Inside Social Games

NumberJumper is a deceptively simple new puzzle game, launched on Facebook earlier this month. For casual gamers who want a challenge, it’s worth a look.

In the game, players are presented with a grid of blocks, numbered 1 – 7. The objective is to line up four of the same number horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Here’s the trick though: Every time you make a move, two new numbers appear, so each one needs to be planned very carefully.

Also, the numbers slide across the grid, so if there is no path leading to where you try and place it, then you cannot make that move. So, again, this means that very careful movements as well as some patience is needed.

But, one cannot be too careful as the developers have incorporated a time limit. To balance this out, removing consecutive groups of numbers adds time back onto the clock. More often than not, however, space on the board is what seems to run out first, and if there is not enough real estate left for new numbers, the game is over.

As one can probably imagine, the game includes a simple scoring system with leaderboards so you can see how you’re doing versus other players.

When you first start playing, it feels a lot like a matter of just survival and is somewhat difficult to devise a working strategy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does make the game a little annoying at first.

Curiously enough, the game was strangely alluring, despite annoyances. At first it merely feels like bad luck when blocks appear right where you were planning to place a fourth number, but there are ways around it. Eventually, a strategy does begin to formulate as you end up trying over and over and over again to beat your last score until you realize, “hey, wasn’t I doing something more important?”

Though it is bad for time efficiency, NumberJumper’s addictive nature certainly makes for a fun, deceptively simple game.