Zynga’s Newest Game, Treasure Isle, Gains Three Million Players in Just Five Days
Could Zynga have found its next hit game? When we noted on March 31st that the social gaming giant’s traffic had plateaued, it wasn’t clear how the company would get out of its rut. Two days later, Zynga released Treasure Isle, an island-based social game in which players hunt for buried treasure based on a time mechanic.
Treasure Isle’s starting growth spurt is reminiscent of FarmVille’s early days. With 3.2 million monthly active users, it’s already one of Zynga’s top ten games. Engagement from players is also strong; there had already been about 2.5 million unique users by about 4pm PST today, according to Jeremy Verba, Zynga’s general manager for the game.
Zynga obviously has a huge ability to promote new titles, with 63 million daily active users among its other Facebook games and a large advertising budget. But there’s more to hitting a home run than just promotion. The company’s other new game, Poker Blitz, has only picked up 1.2 million players in the three weeks it has been around.
Players logging into Treasure Isle for the first time will be able to pick out some of the growth influences. The gameplay revolves around methodically digging up patches of land on deserted islands to find treasure chests and money; in the short tutorial, you quickly find a set of “Crown Jewels”. It’s a bit like playing a slot machine, with “energy” substituting for coins. As in farming games, a looping music track encourages the repetition.
Addictive design is only half the puzzle, though. FarmVille came out at a time that interest in farming and nature was rising. Now there’s a similar trend, at least on Facebook, with islands. Games like Happy Island, Island Life, Island Paradise, and Tiki Resort have all successfully combined this theme with time management, and even Bubble Island, an action-oriented bubble blasting game, uses it to an extent.
The market for a treasure hunting game had also been proven. When we reviewed Treasure Isle, irate commenters pointed out that the game bears a strong resemblance to Treasure Madness, a pre-existing Facebook game that had around three million MAU. Zynga is indeed masterful at borrowing ideas — FarmVille, after all, followed on the success of Farm Town — but Verba says that Zynga also brewed in concepts and atmosphere from cultural successes like Lost and Indiana Jones, along with some original ideas.
Taken together, the above factors do make a hit game more likely. They also suggest a story for what’s happening with Poker Blitz, the other recent Zynga game. Unlike Treasure Isle, it doesn’t seem clear whether players were interested in a game like Poker Blitz, and the specific mechanics in that game are, as far as we know, fairly unique.
Zynga did have its success with Texas HoldEm Poker to guide its design choices, but the originality of Blitz also contained its risk. It’s also possible that Zynga is following a slow-growth strategy for the game, developing it further according to player preferences.
As for Treasure Isle, it looks like the game will continue its blazing growth streak for the time being. So far, it’s holding up to the crush of new traffic, unlike some other recent hits that have had trouble scaling. “We’ve been able to learn on the lessons of other games here,” says Verba. “Zynga’s an environment of perfect improvement, and an example of that is how this game came out, from an operational point of view.”
April 7th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
“They’re copycats!” in 3,2,1…
April 8th, 2010 at 2:50 am
Nice one!
April 8th, 2010 at 2:53 am
I do like Treasure Isle (see my initial impressions here: http://socialgamecentral.com/2010/04/01/breaking-zynga-launches-treasure-isle/) but the bottom line is… they ARE copycats :)
Treasure Isle has plenty of original ideas. Most notably the “home island” concept, and locking away portions of islands until a toll of jewels has been paid.
But… for every original idea, there is one taken fairly shamelessly from Treasure Madness. Digging up fruit that can be eaten for bonus XP is a great example. The only reason it is fruit in TI is because it’s also fruit in TM :) It wasn’t logical the first time around (underground fruit?), which is why it stands out so blatantly in Zynga’s title.
It’s one thing to copy a GENRE. The issue people often have with Zynga is that they copy very specific design elements. The only reason Petville’s shopping experience feels the way it does is because of Pet Society… no other Zynga game features that style of shop. The only reason Cafe World cafes have ratings is because Restaurant City has ratings.
Ultimately, Treasure Isle lies somewhere in the middle of the “originality index.” It very clearly drew “inspiration” from Treasure Madness, but at least no actual UI elements were copied verbatim, as Zynga’s other clones are guilty of.
April 8th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Whoops… meant to say fruits earn bonus energy, not bonus XP.
One final point – Happy Pets from Crowdstar is an example of a company taking a genre or an idea and running in a unique direction with it. See how that game is/isn’t similar to Pet Society (the original), and then see how much more closely Petville imps Pet Society.
It’s not different than dozens of companies releasing FPS titles every year. No one claims Halo is ripping off Call of Duty. But if Zynga were a console developer, their FPS would be Call of Loyalty and would feature an identical HUD :)
I want to reiterate that I like Zynga’s games and everyone I know personally at the company are great people. I think they’re talented. I just wish they put those talents toward more *original* development… I think it would be better for the entire ecosystem.
April 8th, 2010 at 4:31 am
Nice week aha?
April 8th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Their best interest as a leader is not to produce anything really original, as long as they lead the market by a crazy margin and that any game out there is overall very easy to produce and can be copied (and improved !)in a matter of weeks by them. The real challenge will soon begin for them when you see titles involving dozens or hundreds of people over long periods. Then, and only then, they may theoretically be at risk of losing the war. By that time, they might have swallowed EA, though. (As in the AOL-Time Warner merger … ?).
April 8th, 2010 at 9:02 am
The fact that Zynga got to a $3B valuation by cloning games and scamming users is bad news for Silicon Valley.
April 8th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Hey Guys,
I just posted some of my own analysis on my blog http://jdphan.wordpress.com/ Check out my thoughts on Treasure Isle and its Incentivized Rewards System.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:12 am
The biggest knee-slapper of the day, for me, is an interview on Zynga.com’s own blog, where a Zynga employee is asking the Treasure Isle developer the following question (eliciting the subsequent response):
Q: Where does the inspiration for Treasure Isle come from?
JV: We wanted to create a sense of mystery to the game so we thought about different influences like Indiana Jones and Lost and the Swiss Family Robinson. There are elements to this game that appeal to a broad range of players like the adventurer, the billionaire hunting for rare jewels, or the vacationer who enjoys being on a deserted island.
I mean, why not just come out and say “We liked that Treasure Madness game and thought we could make it better”…? I MIGHT even respect that answer.
April 10th, 2010 at 7:01 am
[...] reported by Inside Social Games, in the first five days of the game’s existence, Treasure Isle racked up over three million [...]
April 12th, 2010 at 8:00 am
[...] noted the growth last Wednesday on Inside Social Games, where we talk about it in more depth; our sister blog is also where you’ll find coverage of [...]
April 12th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I was playing this game on FB but now it wont load up at all. When i try to play it shuts down the whole page. Has done this for two days now. Shame as it seemed to be quite a good game.
April 12th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
i am haveing the same trouble as michelle and i was enjoying the game please help me get back on the game
April 12th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
oh and mite i say because i couldnt get on treasure isle i have tried treasure hunt tiki island happy island and i dont like any of them as much so please fix treasure isle
April 13th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
I want them to come out with a better version of Social City.
May 7th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
ko ima fb ?? kako si??……………
May 10th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
[...] you to connect with friends you never knew you had through your shared love of wasting time playing Treasure Isle, by perusing groups and pages of journalists and organizations you can connect with other [...]
May 18th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
[...] More games, more notifications, more addictive hours. What else did you expect?. A Treasure? [...]
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:28 pm
i lost game over a weeek ago rita
July 30th, 2010 at 11:33 am
this games is addictive butb it is almost impossible to get money without buying it
August 17th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
[...] pace of new releases this year has been molasses slow, with only FrontierVille, Treasure Isle, and the ill-fated Poker Blitz appearing since January. But we’re fairly certain that it [...]
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:25 pm
i would like to be able to get more energy so i can spend longer on treasure isle coz its enjoyable …… love treasure isle wot a good game thanx
October 17th, 2010 at 10:37 am
I am tired of this games applications not working. I recieve items to complete buildings, but they never show up in my bag so I can use them. I have a lot of unfinished buildingsthat I would like to complete. when will you fix this problem?
October 25th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I have enjoyed playing treasure isle, but now it shuts down and just shows ads, when I try to access it. What’s going on?! It’s been a week now and I’m about to stop trying!
December 11th, 2010 at 3:41 am
Zinga lords of treasure I have trouble getting corals. and when I asked seeds eventually buy them with money from the toten, but more than a week ago that does not give, I’m sure my friends send me, but still so I do not get why? ask me no less than 40 tickets please I hope you can help me.
May 25th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
why am I having so much trouble getting treasure isle to load and when I click on a post it just freezes up all my fruit is rooting and I am losing points,I have no prblems with other games just this one help me!!!!!