CrowdStar Launches Social Tourism Game Happy Island, Using Only Facebook Credits

December 15th, 2009

By Eric Eldon

n31231052697_8963 Here’s a game for any Facebook user stuck in a cold part of the world for the next several months: Happy Island, the latest social game from CrowdStar.

You start with a tropical, volcanic island — think: Hawaii — and your job is to grow your tourism business via attractions like hotels, luaus and fruit stands, bringing in more customers and earning more money so you can further expand your island tourism chain.

Also notable is that the game only uses Facebook’s in-house virtual currency, Credits. There’s no other payment system currently available. As we’ve previously reported that Facebook is planning a major rollout of Credits to third-party apps.

The game’s genre traces back to classic casual games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, and more recently, Zynga’s Roller Coaster Kingdom social game. In an interview yesterday, CrowdStar chairman Peter Relan explained that unlike some other park-style management simulations, Happy Island takes it easy on users. There’s minimal penalties for not coming back to the game — the tourists keep coming to your island and earning you money, even when you’re not providing them with constant new amusements. This dynamic is similar to its other games, Happy Aquarium and Happy Pets, where the fish and pets, respectively, might go hungry or dirty, but they don’t die or run off like what happens in some of the competing titles in those genres.

The idea is to make the game universally appealing, or “happy,” as the name suggest. As you progress, your island gets bigger and bigger, and you can expand to more islands. Relan says the company learned to enable this sort of expansion, after watching Happy Aquarium users create scores of fish tanks to take care of their fish farms.

CrowdStar recently promised to pump out original titles every month, pacing competitors — especially market leader Zynga. That developer followed up on Happy Aquarium and other aquarium games with FishVille in November, then followed up on Happy Pets (and preceding pet games, like Pet Society and SuperPoke Pets) with PetVille earlier this month.

Other innovations in Happy Island include a 2.5-dimensional interface, where you can see cartoon tourists walking to different parts of the island; this is a more complex view than what CrowdStar’s other games have offered. You can also do things like zoom out to see your whole island empire or zoom in to closely examine specific features.

The game comes with a lot of easy ways to earn coins, like harvesting simple objects off the landscape. However, any improvements to game features, like an airstrip, dock or hotel, cost either a considerable amount of coins, or a few Credits. There’s also no mention of island locals and how they might feel about the tourists.

Happy Island has been in beta testing for the last 10 days. It currently has nearly 100,000 daily active users and around 243,000 monthly active users; we expect to grow as CrowdStar begins promoting it on its game toolbar on Happy Aquarium and its other apps.

To dig deeper into the social gaming market, check out our new report: Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2010.

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17 Responses to “CrowdStar Launches Social Tourism Game Happy Island, Using Only Facebook Credits”

CrowdStar’s New Happy Island Game Is The First To Exclusively Use Facebook Credits for Virtual Currency Payments Says:
December 15th, 2009 at 11:31 am
[...] More about Happy Island, from our review over on Inside Social Games: [...]
As Facebook Prepares Credits Rollout, Here’s a Look at the Virtual Currency in Social Games Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am
[...] is Crowdstar’s implementation of credits to buy upgrade items directly in recently launched Happy Island, as we covered yesterday. For a user who already has Facebook Credits, this is an extremely simple purchase process as [...]
As Facebook Prepares Credits Rollout, Here’s a Look at the Virtual Currency in Social Games | XtremelySocial.com Says:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:50 am
[...] is Crowdstar’s implementation of credits to buy upgrade items directly in recently launched Happy Island, as we covered yesterday. For a user who already has Facebook Credits, this is an extremely simple purchase process as [...]
This Week’s Headlines on Inside Social Games Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
[...] CrowdStar Launches Social Tourism Game Happy Island, Using Only Facebook Credits [...]
2009: The Year Facebook’s Platform Monetization Efforts Kicked In Says:
December 30th, 2009 at 8:01 am
[...] it can add significant value to the Platform virtual goods market through its currency, and has started experimenting with efforts in this direction with developers. If Facebook Credits can provide a better experience for users, who might trust Facebook with their [...]
Facebook is Building a New Payment Operations Team Says:
January 7th, 2010 at 9:44 am
[...] talking to big developers about implementing Credits as a payment option in their games. Already, CrowdStar’s new Happy Island game launched last month with Credits as its exclusive method of payment for virtual [...]
Facebook is Building a New Payment Operations Team | BlackBerry Nokia iPhone Social Media Says:
January 9th, 2010 at 12:04 am
[...] talking to big developers about implementing Credits as a payment option in their games. Already, CrowdStar’s new Happy Island game launched last month with Credits as its exclusive method of payment for virtual [...]
Finance Geek » A Sneak Peak Into Facebook’s Payments Platform Says:
January 13th, 2010 at 10:57 am
[...] SOCIAL GAMES: As we reported back in mid-December, Happy Island, developed by CrowdStar, was the first game that exclusively used Facebook Credits for all in-game purchases. Recently, we’ve noticed that a “Payments Issues” link has been added to the [...]
EVCin » Sneak Peek of Facebook Credits Payment Issues Process Says:
January 13th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
[...] integration. As we reported back in mid-December, Happy Island, developed by CrowdStar, was the first game that exclusively used Facebook Credits for all in-game purchases. Recently, we’ve noticed that a “Payments Issues” link has been added to the footer of Happy [...]
Leanne Warwick Says:
January 20th, 2010 at 2:07 am
Totally enjoying the game – just want to know what it is when pirates land in your game – do you loose points?
Thanks for help!
As Facebook Gears Up for Credits, Here’s the Exchange Rates for the 15 Supported Currencies Says:
January 25th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
[...] good sales. Happy Islands, a social game by CrowdStar, launched last month using Credits as the sole means for virtual goods purchases. This month, the company has already made a push to hire for a new payments operation team, tested [...]
jenalyn dela cruz alfeche Says:
February 4th, 2010 at 4:06 am
how come i can’t find my happy island, even the bookmark in my facebook….
carmenrosa Says:
February 18th, 2010 at 10:55 am
porque el juego de happy island no me abre, me llegan gifs, invitaciones, las acepto y cuando quiero entrar al juego no puedo, que pasa.
raquel cordero Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
i want to play again my happy island
Bruce Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
I have blocked myself out of happy island or something happened but i can’t get back into myf game. Can you help me please?
Mary Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
For the pirate question- if you click on the pirate captain and buy him drink he stakes a pirate flag on your island.
monalika kashyap Says:
March 15th, 2010 at 12:23 am
very strange !!! how come i can’t find happy island….though it was workin’ till day before….
suddenly not openin’….what happen to it…..wanna play my happy island again…..!!!!!!!!!!!
i’m restless…wanna get back to my game…..dying to play it again….can you plz help me out…..???
thanX….