Dreamland Conjures a Unique Board Game Adventure
Combining elements of role-playing and board games, Dreamland is a stylish Facebook offering from first-time social game developer FreshPlanet. The game officially launched July 8.
According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Dreamland currently has 17,343 monthly active users and 1,390 daily active users.
Featuring darkly humorous visuals reminiscent of a Tim Burton movie, Dreamland sends players inside their dreams to battle nightmares, collect treasure and eventually escape through a locked door. Movement in the world functions like a board game, with the player advancing along a path of square titles at a rate determined by a simulated die roll. The path branches in multiple places to form a maze of connecting paths and dead ends. The number of die rolls a player gets is limited to a certain amount per time period, but when the player runs out of rolls for the board, they can return to their bedroom space to decorate.
Once a player lands on a space on the game board, they may find treasure or encounter a monster. Each level has a set number of enemies, which can be avoided if the player’s rolls bypass the enemy’s square, although not confronting an enemy means missing out on the experience points rewarded for defeating them. Collecting experience points allows players to level up, increasing their speed, bravery (which can be spent on dice rolls or on adding a point to rolls), damage and defense in combat, and their maximum health. Items found on treasure spaces range from extra die rolls and virtual currency silver to new levels and decorations for players’ bedrooms.
Combat is turn-based with the battle animations taking the form of a traditional role-playing video game. The player rolls a die and the player’s avatar performs an attack animation that deducts points from the enemy’s health gauge equal to what the player rolled. Once the player has attacked, the monster takes its turn using the same mechanic. This continues until either the player or monster runs out of health. Victory rewards players with various items, including silver and “Insights,” the game’s premium currency. Defeating certain enemies will provide players with keys, a set number of which are required to unlock the exit doors at the end of every level.
Dreamland’s social features include the usual friend invites and sharing of accomplishments to players’ Walls. Convincing friends to join them in playing the game rewards players by unlocking new stages to tackle. Players can also visit their friends’ bedrooms to see how they’ve decorated them and which items they’ve unlocked. A simple leaderboard tracks player level.
The game is monetized through the sale of gameplay boosts and decoration items. Players can use Facebook Credits to buy silver to spend on single-use health recharges or on Insight, which is spent on extra die rolls and bedroom decorations.
FreshPlanet tells ISG that it has a number of improvements to Dreamland in the pipeline. “It is likely we will add a full featured avatar system,” CEO Mathieu Nouzareth confirmed, addressing a common complaint on the game’s Wall about the lack of customization for the one male and one female avatar currently available. “We will enrich the visuals by adding more encounters (monsters) and add more various backgrounds,” he adds.
The developer is also working on more social integration and worlds for players to explore. “We want to invest in this game, we think it will do well and that it is a very unusual game for the Facebook platform,” Nouzareth says. “Feedback from users has been tremendous so far.”
You can follow Dreamland’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.
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