Takeaways from Growing Hypercasual Games: Week 1, August 2022
Takeaways from Growing Hypercasual Games: Week 1, August 2022
Hey, peeps! How's it going? I have been away for some time as I was swamped the past few weeks.
In this blog post, I will share 3 games that have been doing well the past week and looked interesting to me.
1. Blobsbuster
A satisfying blob with lots of limbs flailing around to find dots. As the blob gets more and more dots, the blob grows. It's an io game so there are fake multiplayer around. It plays like slither but the movement and food consumption is more satisfying. A nice way to hypercasualize a popular web game. We have seen slither in mobile but this one feels more fun and satisfying due to the limbing around.
There's a risk-reward factor going which gives the game a whole another depth. At any point, you are making a decision.
Do you go back to the base to cash in on your acquired blobs? It's the safe play. Because you will have more blobs saved and have a chance to upgrade. Or you can keep moving as you can grow with a snowball effect. But you can get cut by the other players
Do you move away and attack the base of the other blobs? You can get a lot of blobs on the base of other players but you leave your base unguarded
The gameplay is all in all fun. If it doesn't reach the top charts, there are certainly learnings to be taken from here. The whole flailing movement and resource gathering can be a great combination for a new arcade idle game.
2. Crowd Evolution
It's a nice runner game with 2-dimensional growth. You are running and throwing weapons toward enemies. The aim is to eliminate all the baddies from afar and even if you can't eliminate them, at least avoid them
You need to make a balance between increasing your crowd/increasing your technology. Higher tech means powerful weapons and higher crowd means more weapons. Generally, you win with most choices.
The core is similar to Tall Man Run where you balance between becoming tall/ becoming thick to break obstacles
3. Become a Queen
This is a simulation game where you play as an 'unpopular girl'. You start your journey towards becoming the Queen. You have a nemesis and a love interest, the usual high school story. But unlike other hypercasual simulation games, it plays like a continuous story.
It can be easily seen that a lot of effort was put into it as most levels are handcrafted and part of a story. Simulation games are not really my cup of tea. But hey, if it works, it works
Takeaways
An interesting limb flailing mechanics which can be used in different genres to get different games. Certainly will be satisfying
More runners can be tried this way where 2 features offer different strategic gains. Tall-Thick, Number-Technology, Speed-Strength, etc
Story-based simulation games can be tried. But it would take way too long development time for a hypercasual game