Puzzle Craft - (by Chillingo Ltd) [Universal]

[ArsThanea]

y2kmp3

When you manage to get a bonus from matching a string (for example, matching a string of chicken to get a pig), is there any way you can "force" the bonus to appear in a particular slot? Is this entirely random?

Yes, it's entirely random. Otherwise game would be to simple. One of the strategy in the game to keep chains on control.


GeekyDad

K, it just happened again, also in the mine. Seems if you run out of moves, the game doesn't know how to process that and it just shuts down.

Does it happen only if you reset the board or also when you are taping on Use Tool button?

[Royce]

Originally Posted by articulate

And to the quote above, what are you implying? That I am not skilled? Or that you are not skilled? If it's the former, I don't see how skill ties in to anything when the run-up to level 10 just requires that you farm, mine and build more stuff or as much stuff as you can afford to. Granted level 10 isn't level 100, but having had not enough gold on four occasions to farm and as a consequence not enough(or too little left) to go mine after building stuff seems like a poor mechanic to me. If anything, it would be more accurate to say that less-skilled players are the ones that don't need to wait around because they accomplish things slower, but that's not the point

I meant no offense. I made it to level 15 my first day, just farm-mine-farm-mine without ever needing to wait. I assumed, since I owned dungeon raid to point of the game becoming unplayable, that I'm probably pretty good at this too. I just think people who don't have as much strategy down yet for this kind of game might struggle a bit with resources including gold.

Anyway, my point is simply that, even though the difficulty is low enough that I haven't felt any need to spend, the game has the entire freemium model intact, including prompts asking you to spend. Even the wording is tricky. You don't decline to spend hundreds of gold when finished a game, you have to "skip" it if you can't afford (or don't see the value of paying) to continue or save resources, as of you're missing out on something. For me, just the freemium atmoshpere alone is enough to keep this from being something I consider really good or great. Other people are dealing with the freemium revolution better though, and I can see why they consider it a great game.

[McNippleson]

How the f do you start playing? I click new game and keyboard pops up blocking everything and I can't start the game.

[Hex Blade]

I'm really loving this game. I've been totally addicted for days. But there's one thing I was wondering. Is there any way to move your builds once you've made them because I want to make my town look really nice but I've regretted placing a few of the buildings in thier current positions.

If there's no way to do this now, I hope this option wil be added in a future update.

I know this is a trivial matter but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these types of games

[Markku]

i kinda want to get this game but never really got into those fremium building villages games. is this that good? any video reviews anywhere?

[justln]

Originally Posted by Hex Blade

I'm really loving this game. I've been totally addicted for days. But there's one thing I was wondering. Is there any way to move your builds once you've made them because I want to make my town look really nice but I've regretted placing a few of the buildings in thier current positions.

If there's no way to do this now, I hope this option wil be added in a future update.

I know this is a trivial matter but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these types of games

Nope, you can't move your buildings. My pig farm is right next to my mansion.

Matching 10 of the top tier materials also nets you 200 gold if I'm correct. I bought a mansion for 1000+ gold and I still have 3000 gold left.

[articulate]

Originally Posted by Proc19

Did you never have surplus resources to sell?

Should the game designers consider giving players the option of softer difficulty levels? It seems like players that want an even more casual experience (a casual casual game?)

I'm not sure you follow me, but that's alright. I have no qualms about the difficulty per se, rather I have qualms about the need to exchange harvest items for gold in order to go back to harvesting. Yes perhaps, if that is a sign of difficulty(when it seems like rather poor logic to me), then call me a noob for not seeing it.

Originally Posted by eAdvisory

i do agree, that this game takes some thinking and skill to master.. if some are having tremendous difficulties then i would suggest a different game... kairosoft just came out with a new game.. go try that instead...

No one is having tremendous difficulties sheesh. Get off your high horse and read for a second. For anyone who has ever been immortal in Dungeon Raid, the 'Match-3' aspect is done. The problems I have with the game are; a) running out of gold, b) having insufficient bread to mine, c) having to use my already insufficient resources to exchange for more gold to go back to do what gold is used for.

But alright, I'll give you calculative people some credit. You belong in the finance sector for knowing how to manage your available funds.

Originally Posted by Royce

For me, just the freemium atmoshpere alone is enough to keep this from being something I consider really good or great.

And that is something I agree with, completely.

[ArsThanea]

McNippleson Did you manage to launch the game after naming village stage?
If note please describe what happen so we can help you. Thanks!

[McNippleson]

Originally Posted by ArsThanea

McNippleson Did you manage to launch the game after naming village stage?
If note please describe what happen so we can help you. Thanks!

I press new game and my keyboard pops up (the screen behind remains the same) and all I can do is click on letters.

[MrAlbum]

Originally Posted by articulate

I'm not sure you follow me, but that's alright. I have no qualms about the difficulty per se, rather I have qualms about the need to exchange harvest items for gold in order to go back to harvesting. Yes perhaps, if that is a sign of difficulty(when it seems like rather poor logic to me), then call me a noob for not seeing it.



No one is having tremendous difficulties sheesh. Get off your high horse and read for a second. For anyone who has ever been immortal in Dungeon Raid, the 'Match-3' aspect is done. The problems I have with the game are; a) running out of gold, b) having insufficient bread to mine, c) having to use my already insufficient resources to exchange for more gold to go back to do what gold is used for.

But alright, I'll give you calculative people some credit. You belong in the finance sector for knowing how to manage your available funds.



And that is something I agree with, completely.

Here are some further thoughts I have about people's response to the game, in conjunction with the thoughts I expressed earlier in this thread (somewhere around Page 18 or so).

It's okay for players to desire to explain the game they are playing. It is a sign that, as a result of their play through, they are synthesizing their impressions into a format that other people, theoretically, can benefit from in some manner. At its best, it is an exchange of information crucial for new players to understand what the game is and how best to enjoy it. At its worst, emotional reactions take precedence, which clouds the info and makes it extremely hard to parse any useable facts from.

Considering the issue that we gamers are quite a paranoid bunch as a group (not quite as individuals), as I described in my previous post, we worry about the slightest negative aspect of any game anywhere even coming close to our eyeballs, even when it comes in the most convoluted and least explained of methods. I know that this is an extreme description, the purpose of which is to highlight how BAD the tendency can be, so I in no way claim that this is the norm.

Why, though?

Why the anal-retentiveness? Why the nitpicking of solid, fun experiences over the most roundabout of problems (software/hardware bugs excluded)? Why the agonizing over some of the most trivial of issues, such as truly optional IAP, regardless of how the developers put such a thing in front of the gamer's nose?

Because gamers, as a group, have been socially maligned, slandered and prosecuted for our hobby and our use of our time, in an extremely unfair and illogical manner. Thus, in terms of recent history, we have developed behavioral mechanisms that avoid all of the social stereotypes that often get foisted upon us. Unfortunately, this constant self-checking taken to extreme levels has backfired into the enjoyment of the artistic medium we partake in; suppressed emotions have to go SOMEWHERE and do SOMETHING, after all, or else the negative environmental effects begin to take a more serious toll on our psyche.

I would like to reiterate that this is an observed pattern related to a GROUP OF PEOPLE, NOT individuals. There is a reason the majority of psychiatric work is carried out face-to-face with patients, and not from a distance over a large population. Individuals are, well, individual. They frequently not only buck trends and stereotypes, BUT they often can set new trends/new stereotypes of their own, depending on certain factors.

But does this mean that individuals are immune from greater societal pressures? Absolutely not. Why? Because they are a PART of those larger groups of people. As a result, when something happens to the group, it reflects on the individuals who are a part of that group.

Why did I need to point this out? To make this point: Even as an individual with their own views/ideas to consider, the above OCD-ish behavioral pattern observed in society that I described before can still affect and change that individual's behavior in a way that may/may not be a "good" thing. Thus, problems arise, and the goal of our hobby (to have a fun and positive gaming experience) is lost amid negativity and destructive behavioral patterns, EVEN IF THE INTENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS SOMETHING POSITIVE.

So, in essence, we're damned for trying to enjoy our hobby because of society's overall backwards thinking, especially via carry-overs from the past, and we're damned for trying to improve our experience with this matter because the desire to not be hurt again by society's persecutive mindset drives us to make games perfect, and to paint ANY game that doesn't live up to perfection as the ultimate spawn of Satan, to use hyperbole.

Thus, the fun experience of this game and how well it morphs the "farming" genre into something highly enjoyable in comparison to the gazillions of games such as FarmVille all the way to more highly polished offerings like Tiny Tower gets lost amid players asking for help/clarification (not bad at all), angry statements about how IAPs are implemented and how just because they exist this game is the plague (which is highly distracting, destructive and emotionally charged 95% of the time), and people trying to reasonably explain why they should calm down and reconsider (this isn't always calm and reasoned, and sometimes fuels even deeper emotional responses that can only be resolved through destroying the lines of communication).

And, as a result, objective in-depth analyses of the game's merits and problems are forgotten/never carried out/torn apart by more emotional statements. Thus, no lessons are learned, and no lasting good is accomplished in any meaningful way.

This definitely sounds, looks and feels terrible. Even if one takes a look at this problem and how it continues to destroy meaningful discourse among the majority of gamers from as objective an eye as possible, the negative affects will be more numerous than the positive ones, especially over time periods greater than a year.

Is there anything we can do?

Is there any way to remove this problem?

I do not have an answer for the problem plaguing the overall gamer group. However, I do know that individuals are free to do whatsoever they wish, for good or ill.

I know that I am exercising my individual freedom to bring this up and discuss it because I have observed that this deeper issue has affected various gamers' enjoyment of this particular game, and as a result this good game is lost amid high emotions and well-meaning commenters, in spite of analysis of the game's myriad positives and negatives that intelligent people have made and try to communicate within this forum.

And I sincerely believe that the game, as a result, has suffered, both in terms of how people new to it feel about it after reading the various comments in this thread and how people who have enjoyed the game now feel about it after cross-checking other people's impressions with their own.

Sure, the dynamics of how individuals feel about the game are so vast, powerful AND malleable that trying to accurately depict one person's reaction is impossible, but the broader strokes of how gamers IN GENERAL feel about the game do matter, especially when you consider that the art of the video game has PLAYER INTERACTION/EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT AS THE CORE REASON WHY THE ART FORM IS SO UNIQUE.

Thus, if a player hates this game for what may (OR MAY NOT) be a trivial reason, then said player will not realize the full potential of fun within the game, and their reason for being gamers in the first place (HAVING FUN) will have one more strike against it, thus furthering an erosion of confidence that games ARE FUN, and deserve to be played, which backfires into their enjoyment if games in general.

In contrast, movies both bad and good can be enjoyed for their broader strokes and/or the points they try to make/their efforts to look beautiful/etc.... Even "bad" movies, as a result, often still have life and enjoyment within them despite how terrible their flaws are. But games are denied this flexibility and acknowledgement of entertainment value because gamers as a whole refuse to let them be like this, and constantly try to force games to coincide with their own standards of perfection.

Thus, games suffer, and WE suffer, and our hobby stagnates while other entertainment manages to evolve with the changing tides of history. Thus, the gamers who perpetuate this extreme, even if their intentions cannot be more pure than those of Jesus Christ, actually hold us back instead of help us move forward to better fun and more solid entertainment. Gamers that, somehow, manage to avoid/circumvent/"cure"/etc... this problem thus end up ostracized within their own social groups because they don't conform to our group's standards anymore.

Like I said, it's a bad situation. Like I said, it is a near-constant social paradigm that few people are actually attempting to change. Like I said, I really don't have a solid answer to this dilemma. I still shared it here, because I feel that it needs to be mentioned, considered and discussed.




.......

Holy schla-MOLEY, that was a wall-o-text

Guess I needed to get this off my chest. Guess I also should have considered the state of my conscious mind (it's almost 3 am here in Alaska >_<). In any case, I certainly hope the TA community gets something positive out of this, in some manner or fashion.

Sincerely,

Mr. Album