Yet despite this two element that creates social gameplay in level based game economies, PvZ2 doesn’t show players’ playing Facebook friends on the map nor offer any level based leaderboards. PvZ2 also shows players’ progress on in a map format. PvZ2 encourages players to log in with their Facebook account to the game. Imagine Hay Day without the ability to trade goods with other players? How about Candy Crush Saga without the progression map showing how far your friends have progressed and how they have faired on each level.ĭespite Facebook Connect and beautiful progression map, there are no social elements in PvZ2. Playing a game with real people, preferably someone players know, is essential for retention and monetization. But collecting resource building, training troops as well as chatting with the clan can be done easily on the go. For example in Clash of Clans attacking requires a lot of concentration as a missed tap results easily in a defeat. Many titles avoid this problem simply by creating different of play sessions. I’m not saying that in order to succeed, mobile game has to be similarly playable in all environments. It’s just not the kind of a game you want to play while commuting or when there’s a risk of distraction. Keep looking away and you’ve failed a level. Secondly playing PvZ2 demands absolute concentration, finger speed and both of your thumbs. That’s long comparing to a minute it takes to lose a life in Candy Crush Saga. It takes around 4 minutes to give one level a go. First of all the session are always long. PvZ2 is a good example of ignoring different play environments. Or you can ignore this fact of different play environments and just hope that players will launch you game when they get back home or into the bathroom – assuming of course that they won’t continue playing that other game they have been playing throughout the day.Įach level takes a lot of time and demands 100% concentration making PvZ2 unsuitable for quick game sessions in places with a lot of distractions.
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Either design your game so that it suits different environments thus enabling players to enjoy it throughout their days and fill up their free moments with a few minutes of fun. Because of different play environment session length and the amount of concentration game demands can be seen as a crucial factor.Īs a developer you have two choices.
But apart from home, games are also played while commuting, at work and in the solitary of the bathroom (source: Tech Crunch). People play mobile games in the comfort of their home, where they have plenty of time and limited amount of sudden and unexpected distractions. Unsuitable for Different Play Environments In this post, I’ll present the 4 main reasons why PvZ2 is unlikely to ever reach top10 grossing on iOS. Given the promotion power, EA possesses, not breaking top10 grossing is an evidence that PvZ2 monetizes portly. This is a good result from an essentially paid game, but top20 isn't probably something PopCap and EA was expecting.
In hindsight, it seems that dropping the price tag was a smart choice as PvZ2 broke briefly into top20 crossing on iPhone and iPad. And as you know, this blog is all about the game mechanic. The biggest change of the sequel though is that it went from paid to free. The game has kept all the good from the first episode and spiced it up with new content as well as features like map and gesture operated power-ups.