LOLapps Side-Steps Sequels With Franchise Expansion in Ravenshire Castle
LOLapps is one of only a few developers on Facebook exploring the concept of social game sequels. Rather than releasing a Ravenwood Fair 2, however, the company is going with franchise expansion through a new game called Ravenshire Castle.
As the name suggests, Ravenshire Castle is part of the same “universe” setting as Ravenwood Fair and will feature a similar art style and anthropomorphic animal characters. The gameplay will also leverage game elements consistent with what worked in Ravenwood Fair in the form of wood and stone gathering and emphasis on decoration as the means of gameplay progression. Beyond that, though, Ravenshire Castle is a whole different world.
Literally, Ravenshire Castle exists as a world parallel to the one the player engages with in Ravenwood Fair, as communicated visually by the concept drawing below. The idea is that first-time players can enter the Raven franchise from any point on this conceptual map and enjoy an experience that’s consistent with the other games, but unique enough to be its own game. Unlike Ravenstone Mine, which is an in-game expansion to Ravenwood Fair, Ravenshire Castle will be its own game that may or may not feature direct gameplay connection to Ravenwood Fair. At present, LOLapps wants players to create a new game avatar for Ravenshire Castle, but is considering cross-game avatars.
As the game is still in its concept stage, the details LOLapps chose to share with us are limited. LOLapps Vice President of Content Constantine Hantzopoulos and Design Director Glen Dahlgren walked us through a general description of the product at the singleplayer level and gave general ideas about the direction the social multiplayer component might take. Ravenshire Castle puts players in the role of a character who inherits an estate from a distant relative. Through collecting materials, the player must restore the castle on the estate to its former glory buy building individual rooms and decorations for those rooms. Each room the player succeeds in building adds a new non-playable character to the game, and like Ravenwood Fair, each of these character carry story-based quests the player can complete for additional resources and experience points.
Gameplay gets more complex in the form of a “care-taking” system where players must feed the castle workers who come to live on the estate after their corresponding rooms are built. Hantzopoulos and Gahlgren were careful to say that characters will not die or wander off for lack of food, but like the Protector characters in Ravenwood Fair, they need to be maintained for an optimal gameplay experience. Room placement also adds depth to the building and decoration gameplay as the game auto-generates hallways and doors between rooms, potentially providing gameplay advantages, although Dahlgren shied away from explaining exactly how.
The decoration level of gameplay is slightly more complex than what is currently available in Ravenwood Fair. Hantzopoulos and Dahlgren explain that decorations are “stackable,” meaning you could buy a pillar for a room and then place a separate decoration on top of that pillar. Additionally, customization is available at least for color options, allowing users more control over the appearance of decorations than they tend to enjoy in other decoration-centric games.
On the social features front, Dahlgren would only say for the record that LOLapps means to create social interaction that is meaningful for both the “visiting” player and the home player. Currently, Ravenwood Fair only allows players to visit each other’s fairs and mines to interact with their attractions or harvest resources. Players who receive visitors do get a bonus and notification of their friends’ actions, but nothing else.
The most significant element Hantzopoulos and Gahlgren wanted to emphasize to us was the concept of a story-driven narrative. Ravenshire Castle will feature a villain and a quest progression that tells a larger “soap opera” style story that ideally will keep players engaged. Similar quest structure in Ravenwood Fair and Ravenstone Mine validated that concept for LOLapps and so the developer is eager to continue the thread as part of the Raven franchise.
This is where Raven gets interesting. Because Ravenshire Castle is not a direct sequel to Ravenwood Fair and because its gameplay is significantly different, the game potentially attracts an entirely new audience to the franchise rather than relying on its existing audience to play two games at once. Social game sequels on Facebook are somewhat new, but the concept of “cannibalizing” the audience of an original for the sake of a sequel is something social game developers are very aware of. Taking the route of franchise expansion through branding rather than numbering seems like it could be an eloquent solution to the cannibalization concern.
Ravenshire Castle is due out this year, but LOLapps was careful to say they would not release the game before it was “ready.” As Ravenstone Mine only just went live in April, it’s likely the developer will space out the release for the sake of breathing room between the two titles. According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, Ravenwood Fair currently enjoys 6.2 million monthly active users and 1 million daily active users. Interestingly, the game saw a drop in MAU just after Ravenstone Mine launched that continues through this month, but DAU has remained fairly consistent around the 1 million mark.
May 27th, 2011 at 11:53 am
WOW!!!!! Great Concept!Will wait as patiently as possible. I must ask through that “bugs” are checked for prior to release, as when released in April/May 2011, Ravenstone mine had its share of “bugs.” I know and understand that “nothing” is guaranteed, yet the bug issue can be checked by those that go into the game before release and try to see the game from the players perspective. Please and thank you.
May 27th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
The real question is how Ravenwood Forest lost 5 million users since the introduction of Ravenstone Mine.
Was the new content too dark for their female user base, which comprises of 75-80%?
Anybody have any ideas how they managed to lose so many users in such a short span of time?
May 27th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
you may have lost more users because the trees grow baack to fast its just a thought
May 27th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
when is the ravenshire castle comen out to facebook
May 27th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
My personal aopinion is that the game is now too resource-hungry to be useable by people with less powerful PCs and slower internet links
May 27th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
I like the game so far except it seems to be a resource hog. I keep several I.E. windows at once but it’s the only thing that tends to lock up my comp. I close it and things return to normal.
May 27th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
So excited. Just wanted to take the time to say. NICE JOB on the Mine. Stumped though as reached a point where not much more can be done at the moment as I daily try to attempt the vitalin Crystal for the other machine portal. However, I think you did a great job. EXCITED from the screen shot photo to see more of what your doing in regards to the themed game Ravenwood. Thanks for the monthly new stuff that keeps one wanting to keep playing. However, Suggestion, it would be nice in our inventory of numerous items to now & then be able to gift them to friends. That is if there isn’t going to be a purpose to use those collected items again or not. Easter was fun, the eggs were …well A LOT! However, got to say the NEW PARTY STUFF for including friends ROCKS!! BEST ONE YET!!! Very entertaining & fun. THANK YOU!! Love the game! Keep up the good work!
May 27th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Am cautiously lookinh forward to this new game, however I hope that there will also be further development of the existing fair/mine (esp mine) game as this has stalled somewhat and is becoming quite repetitive. If there is no progress with them, I may just stop playing them and just concentrate on the potentially richer experience offered by the new game – as long as that is actually the case and not just a load of marketing flannel….
May 27th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
@Frankie- I am a chick and I think the mine is cute. Any girl that thinks it’s too ‘dark and gloomy’ lives in an unrealistic barbie land of glitter and unicorns. A ‘chick’ complaint I have with the Mine is the lack of decorations you have access to for the mine. There are only so many bones and coal carts you can add before you get bored…
In my experience I stopped playing Ravenwood fair as much after the mine was introduced due to bugs, multiple crashes, and quests where you can only acquire the item once a day (Vitalin gems. The fact that you must share energy between both the fair and the mine makes it possible to only take care of one thing at once, not to mention the fact that ‘wonders’ eat wood like its going out of style.
May 28th, 2011 at 12:33 am
I love the mine!!! I am a girl that studies to become a mine geologist so I enjoy the machines a lot and what you’ve done to them even if some of them never has or will work in a mine ;) But wood is more beautiful than iron in Ravenstone Mine.
More decorations would be welcomed, like water-pipes, Rocks with levels on (like Strykers level) even if you just have three different levels. And more water, a mine is often below ground water level so pumps and small pools would be grate =)
May 28th, 2011 at 2:34 am
Ravenstone Mine is too dark, not Q, not much lovely things there. If it can be made as a underworld catle, or provide some building as ‘fairy building’ ,maybe more female like it
May 28th, 2011 at 3:04 am
This new game sounds like some exciting stuff. Really looking forward to it but in the mean time are we going to get more quest for Ravenwood fair and the mine as I seem to have come to a standstill with them both! Trying hard not to get bored but love the game. Keep up the good work!
May 28th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
To keep the trees from growing back just put a patch of cheap dirt or grass on each square you clear…you can stash them as you add new decorations or games and you can use the stashed items again when you clear more squares.
May 29th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
I cant wai
May 30th, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Around the time the players dropped dramaticlly is always when the no items dropping from trees bug occurred, which took nearly a month to fix. If not a month.
Now people are angry because mushrooms are not growing back and the energy is unbalanced –some even quitting publicly on the lolapps forums over it.
Until all this..the game rocked!
May 31st, 2011 at 7:39 am
i hope that this isn’t the reason the fair and mines are being neglected. i was a daily player until the challenges stopped and there was no more enjoyment in the game. chopping trees and breaking rocks for no reason. plus all the bugs that have occured since the mine was launched. maybe lolapps should concentrate on maintaining their current games and holding onto players as weall know these will be the same players playing the castle.
May 31st, 2011 at 12:36 pm
The first week I loved Ravenwood. Now sometimes I play 8 – 10 hours a day and I don’t come further. Two days for 1 steo further is good.
Crashes all around, mostly I cannot invite neighbours on my fair or send a gift. It takes too long to get the points. 3 days waiting to get higher, whereas my neighbours passing me is disappointed. Crash, crash and crash again takes too much time
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I love playing the game myself. And I play daily. But my complaint is on the “Energy”. When I log on the game, By the time I Re-Stock my games, and Re-Chop my trees as well as Re-Charge the protectors…. My Energy is used up. I don’t get a chance to make it to my mine nor do I get to take care of my Fair. The game becomes a chore more than fun all because lack of energy. Its like I am back-stepping in the game than going forward. Which makes it not fun. Also when you don’t have that much energy and you have to attack a monster, You use up about 6 energy for that as well as to build a building, Some take up to 9 or more energy. Please help with this….
June 10th, 2011 at 8:27 am
I think the new game seems like a great idea, and can’t wait to see it. I hope that they don’t forget about the OG when it comes out though cause I would probably play both simultaneously. I like the new mine a lot I do wish that there were more decorations to put up just so you can keep the re formation of rocks to a minimum because I would really rather not put like 500 mine carts all over the place.
June 30th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
[...] сейчас — 6,3 млн) — и создается грядущий Ravenshire Castle, кроме того, технология используется в приложениях [...]
July 17th, 2011 at 2:43 am
Ich komme schon seit einigen Tagen in das Spiel rein,kann mir jemand helfen,dass ich wieder spielen kann!?
August 10th, 2011 at 9:09 am
I really like both Ravenwood Fair & Ravenstone Mine, but I agree there is just not enough energy for both games, need someway to play inside the game to get more energy for both games. I like Ravenwood Fair better, there is just not much to brighten it up. I will be adding Ravenshire Castel, and any others, Thanks to the team for Ravenwood Fair.
August 18th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
I find it saved a lot of energy if I use the Prairie Dogs to restock my fair instead of trying to stock each one and recharge all the protectors myself. Part of the fun for me is trying to balance the energy between the fair and the mine. Usually, I will play through one round of energy up top, then I refill and go to the mine for the next round. I think the mine takes way more of my energy than the fair. It would be nice if we had the option of using other characters to restock the mine like we do the fair. I look forward to the new game. Sounds like some great features will be added.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
i love playing the ravenwood fair and ravenstone i know the new Ravenshire Castle will be a lot of fun i cant wait to start playing
September 9th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Hello Lolapps and fellow players of Ravenwood! I absolutely love this game BUT I think the size of the fair is to small.. Is it possible to extend the area so that there is a bigger surface to build things on?? If so that would be GREAT!!
A thought about the up coming Ravensky/ Ravencastle I hope that you connect these to fair as you did with the mine! So that it becomes a “Ravenworld”;-)
Thanks for a great game!
Helen
October 5th, 2011 at 5:25 am
Such a cool game, the only problem is that is taking to long to release … and while they are working at the new version they forgot about the actual version to give users more quests to keep them intertain.
And the “Óups” they made by “accidently” releasing the game to the public two times and after shutting it down, and the “testers” that send you hundrets of requests and made like 30 levels … and what you can do is just watch and get pissed of because you like so much the game but you don’t have anything to do, Ravensky will probably be released next year and ravenwood got bored, the only lucky basterds are the testers … the rest of us will probably go and play something else ..
October 6th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Ok… I have been playing Ravenwood Fair for quit a while now and I love it. The secret to the energy is (1) have enough neighbors to visit every day.
(2) Make use you visit the mine and work them long enough to start to collect the mushrooms. Mushrooms are the secret to the game. If you need neighbors just on Ravenwood Fair Forum, people are begging for neighbors. I have about 65.
I also have just finished testing Ravenskye and it is great. Love it. I don’t understand why people down a game before they really get involved in it and know how to really play it.
October 17th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
[...] Lolapps follows up Ravenwood Fair not with Ravenshire Castle as originally planned, but with Ravenskye City, a sequel packaged as a franchise expansion to its 2010 Facebook hit. The [...]
October 30th, 2011 at 11:32 am
Sorry but i’m going to express in french.
J’ai vraiment adoré Ravenwood fair.
- Les petits personnages sont super
- les éléments de décoration colorés bien faits agréables
- les quêtes par thèmes
Tout très bien super
Mais à un moment, vers le mois de Mai ou Juin (au moment du lancement de Ravenstone) il y a eu un énorme Bug (en France ?): plus une seule quête et même plus d’accès au jeu pendant plusieurs semaines.
On pouvait recevoir et envoyer des cadeaux mais pas accéder au jeu.
Quand nous avons pu de nouveau jouer, le jeu était très ralenti Ravenstone pas très attrayant : très sombre, les quêtes compliquées très espacées
Ravenstone n’a rien apporté à ravenwood
Je joue à ravenskye et j’ai vraiment failli tout arrêter la semaine dernière et je ne suis pas sûre de jouer encore longtemps.
L’univers Ravenskye n’est pas particulièrement joli certains détails sont plus soignés mais les personnages sont laids les coloris ternes et puis les collections trop vite finies et pas renouvelées
Et en plus pendant 10 jours, il n’y avait plus rien à faire dans aucun des mondes de Raven.
Pour moi le bon concept c’est ravenwood avec les petites améliorations de ravenskye.
November 2nd, 2011 at 3:16 pm
when is the ravenshire castle gonna open
December 1st, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I play most of my games on facebook.I use all 3 current RAVENS and love them. The main problem I have is same as most users, the trees growing back way too fast… the higher I go leveling up the faster the trees and shrubs and rocks reappear. Am I being encouraged to NOT level up? Recently I have taken to not playing ravenwood fair because of the tree problem. Sad but what can I do? Am currently way on the fence about the new game, as I have started a zynga game called castleville, which really ROCKS!!! I did think all of the ravens would be all inclusive, that is that all neighbors and requests and gifting and such would be throughout all three games. The only things I have encountered so far is this works for the mine in Ravenwood fair and for the trading post in Ravenskye. Weird but nothing else??? really? So why is ravenstone not a standalone game like ravenskye? Im not seeing the logic. Anyway I do agree that these are some good games with potential, and should be perfected.
December 5th, 2011 at 6:32 pm
why would you be concerned about getting new players rather than having the ones you have. try to juggle all the games? do you really think that it’s because of the mine? i play the mine the fair and skye and i’m done and waiting for more energy in less than an hour. i have over 40 neighbors. skye is the best game with a great story and the visuals are the most compelling ever on a facebook game. i just don’t understand what you are thinking. it always happens when you do this type of research rather than listen to the pro’s…the players. i have almost 500.00 invested in skye in less than a week and i am done. i will be sick if all that just dies and i have to start over. why can’t we go through a door and keep what we have. i hope you do well with the new game but i saw some fair looking things in the pics and the fair is boring and drab compared to skye. be careful or you will loose a good and solid player base rather than add to us.
December 5th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
i also play farmville, sims and another game. i have to because i have to wait for energy or something to grow or whatever. this thought that the mine caused players to loose time is just crazy. add to skye but don’t take it away. lots of players will be very angry. if you do that you better make sure that your new game is a sure hit and please plan for it to keep going. look how long farmville has stayed alive. it took some time to grow but now everyone in the country knows what it is and there is something to be said for a good game to progress. i am really upset at the thought of finally finding a really good game and loosing it because of some untested theory. if you are not going to expand skye i want my 500.00 dollars back. i never thought i would play it for a week and it would be gone. that’s a crazy idea. we have our talents and our money invested. think about that please. we put a lot of time and thought into forming our skye.
April 9th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
[...] will continue to maintain the existing games and release the third and final game in the series, Raveshire Castle. Daily and monthly active user traffic to the current games, Ravenskye City and Ravenwood Fair, has [...]
May 4th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
[...] has launched the long-awaited Ravenshire Castle, the final title to come out of the defunct Lolapps side of the publisher. The [...]