On Book Friday(Co-opted)

Book Friday has been usurped. Hijacked. Commandeered. Appropriated. The culprit? Triple Town. This diabolical little app has dominated my life as of late. I'm hoping that sharing my addiction with the internet might help me.

The game is dead simple. Combine three like items on a 6X6 grid to create a new item. Combine three of the new items to create an even newer item. Eventually you combine enough items to create a treasure chest full of coins that lets you buy more items or turns or undos.

It's the type of simple, strategic gameplay that I find hugely addicting. You have to plan ahead and know where you're going to put your next item(you get random items to place) to get the highest possible score. You have a limited number of turns you can play(there's a timer that slowly refills your turns) and can purchase more with the gold you earn(or buy through microtransactions).

The iOS and Android versions allow you to purchase unlimited turns for 3.99, and initially I'd planned to purchase the unlimited turn option. As I've played more and more, though, I've realized that the limited turns are actually a quite brilliant game mechanic. Let me explain.

In order to keep playing you need turns; in order to gain more turns you need to earn gold; in order to earn gold you have to play well, make good combinations and earn high scores. Basically, the way to play longer is to get better. I think it's an interesting way to reward players: if you play better you get to play more. I doubt this would work well in a lot of games, but here it's used quite effectively, whether intentionally or not.

So there you have it, a quick game review of a game that has consumed all my reading time. I plan to get to Tigana next week. But right now I need to play some Triple Town.

 

Andrew

 

Reading:

Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay. Page 259/676