Don't be deceived by the cheery kid like graphics, this game has some solid mechanics, a lot of draw and appeals to quite a few different types of players. If I break down the features in the game with like examples of other games, you get something that looks like it was produced from the metamorphical box.
So! Every player starts out in London while they work through the tutorial. While you progress you are presented with/encounter the following features (which I will equate to other popular games).
- You choose a homestead
LIKE: Farmville or Harvest MoonDISTINCTIVE: Here you collect Stardium randomly
- You build things for production
LIKE: Farmville or Harvest Moon
DISTINCTIVE: All buildings have upgrades that increase crafting success and decrease time required
- You can keep animals
LIKE: Farmville or Harvest Moon
DISTINCTIVE: When you reach the level you can keep pigs they shit out some interesting and decidedly painful resources and jewels
- You can make friends and visit their homesteads
LIKE: Farmville or Animal Crossing
DISTINCTIVE: You can use this feature to reach distant areas and new lands without wasting all your energy
- You trap monsters
LIKE: Mousehunt
DISTINCTIVE: You have to collect or craft all your baits and some of the monsters are well amusing and drop loot you need for further crafting
- You complete quests
LIKE: Every other RPG, MMO or RPGMMO (or Saturday night after drinking far too much if you're one of those personalities)
DISTINCTIVE: Some of the quests are the only way you can acquire certain traps or trap certain monsters
- You can find wishing coins (talk to your pigs... O-o) or have them awarded on the daily to gamble on some loot
LIKE: Many other games
DISTINCTIVE: You can actually buy one of the types of coins with soft currency
- It takes time to complete your crafting projects
LIKE: Every other life consuming and will destroying freemium game
DISTINCTIVE: You can purchase time with soft currency or even CRAFT IT! (time potions for the win)
- The game uses real geography
LIKE: Monster (something) I played ages ago on iOS which I'm not going to attempt to locate the exact name of as AppAnnie is proving that searching for the word 'monster' is as bright an idea as searching for 'war', 'tank' or 'racer'...
DISTICTIVE: Different geography offers different resources
Your best friend through all of this is your Almanac! It has a collection of all the stuff in the game, what it can be used for and what it offers or costs. If you want to trap a monster, catch a fish or find a plant you can select the map in the almanac for that item and the game will place you over that area of the map for easy locating.
The farming aspect is much like any other farming game but your crops don't wither at the same manic speed they do in other games. You can plant something that finishes in an hour and return three or four hours later and collect them. If friends have fertilised your crops they won't wither and you can also craft neverwither potions and revive potions for your plants or ask for them for your 'friends' for free.
Friends!
It's always an iffy word in social games. In HBM you can ask your social friends to play with you OR you can add people you encounter in your wanderings. You can have up to 100 friends so you sometimes have to discard players that look to have stopped playing in spells.
Monetisation!
You can pay for whatever you want but the hard currency will be rewarded occasionally. The customary level up 'here's a unit of hard currency' occurs as well as a weekly reward for consistently logging in daily. Soft currency is easily collected if you have the time.
Luck!
The game will reward you increased luck for consistently logging in daily as well. One assumes this means you will get better things pooped out by your pigs and decreased chances of failures with your crafting and so on.
Crafting!
Some items are difficult to make and have a high failure rate. You can increase your chances of success with 'Success Potions'. These you can win at the wishing well or receive from your friends.
Stardium!
This is where I give you a big section of information as well as a method of farming to help you increase your Stardium Potion production rate (as it's used in quite a few recipes).
Stardium will fall into your homestead every few days. This is usually six units that could be hidden behind your buildings and trees if you don't take care on how you place your objects. If you fail to pick it up, you won't receive any new stardium, it'll just keep falling in the location you left it.
Two pieces of Stardium makes a Stardium Potion in your laboratory.
Stardium Potions are used in many useful things including Time Potions. They can be made from Stardium or creeping ooze (check your almanac for all the recipes).
I now offer you a lovely loop for keeping copious amounts of Stardium Potions!
1. Identify the creep trees!
This is a creep tree, you will start with a few in your Homestead
2. Isolate them in your Homestead and cut down all your other normal trees (your non-fruit trees)
- If you have any other normal trees in your Homestead you will find them growing more often then the Creep Trees (see Step 3)
3. Every few days a new Creep Tree should start growing
4. When it does, move it over with the others
5. As your Creep Trees rejuvenate (takes a few days) cut them to 4/5
- So long as you don't reduce it to a stump it will grow back
- Every time you cut one of these trees you have a chance at gaining some Creeping Ooze
- Creeping Ooze can be used to craft Stardium Potions
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until your heart's content
7. You now have a Stardium Potion factory!
One of the things I love about this game is that you aren't trapping evil monsters to help keep the population safe and sound in their beds, you are trapping monsters as a service to the monsters! Trappers are encouraged to trap monsters in order to cure them of the corruption that has befallen them due to Stardium exposure. So no monsters were harmed in the making of this game, it's brilliant. :)
There is so much more to this game then I've covered here, but I've already waffled a good long while as is. I recommend this game for beta or worse as it's really shaped up over the last several months and is jumping from strength to strength as it evolves.
The monetisation strategy isn't aggressive or pushy. You never feel as though they're about to walk you up to a wall at any given point and force you to splash out if you want to get ahead. Practically everything you can buy with hard currency is vanity and I've seen some homesteads that had a fair amount of those items in them.
As players race to collect EVERYTHING in the game (as it all counts towards achievements and ticking a box in the almanac) monetisation will occur. They've done a solid job with this game and I will continue to play it.
