Big Fish Games is one of the largest casual game developers on the web, and today it’s launching an ambitious effort to get big on Facebook with an app called Treasure Quest.
Despite what the title might suggest, this game has little to do with digging up buried treasure, like what other treasure-hunting Facebook games focus on. The app is actually a compilation of eight very well-designed, fun, and thought-provoking games. In fact, each is about as in-depth as most Facebook games are in and of themselves. Some mini-titles may be familiar to Big Fish fans, as the company has borrowed features and elements from past titles. Nevertheless, each still comes with a unique sort of brain teasing challenge and all play into the greater theme of unlocking treasure chests, earning gold, and leveling up.
Essentially, playing each game will get players in-game currency and experience. The idea is to exploit the prospect of virtual spaces, or in this case, a virtual avatar. As players play, they unlock new stores in which they can purchase better and fancier clothing. Of course, this is all purely aesthetic (except, perhaps the “Treasure Hunter Gear” section that has yet to be activated), and seems to be merely a visual way to display one’s prowess in the overall application.
This larger meta-game is Big Fish’s way of making the title social. You can invite friends, show off high scores, and other features, all the while building up your avatar. It can become more meaningful to you the more you play, which in turn gets you coming back, more interested in inviting friends, etc. The meta game means Big Fish has a framework for introducing more mini-games in Treasure Quest, as well as extending the currency and avatar out to other games it has or might launch on Facebook — although the company isn’t saying much about either at this point.
Here’s our initial review of the app. We’ll be following up with more analysis later today, including how the features of the app fit into into Big Fish’s larger plans.
The mini-games take a range of time to do, which means advancing through getting more gold can also take awhile. Some of the games can be played through in a single five-minute session while others can last up to 30 minutes or more. You also often don’t receive experience and currency until you finish the game. This is mitigated to some degree by random, daily, “Treasure Quests,” in which users are tasked with completing random criteria within the conclave of games.
There’s also a quick slots mini-game, called “Gold Spin” you can do after completion of each larger game, which also lets you get more Gold.
Frankly, slow or not, the avatar reward element feels more like an added bonus. The real beauty is in the eight games themselves, and frankly, most people will come to play for those more than the avatar or sharing accomplishments.
Since each game is quite strong in its own right, the full breakdown of Treasure Quest would be a bit lengthy without a bowl of popcorn and a couple sodas, so here’s our in-depth look at the first three. In addition to doing more analysis, we’ll be looking at the other games in a separate article:
The Daily Detective
Have you ever wanted to be one of those private detectives in those old black and white films? Well, that’s the premise of The Daily Detective game. Presented in an film noire fashion (complete with distinctive, detective-music), players are given a daily mystery to solve. Should they choose to accept it, they will be taken to an in-color scene, in which many come from another Big Fish title, Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects, where they are tasked with the finding of clues.
This first part of the game is more or less a glorified game of Where’s Waldo? as players attempt to find specific pieces of evidence, listed in their notes, within the picture. Since the image is a garbled mess of clutter, it can prove most difficult; so Big Fish does toss a small bone with hints. These come in the form of blurry, black and white photographs. As they locate each item, another clue may be discovered next to, or around it.
This is where the game becomes a real brain teaser, as once you have all your clues, its time to solve the case. Truth be told, it’s actually pretty tough. Clues in hand, the game gives you the summary of the case and the goal. Here is an example from our first one:
Case Summary: A soap star who is a regular on “The Old and the Breathless” must buy a gift for Martha Steward.
Goal: The clues point to the perfect gift. Name it. (Yes, you must type the word in).
Clues: Ivory Chip, Hammer, Key, Musical Note, Steinway.
Upon completion of the case, players get the Gold Spin mini-game, some coin and experience for their troubles, as well as some points towards a detective’esque title. Furthermore, if users are looking for more mysteries to unravel, then they can use their gold in order to buy more puzzles for about 200 a pop.
L.O.B.E
The next game on the list is L.O.B.E. or “the Laboratory of Brain Enhancement.” In order to “finish” this game (meaning earn your Gold Spin), players must earn X amount of gold stars by completing a myriad of mini-games in a similar fashion to Who Has The Biggest Brain? Thankfully, the games are nothing like those found within the Playfish title. In fact, there are a lot more than the predecessor, and while they aren’t quite as visually appealing, they do tend to make the brain work.
Guided by robot that sounds oddly like Doctor Ludwing von Strangeduck from Duck Tales, users must solve a set of seven brain teasers. Each of these will test a different element of the mind, ranging from math, to logic, to memory, to visual acuity, to… well, you get the idea. Also, each time the games one moves on to a new game, they must first be “scrambled,” which generates a new set of random games to pick from.
As a quick example of just some of the mini-games within L.O.B.E., one includes placing letters within a grid to spell out every single word on a list. However, every letter must be used (think sudoku). Another game involves guiding a mouse to its hole, while picking up all the cheese, Lemmings style. And yet another is sort of like Wheel of Fortune, but you have to place the letters yourself to figure out the phrase. Oh, and each letter given to the player can only be used once.
Each mini-game comes with a maximum number of points the player can earn. This is determined by elements such as accuracy and speed. Moreover, as players play and score higher, they will slowly fill progress bars corresponding to unlocking higher difficulties of puzzles as well as ranks and titles within L.O.B.E. itself.
After all seven mini-games are completed, the player will be presented with another gambling mini-game in which they spend the stars they earned (one star earned for winning a normal difficulty puzzle, three for hard). The stars are used to open seven brains, each costing X amount of stars, and within them are an unknown number of points that range from 20 or less to over 2000.
Fairway Solitaire
The last game, for now, to take a look at is Fairway Solitaire, and so far, it’s a personal favorite. Perhaps it is because of simplicity, but the game is, at its core, like the mobile game Jewel Quest Solitaire. The objective is to play a round of “golf” in the form of solitaire.
Now, this isn’t like the solitaire you play when you’re bored at work. Players are granted a deck of cards, with one card turned face-up. At each “hole,” as it were, are other piles of cards, with on upturned card atop them. The idea is to take a card from these piles that is sequentially above or below the face-up card by your deck. If it is, then it is moved on top of the face-up, deck card.
Following basic solitaire rules, meaning the face down cards on the field do not turn over until the cards atop them are removed, players continue stacking cards sequentially until they have either all been removed, or they have turned over everything in their deck. Granted, the rules are a mouthful, but its actually quite simple, and there’s something about the visual and audio effects for each successful click (represented by a golf swing) that is strangely satisfying.
Each “hole” has a par set to it (and there are nine per course/level), that is represented by the number of cards you should have left that remain uncovered. This is how score is kept. However, it is modified by both streaks of card removal, complete removal of an entire pile, as well as a few elements of randomness.
This is represented by wild cards. Luckily, players do not have to use them, as they can have negative effects such as costing points, but can also have very positive ones. As an example, Fairway Solitaire has both water hazards and sand traps which are depicted by the back face of the cards. The former blocks off all cards to the right of it until all water cards are removed, and the sand trap ones cannot be removed until a card with a sand wedge card is turned over. Of course, if you’re feeling lucky, the wild cards could “evaporate” all the water… just as an example (yes, this can happen).
Additionally, other random cards include various golf clubs that are representative of a number value (i.e. a 9-Iron can be used as a 9-Card). What makes these useful, is that they can be played at any time, the user sees fit, and can be held on to for any hole on the course. Couple this with other random cards, events, and different card layouts on each course, and Fairway Solitaire quickly goes from deceptively simple to rather thought-provoking. Moreover, as players finish sets of course, they not only unlock new ranks and titles for Fairway, but new, and more challenging courses as well (they can also purchase courses with gold in the form of bonus packs).
Conclusion
As you can see by now, Treasure Quest has brought a significant level of both quality and quantity to Facebook. Of course, game portal apps like this are hardly uncommon. Then again, game portal apps in which all the games are extremely fun and well made… that’s a rarity. And ones that effectively tie together a metagame like this one does, are even more so.
Regardless, the tremendous quality of each game belies the overall social features. Yes, each game is a ton of fun, with a type of puzzler for just about everyone. Even the ones that have yet to be looked at include Bejeweled style puzzles, more slots, and daily riddles. More than anything, though, the games themselves make the overarching catalyst that contains them feel arbitrary and tacked on. That isn’t to say that it is, but it simply cannot compete. Likely, they are just a means to enhance the viral reach into the player’s social graph, which is hardly negative (especially considering that the game never once spams users to invite friends). Nevertheless, it will be curious to see just what new social features will come in the future and whether or not they can hold a candle to the games they contain.
Last week, Ubisoft took a deeper step into the social realm by adding its own cross-promotion bar to the game Castle & Co. The bar is working great for us, as it helped find a new Ubisoft gem called The Settlers – My City, for Facebook. This spin on the venerable The Settlers strategy franchise feels mostly like a city-builder, which might cause some to groan in despair. But don’t be fooled.
Production is the most self-explanatory. Various buildings — such as a butchery or bakery — can be used to produce their respective products (up to five at a time), for a small fee, that you can later sell for profit. Like farming games, making these items can take anywhere from minutes to several hours, and spoilage is possible if the player fails to claim the product. Eventually, taxes can be collected to mitigate such losses.
Like the strategy game, these areas, dubbed the “Outer Rim,” can become a means of expanding your kingdom. Though it is not entirely clear how it will work in the Facebook version, players will be able to expand in many different ways, such as trade, diplomacy, or simply military muscle. What makes the expansion sound more unique, however, is a feature called “Event Locations.”
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Charles Hudson
Justin Smith
