(Image by Nguyen Hung Vu)

Candy Crush Saga

In my game Design Class we are to play Candy Crush Saga and write a blog post about our dislikes/likes of the game, what the objectives are, and what platform is used. After that, about what we would modify. And if we did modify how would this help, or why didn’t the original designers do this?

 

What platform is used to play the game?

I used an Acer Chromebook 15 to play the game on Facebook. I don’t know much about the Chromebook but from looking on it, I know it has full HD, 1920 x 1080 screen, and a 5th Gen Intel Processor.

 

What is the objective of the game?

The object of the game is in the name, you crush candy by getting at least three same candies in a line. Then they explode, and the candy above them fall down to take their place, with new candy coming from the top of the board. The more in the line and the less moves you take increase your score. The object of the game is to get your score as high as possible.

 

What three things do you like about the game?

1. I like it when I get the candy in a line and it kind of explodes, ya know.
2. It’s simple and easy to play. Unlike League Of Legends where you need to keep track of many things and you need to know a lot about the characters and items.
3. I enjoy trying to get as high of a score as possible, and beat everyone else.

 

What three things did you not like about the game?

1. The attempt at cuteness is repulsive, the characters look like they have eaten way to much candy. And candy is somehow a drug now. And to include, the trees are growing candy now too.
2. The game is repetitive, you are always doing the same thing. (I might be wrong about this didn’t play very far into it.)
3. It doesn’t go anywhere, I don’t mean repetitive, I mean like there is no final objective or something. You just keep doing level after level.

 

List three reasons why you think this game is popular and successful.

1. It’s simple, easy to play. I know this because I’m into League Of Legends that is very fast pace and my sister has a really hard time playing it, she will usaully play games like Candy Crush or Dragon Village because they are simple and not fast paced.
2. Competition, me and I’m assuming others, enjoy competing to get the best score or to get the farthest in the game.
3. It’s really cute and adorable.
4. Addictive? I haven’t looked deeply into this but playing for like 10 minutes I actually started to feel addicted. And that probably is the same for others, I know people who play it like insane.
5. As you get further into the game it gets harder and harder. And then you want to beat it, you want to get three stars. And some players will spend money to get a boost so they can finally beat that level that they have been playing for ages.
6. It’s free to play.

Modification Plan

Create a revised object of the game based on your ideas and recommendations to improve it.  

A revised object of the game, add different objectives in each level. So you have a different object to achieve each level. For example, in this level, get a row of the same candy along this line. And in the next level, make five rows of 5 same candies.

 

List 3 or more specific changes you would make to the game.

1. I would make the characters look normal.
2. Make the objective of each level differ.
3. Add a two player mode, where you could compete with other players taking turns on the same level, or cooperation to reach as high a score as possible.

 

Why and how will these changes improve the game?

I think these changes will improve the game because,

1. I think making the game with normal looking characters would make the game less repulsive. Because when it first loaded, I was like, seriously, one of those games with the stupid looking characters that look like they are high? (Not to be like that, but to be like that.)
2. Differing the objectives in each level will make the game less repetitive and more exciting.
3. Adding a two player mode with either cooperation or competition will add to the number of different things you can do. And playing with other players makes the game more enjoyable, definitely if you add a chat box between the players, meeting and talking to new people is fun.

 

List 3 or more reasons why the original designers did not choose these changes and ideas you identified.

1. Because cute characters and trees is adorable enough to make people play it? And people enjoy that? That might be the case, I wouldn’t know since I have a very different opinion.
2. I couldn’t give you an answer for this, I mean, what is wrong with adding more objectives so the game isn’t so repetitive? Or they might have been trying to keep the game simple.
3. They probably didn’t add two-player because it wasn’t what they wanted to add to their game, I mean, you could always add more and more to a game but sometimes it’s kind of just done. Which is probably the case. And maybe they wanted the game to stay small, single player games take way less processing power than multiplayer games do, so if you did add it, not as many people would be able to play it if they had an old device or PC. Also, it would probably costs a lot, and if it fails their company could would lose money since they didn’t earn enough money to pay the people who worked on it.

 

List 3 or more reasons why these changes may be difficult to include if the game were revised.

1. Changing the two characters without changing anything else in the code might be difficult.
2. To add different objectives to each level, you would have to change every single level and there are like 1525 levels, that would take a lot of time. Plus I think they are always adding new levels.
3. You would have to add a completely new mode on the menu and it would again, probably take a lot of time to add the mode to each level or add more levels that are specifically for two-players.
4. Each of the 3 listed above would take a lot of money and time to change the coding. And they would lose money if they didn’t earn enough money to pay those who worked on it.

 

Briefly explain why you would like to make these changes

I would make these changes because I think this game could be so much better, though I have different opinions than most people who play Candy Crush Saga. The characters really are repulsive and I’d think other people would agree. And adding two players would make it more fun and exciting. Almost every game I play is multiplayer, single player games I just don’t find as fun. Though… multiplayer games to take a lot more processing power than single player games. Also making the objectives in each level differ would make it less repetitive and more interesting/exciting. Though adding multiplayer might actually be to risky to add if you think about the cost and if it were to fail. The company would suffer from it.