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Is Farm Heroes the Next Candy Crush?
King Games Pushes Match-3 Mobile Farming App
Tommy Palm, gaming guru for King Digital Entertainment, has a problem on his hands. How do you guide a company like King, whose meteoric rise to the top of the charts has recently tapered off into a drooping IPO? It’s common knowledge that King’s revenue stream is based almost entirely around Candy Crush. If they can’t come up with dynamic new ideas for games, King will be an outdated relic inside of a year.
While King attempts to make inroads in Asia by promoting Candy Crush, they’re hopeful that Western audiences will migrate to another of their games: Farm Heroes Saga. Palm spoke to Mobile Entertainment recently at King’s pop-up farm in London, which promotes both urban farming and the company’s “#BeAFarmHero” campaign, hawking Farm Heroes as a “significantly different” game than Candy Crush.
If you laughed at that, you’re not alone. Farm Heroes operates exactly like Candy Crush in the fundamentals of its gameplay. The differences between the two games lie in strategy, since boosters don’t behave in exactly the same way. However, to their credit, King is more generous with free boosters in Farm Heroes than Candy Crush.
Still, Palm was nothing if not candid with the press. King will continue producing match-three puzzle games far into the future, Palm said, “because that’s what we’re good at.” On one level, it’s good that King recognizes a good thing when they see it. They clearly did something right to tap into a cultural niche in the way they have. But it’s worth considering how long King’s audiences will be content to play games that are basically the same rehashed concept. Sooner or later, millions of dedicated Candy Crushers will be hungry for a game that pushes the envelope. Is Farm Heroes really going to be an adequate response? Tell us what you think in the comments.
Candy Crush’s Asian Blitz
King Has Eyes on China, Japan
After the disappointing debut of King’s initial public offering, it’s obvious that King execs have been scrambling to regain lost ground. With stock prices hovering around $18, it is crucial for King to act boldly if it’s going to avoid a slow decline into obscurity. But few people foresaw King’s new strategy: cracking the Asian market.
In December of last year, King unleashed its first Japanese ad campaign. The TV spots featured a woman playing Candy Crush outside as candy pours over her like rain. After the campaign got rolling, Candy Crush shot up the charts to become the top iTunes game downloaded in Japan and the number 2 contender on the Google Play store. Downloads have since dropped off, but Candy Crush remains popular amongst Japanese social gamers. To bolster their ratings and revenue, King has now begun a new ad campaign featuring Junichi Okada and Kenichi Endo, a boy band member and dramatic actor respectively. The ads are peculiar, to say the least, and have thus caused quite a stir on the Internet. Watch them for yourself.
With such big names behind it, Candy Crush is poised for another big bump in Japan–so King’s eyes have moved slightly to the west and are gazing on China. King has entered into a partnership with Tencent Holdings to create a localized edition of Candy Crush Saga for Chinese players. Tencent is already well-positioned to deliver Candy Crush to a huge segment of the population, with social platforms like the QQ instant messenger and search engine QQ.com, both used by millions of Chinese citizens. Their QQ Game Platform crested 180 million active accounts last year. This translates to massive numbers of Tencent patrons that can be easily diverted to the app download page. King and Tencent are clearly a powerful combination.
The only question is whether this partnership will be enough to propel King’s share price above twenty dollars again. Only time will tell, but the market rewarded King with a gentle gain of 3% after the news broke. If reception in China is anything like it has been in Japan, King will be ready to take another huge slice of the gaming industry’s pie.
King Games: “We’re Not An Evil Empire”
Regarding the Open Letter from King Games’ CEO
Popularity often goes hand in hand with infamy, and King Games CEO Riccardo Zacconi is learning this more and more every day. His major money maker, Candy Crush Saga, has passed half a billion downloads and players seem to be content to pour more money into King’s coffers, but all’s not well in the palace. Disturbing allegations have swirled around the company in the past few months that accuse King of everything from overreaching trademarks to outright intellectual property theft. To try and stem the backlash, Zacconi composed an open letter addressing some of the allegations that can be viewed on the King Games site.
Zacconi began the letter by clarifying the company’s policy on intellectual property: “to protect our IP and to also respect the IP of others.” King has been accused of disrespecting IP with regards to one of their games–Pac-Avoid–and a game published by another company called ScamperGhost. Zacconi says the details are “complex” (although one of ScamperGhost’s developers lays it out pretty simply) but sums up the situation by saying “we should never have published Pac-Avoid.”
With that apology, Zacconi moves on to another topic–trademarking the words “candy” and “saga.” This has gotten a lot of press, and we’ve already talked extensively about it on this blog, so Zacconi’s stance (that King’s just trying to protect their own IP from clones) isn’t surprising. He brings up a good point that plenty of common words have been trademarked, such as “Life” and “Time” have been by their respective magazines. What’s more newsworthy is Zacconi’s assertion that King won’t prevent Stoic Games from calling their most recent release “Banner Saga”; apparently, they only sued Stoic to protect their right to defend their trademark.
Recently, King’s “games guru” Tommy Palm weighed in on the controversy, saying that “we’re not evil villains building an empire.” Considering that their actions across the board have been condemned as “predatory” by the International Game Developers Association, King Games might have to release a few more open letters if they want to win any new fans.
Candy Crush Conveyor Belt
What is the Candy Crush Conveyor Belt in Candy Crush Saga?
The Candy Crush Conveyor Belt is a special type of teleporter that appears in Candy Crush Saga. The unique addition to the game was first introduced during Candy Crush Saga level 531 during the Sticky Savannah episodes. The conveyor belt has also been known as Travelator.
How do I use the Candy Crush Conveyor Belt in Candy Crush Saga?
The conveyor belt can be used and seen as a horizontal or vertical teleporter. You can spot them on a board by their single black line and pink arrows which will show you which direction they are going.
In addition to that, you will also find that there are portals at both ends of the conveyor belt. The portals indicate where a candy will start and end on the conveyor belt. For instance, when a candy flows through a portal, it will then reappear to the other side and start the shifting process once more.
After every move you make, the conveyor belt will shift up one space in the direction shown by the arrows. Because of the constant shuffling of the conveyor belt, you will need to adjust your strategy for each level.
So, is the conveyor belt a negative element to the Candy Crush Saga?
The conveyor belt presents some rather interesting negatives as well as positives.
As a negative, the conveyor belt moves after ever turn. This of course means you will constantly have candies, special candies, and blockers on the move, making it harder to use and clear them.
For example, you may want or need to save your special candies for a latter point in the game and the conveyor belt may not give you easy access to them. The conveyor belt may even accidentally activate when you don’t really want to use it.
However, as a plus, the conveyor belt may also be used as an efficient tool. Much like a created cascade effect, the conveyor belt may make matches all on their own without you having to shift a candy. This function will prove to be quite useful when you are low on turns and need to clear out more space from the board.
What levels can I find the Candy Crush Conveyor Belt?
Since its introduction, the conveyor belt has appeared in 30 different levels.
Some of the more difficult Candy Crush Saga levels with the conveyor belt include:
- Candy Crush Saga level 531 (the conveyor belt is first introduced)
- Candy Crush Saga level 532 (begin with conveyor belt of licorice swirls)
- Candy Crush Saga level 535 (two vertical conveyor belts)
- Candy Crush Saga level 539 (a vertical conveyor belt with a dispenser)
- Candy Crush Saga level 543 (a converor belt underneath a 4 chocolate fountains)
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