Now that I am no longer playing Glitch in my web browser as they have shut their doors, the spiritual successor to Glitch in my world is Happy Street.

I originally found Happy Street because it was a game that was similar to Animal Crossing – you go on every day, say hi to cute neighbors, and do some menial things. After playing it for about a month, I’d say it is NOT spiritually like Animal Crossing; sure the characters are cute and you do some menial things, but the fact that is 2D (i.e., a street) rather than 3D (a village) makes for a different experience.

But, it is quite close to Glitch. Specifically in that you are farming/collecting items and then crafting items. These items are then used (in addition to coins or the premium currency – flooz) to build and upgrade the shops and activities on your street.

What I found noteworthy about the design of Happy Street is how it uses what I consider as new elements in game design to make the game more compelling, such as:

1. Instead of hard achievements and an actual story, there are always mini-quests presented to the player to keep them playing
2. Creating things take real world time (i.e., 4 hours) instead of an arbitrary amount of waiting within the game
3. Notifications to remind you to revisit the game – but not in an annoying manner. The notifications are to tell you that the item you are crafting is complete, but of course you need to enter the game to build the next thing
4. Premium currency for in-game items that can be purchased for real money. You can still gain these in-game items without spending real money, but buying premium currency will speed things up. I think the Glitch business model is outdated and this one works better
5. Social interaction to help your street along – your friends can come and help speed up builds, and there’s a special tech tree (i.e., building) which requires multiple social interactions to complete

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: cellphones, games