM USD. That's a lot of Skylanders for 1 little island. Eric Kain over at Forbes called Skylanders "Diablo for Kids..." That is an honorific that is not lightly bestowed.

Anyhow...onto the latest incarnation in freemium app crack: Skylanders: Lost Islands. On the surface, there's nothing about this game that is that much different than your average monster breeding and farming game, like say, Dragonvale. But the Skylanders personalities, perceived attributes, and the rich environments, while mostly just window dressing, serve to enhance and vary the game experience. Skylanders come in different elemental forms (Fire, Air, etc), sizes (Regular and Giant), Experience levels, which is sufficient to mix up the missions, quests and the tasks that can be performed under these constraints such that the game never feels repetitive. New Skylanders are gained every 5 levels, which is probably the most tedious part of the game, if you're not willing to part with real world cash to buy Skylanders, which is a real temptation. With 55 possible Skylanders that can be acquired, that's 275 levels at a minimum you'd need to acquire them all.

There are two primary resources in Skylanders: Gold Coins (from Missions), and Energy (from Farms). It costs Coins to grow Energy plants, and Energy plants to go on missions to acquire Gold Coins. Sort of a perpetual motion Ponzi scheme of in-game economics. So let's start off by looking at maximizing Farm output:

CROP		TIME		COST		ENERGY		COST PER NRG		NRG PER MIN
Floats		1		10		4		2.50		4.00
Ambrosia		3		30		11		2.73		3.67
Cloudlings		10		105		37		2.84		3.70
Luminaries		30		320		110		2.91		3.67
Eufirbia		60		650		215		3.02		3.58
Grave Diggers		120		1,300		425		3.06		3.54
Moss Stash		240		2,700		840		3.21		3.50
Domedelion		420		4,800		1,450		3.31		3.45

 Obviously, you get the highest per-minute return on Energy for 1-minute Floats, but that that would take forever to amass enough Energy to take on the big 5,000 Energy Sanctuary missions, so Cloudlings seem to be the best choice. They provide a livable time-frame and balance for maximizing production while minimizing cost. I still like to mix it up with Luminaries and Eufirbia as well sometimes, or perhaps Domedelion right before I go to bed, just for a big instant Energy inventory boost upon harvest.

So that's it for Part I. In Part II, we'll take a look at maximizing mission return on Gold Coins. Can you feel the excitement?!

Clash of Clans

It's Clan-tastic

 

Review

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry that examined how some free apps make money hand over fist via in-game purchases for real money. One of the games mentioned in the original Wired story I reposted was Clash of Clans by Supercell out of Finland (Moi Suomi!). Out of curiosity, I downloaded the app a few days later, and discovered that  spending hundreds of dollars on a "free" game suddenly became to not seem so crazy.




 The Clash Part:

Clash of Clans, at it's a core, harks back to the late '90s, when real time strategy games ruled the gaming landscape. Build a base via harvesting resources, research and upgrade units and buildings, train troops to attack and defend, all the while having a good old time. It's set in a fantasy world of goblins, barbarians, dragons, and the undead, among others, with the player tasked with attacking evil warlords bases wherever they lurk. Pretty standard fare - until you introduce multiplayer into CoC, with other players attacking your base, or you attacking theirs. It introduces the element of tension, anticipation, and low-down scheming that really makes the game shine. Each player's base has a "Shield" last from a few hours to a few days. When the Shield is active, no players can attack you, and you can't attack them. But once that Shield is down, it's every player for themselves. You can raise an army and go out and plunder other player's bases for loot. But they can do the same to yours.  Successfully defend an attack on your base, or win an attack against another player, and you also gain trophies, the quantity of which determines how powerful you are. Lose an attack on your base, and the Shield gets turned back on, protecting your base while you make repairs and re-think your defensive layout.

The Clans Part:

If the idea of constant attacks seems off-putting, there's a solution. Join a Clan. There are dozens of Clans around the globe to join. Clans are essentially your gang - use them to solicit troops for attacks or defense. It's a simple game mechanic - fellow Clan members ask for help when needed, and you can do the same. There's also an in-game chat, which is great for hints, tips, gossip, and generally hanging out. Don't confuse this short description of Clans with it's importance; like may simple things, it's as powerful as you make it.

In closing, Clash of Clans definitely warrants all the love it's been getting lately. It's a perfect mix of good game design, good art, and beyond robust multiplayer. Just be prepared to lose endless hours having a blast. 

Freemium Price Compare!

a.k.a. ARSE

Abstract Resource Stock indEx

I recently read an old article on Mental Floss about the Toadstool Exchange - it compared the relative prices in-game, and in real-world dollars, the cost of a grenade. This, in turn, reminded me of an annual column The Economist used to run - The Big Mac Index. Both are genius, and well worth a read when it comes to comparing relative values of things that either are digital or seemingly dissimilar i.e. a burger in a Norway vs. a burger in Tuscaloosa.

Anyways....in that vein I was inspired to create the ARSE. Most (90%+) of freemium or free-to-play app games out there, allow you to speed up the game, and thus gain an advantage, by purchasing some sort of of in-game currency. The important part, as it pertains to ARSE, is that in general, 1 in-game resource, be it gems, or gold, or smurfberries, equals 1 hour of game speed-up time. And thus, a comparative real-currency value can be assigned to these seemingly intangible virtual items.

Game		Resource		Units		Cost		Cost Per Resource
CityVille		Cash		50		$4.99		$0.10
Clash of Clans		Gems		1200		$9.99		$0.01
Dragon Story		Gold		120		$4.99		$0.04
Dragonvale		Gems		130		$4.99		$0.04
Gizmonauts		Crystals		130		$4.99		$0.04
Hay Day		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Jurassic Park Builder		Bucks		120		$9.99		$0.08
My Little Pony		Gems		120		$9.99		$0.08
Restaurant Story		Gems		105		$19.99		$0.19
Simpsons: Tapped Out		Donuts		132		$9.99		$0.08
Smurfs' Village		Berries		125		$9.99		$0.08
Tiny Monsters		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Tiny Tower		Tower Bux		100		$1.99		$0.02
Tiny Tribe		Diamonds		100		$9.99		$0.10

 Several caveats:

1. I tried to go for similar Resource Units or USD ($) amounts. It's not precise, clearly.

2. Some games, like Clash of Clans or Simpsons, use a different metrics to apply against 1 hour of in-game progress. 'Clash' is pretty easy to decipher; 4 gems = 1 hour. Simpsons has no discernible pattern.

3. Unsurprisingly, the mercenary black souls at Team Lava have the highest comparative ARSE cost via Restaurant Story.

I'll be updating the ARSE as the mood strikes, new games make the list, or a cost moves dramatically.

Ever Wonder How Free Games Make Money?

Then Meet These Guys...

Anyone who plays free-to-play games on a regular basis will wonder, on occasion, how companies that charge nothing stay in business. Well, wonder no more. Wired has a great article on the sugar daddies who will spend hundreds and thousands of cold, hard, real money to be the best in their game(s) of choice. Some of them even justify it by saying they are actually saving money. Regardless of the motivation or rationale, it's a fascinating peek into the economies of F2P gaming, and why games like them keep getting made.

Update

Interesting counter-point article over on The Verge about PunchQuest, a game that has received critical acclaim, but apparently isn't making much money at all.

Monster Tower

Mini Review

Monster Tower might be described as part Donkey Kong, part Tower Defense. Except you play as Kong, and you don't build any towers. Totally explains the gameplay, right? No? Well, that is part of the slightly wacky charm of Monster Tower. Your job in the game is to defend the last king monster egg on the highest floor of a tower from an onslaught of human attackers intent on destroying said egg. You have an array of monster types to choose from, as well as various traps to lay, as the soldiers try to advance their way to the top. With each level won, money is rewarded to you, which can used to upgrade your various monster troops. The variety of monsters in your command is varied in both look, ability, and cost, so it's not just a simple matter of flinging 100 green goo melee minions at the invaders of your tower. Strategy and tactics are required, not just brute force. Also, it's kinda fun to try to say "green goo melee minion" three times fast. 

There's No "I" in "Tribe"

Oh wait...nevermind.

"Last time, the doctor just gave me some lotion to get rid
of these darn crabs!'

Part Gilligan's Island, part Lost, part Cityville, and part Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tiny Tribe is a serviceable little village building simulation, set on a remote tropical island full of mysteries where the player is tasked with rebuilding a semblance of civilization in the jungle after a plane crash. Food and water are the primary resources your tribe of hapless survivors require in order to gather resources and build stuff. Water, in particular, is quite scarce, so often you will be handed a mission, only to discover you need another 45 minutes before water will become available again. This happens quite often early on in the game, so ration your water supply carefully. The other main resources are wood and stone, which can be used-, and later crafted into-, various other production resources. Level, up, and new buildings, tools, and missions will become available. 

Of course, no free-to-play game would be complete without some item you can purchase with real money to speed things along, and Tiny Tribes is no exception with it's crystals. However, the mildly patient player will find that most of the items required to complete a mission eventually turn up in the game after a brief period of time, so only the most impatient need to spend real cash to advance through the game. The missions themselves are a fairly varied lot, and often completing one mission requires multi-step tasks in order to complete, so at times it's easy to get confused as to why exactly are you're mining rocks, when you're supposed to be finding crabs to eat. But all in all, Tiny Tribe is a fun little diversion that mixes up a few genres to good effect.

Musical Mutants

The only thing missing? Monster groupies.

No cavities.

In an App Store filled to the brim with a bajillion variations of the monster/dragon/zombie feed-n-breed ilk, My Singing Monsters stands out as a brilliantly quirky and creative take on a tired sub-genre. The concept is simple: you breed various monsters, each of which has a specific audio talent. Cross-breed them to create new musical mutants. The monsters come in all varieties, from percussion to strings to vocals. With every monster you add a new element to the tune being played. Add more monsters of the same type to increase their particular sound, or mute them to create a new take on the tune. 

There are three primary resources at your disposal to grow your band; gold coins which are produced by the monsters, food, which is made in the bakeries, and green diamonds, which are the defacto freemium resource you might be tempted to use real money on. Feed monsters food, and their level increases, which in turn increases both the rate and amount of gold coins they will produce. I'm not sure what the level cap is for monsters - I have a Level 11 Maw (think pink bean bag with a mouth and a voice like James Earl Jones) that shows no sign of maxing out, except he requires a pant-load of food in order to level up - 20,480 food for this level, and each subsequent level doubles the amount required to increase to the next level. But as a Maw is a relatively higher level creature, he produces a lot more money, and quickly. So if you want the cash to buy cool stuff, you must feed the beast.

"We're putting the band back together!"

Beyond just the sheer fun of listening to the monsters sing their tune, and uncovering what exactly a T-Rox sounds like, there are layers of fun waiting to be discovered and reward players. The Time Machine building? Genius. A mine to gather green diamonds instead of paying real money for them? Thank you very much, Big Blue Bubble. Additional islands with different tunes and different monsters? Here you go. It's a great game that is superbly executed, and a hoot to play.

Win, Place, or Show?

Having a bit of a minor dilemma over what game to focus on next. Also, from My Singing Monsters to World of Warcraft in one paragraph.

Miscellaneous/Micro-Review

At the moment, I'm simultaneously playing My Singing Monsters, Jurassic Park Builder, and Restaurant Story, with moments of Farmville 2, as well. Deciding on a focus is proving difficult as each has some quality that keeps me coming back hour after after. Monsters is outright musical, silly, fun, Jurassic has a really robust set of missions and realistic (for a theoretically improbable zoo) sim feel, and Restaurant Story is mostly sheer stubbornness on my part - I want a diner that still runs smoothly when I'm asleep. Then there's Farmville 2 - a game I swore I'd never play again. But the more I play, the deeper I find the gameplay. As soon as I unlocked the 'crafting' house in Farmville 2, it was all over. As a reformed crafting junkie from World of Warcraft days, turning apples into scones via the right combination of ingredients was all I needed to hook me.

UPDATE: I'm going with My Singing Monsters for my next review. I just unlocked a whole new island with a different song, monsters, etc. Plus: a Time Machine. Really.

E.T.: The Green Planet: Whoops I Did It Again

In honor of the 30th anniversary of releasing the Atari 2600 E.T. game, Universal has recreated that special magic with a new E.T. game on the iOS...

...and aside from outstanding graphics on the iOS, this version is a mess, too. What should have been a simple farming/breeding sim game, like Smurf Village, is instead a broken, convoluted train wreck in "ET: The Green Planet".

The game contains a  back-story about helping another planet come back to life, but then you're building a launch pad and spaceship to travel to other planets to find parts to assemble E.T.'s Speak-n-Spell SOS transmitter. Except the spaceship only worked twice for me in the game. There's quests to gain XP that rely solely on a resource you can only acquire if someone visits your farm. The camera that will inexplicable pan and zoom onto your E.T., not to be confused with THE E.T., who is apparently too busy because he's making a guest appearance at an opening of a Gamestop in El Segundo. Your E.T. doesn't do anything. You can purchase a grand total of one (1) type of plant to grow with the only resource you produce\harvest. All other plants require other players to come by and drop off a special resource when they visit your farm, which never happens. Breeding new plants purposefully destroys the two parent plants, which theoretically might take a player days to grow, assuming other players visit and drop off precious resources, which they don't do, so it's a moot point.

I'm baaaaack....

I'm currently stalled at Level 6 with nothing to do. It might be free, but it's still not really worth the effort unless the bugs and design flaws are addressed. The in-game graphics and animation are top-notch, but it's a Potemkin Village when it comes to gameplay. E.T. - phone home and get a new agent.

Blah-arracks

I mean, Barracks a.k.a. the least effective units in Kingdom Rush.

"I suck!" "No, I suck more, knave!"

I hate to end on a low note, especially after singing the praises of Kingdom Rush, but the Barracks Towers are quite unnecessary in order to succeed in Kingdom Rush, IMO. I never built  them, never felt I needed them, and never understood their utility. They're filler, like rice cakes, or Ryan Seacrest. But here now, for the sake of completion, are the cost stats for the Barracks Tower:

	Lvl 1		Lvl 2		Lvl 3		Special		Lvl 4	Xtra 1	Xtra 2	Xtra 3		Total Cost
Infantry	70		110		160		Holy Order (Heal)		230	150	150	150		1130
Infantry	70		110		160		Holy Order (Shield)		230	250	---	---		930
Infantry	70		110		160		Holy Order (Strike)		230	220	150	150		1200
Infantry	70		110		160		Barbarian (+ Axes)		230	300	100	100		1180
Infantry	70		110		160		Barbarian (Attack)		230	150	100	100		1030
Infantry	70		110		160		Barbarian (Throw)		230	200	100	100		1080

So, according to this table, The Barbarian Attack Specials Tower is the most cost efficient. I found it even more cost efficient to just not build them and save myself 1,030 coins.

Forecast: Cloudy, with a 100% Chance of Fun!

News Flash - Kumo Lumo is Aces (& Free)!

Kumo Lumo, from Chillingo, is the most creative, quirky, and entertaining app I've seen in a while. It's the kind of game that would emerge if Miyamoto, creator of Mario Brothers, was forced to watch only The Weather Channel for a year straight 24/7. I've been playing it for just an few hours, but already all other plans for the day have been tossed aside. I'd much rather have my plucky cloud hero, Kumo, water trees, put out fires, and so on. So excuse the brevity of this post - a cumulus's work is never done, and I have to get back to mine.

Big Bang Theory

Bombs & Artillery Towers in Kingdom Rush

With special guest star, Nikolai Tesla!

The usefulness and utility of Artillery Towers in Kingdom Rush is a bit like a tortoise and hare race; slow and plodding at the outset, but ultimately a real winner in the end. These towers cause area effect damage, meaning they can do bad things to multiple enemies with a single shot. It might take some time and money, but in the end, you'll end up on the path to victory with them. 

	Lvl 1		Lvl 2		Lvl 3		Special		Lvl 4	Xtra 1	Xtra 2	Xtra 3		Total Cost
Artillery	125		220		320		Bertha (Dragon)		400	250	100	100		1515
Artillery	125		220		320		Bertha (Cluster)		400	250	150	150		1615
Artillery	125		220		320		Tesla (SCharge)		375	250	250			1540
Artillery	125		220		320		Tesla (OCharge)		375	250	125	150		1565

Yet again, the cheapest upgrade path is probably the best weapon against your foes, at least in my (never wrong) opinion. The Big Bertha Tower with the Dragon's Breath Special variant can hit multiple enemies, both on land and in the air, from vast distances. While I like watching the Medieval steampunk-esque Tesla Towers zapping multiple enemies, they don't seem to have the same effectiveness as the Big Bertha Special. For my coins, Bertha is the girl that can hurl!

The Wiz Biz

Mage Towers in Kingdom Rush - you know you wand them!

Review

Apologies for that awful pun - it's early, OK people? Hopefully the following peek under the hood into Mage Towers in Kingdom Rush will make up for that.

The Mage Tower units are the mystical counterpart to the Ranged Towers in KR. However, once upgraded into and above their Special level, they can wield an extremely wide array of destructive spells. Lets take a look into the four types available, and their cost:

	Lvl 1		Lvl 2		Lvl 3		Special		Lvl 4	Xtra 1	Xtra 2	Xtra 3		Total Cost
Mage	100		160		240		Arcane (Death Ray)		300	350	200	200		1550
Mage	100		160		240		Arcane (Teleport)		300	300	100	100		1300
Mage	100		160		240		Sorc (Polymorph)		300	300	150	150		1400
Mage	100		160		240		Sorc (Elemental)		300	350	150	150		1450

Clearly, Teleport is the cheapest of the four options. But in this case, I think it's a tie between Teleport and Elemental in terms of usefulness in battle, despite Elemental cost being second highest. Teleport will transport your enemies back to an earlier part of the path, which allows your other Towers to have a second shot at damaging them. This is really useful during boss battles. The Elementals just stop the enemy dead in their tracks, can inflict damage, and can be re-positioned. Teleport is more of passive defense. If you have the coins, a double tower team of both types can be beyond lethal.

Mage Towers do have their weaknesses - certain enemies, like Shaman, Giant Spiders, and Worg, all have high resistance to Mage Tower attacks. So placing other Tower types, like Ranged, in the same area as Mage Towers, will keep the enemy from just running through your Mage Towers unscathed.

A point of clarification: A Tower can be upgraded to both type of Specials i.e. an Arcane Tower can have Death Ray AND Teleport powers. But often, it's better to spread your limited coin resources to other Towers, rather than totally pimp out just one Tower.