Snap, crackle and pop. That is the delightfully onomatopoeic quality of mobile game Candy Crush Saga, a hit that lulls players into a trance with easy levels and then jars them awake with nightmarish difficulty.
Installed on more than three billion devices, Candy Crush is a true testament to the power of gamification. Its success is built on eight core drives that drive people to keep playing.
Match 3 puzzle game
Match 3 puzzle games are a staple of the hyper-casual genre, but creating successful ones requires more than just a solid level design. They must also be immersive and fun. Adding special obstacles or elements that make players feel like they’re defusing a bomb or overcoming an impossible challenge will create excitement and drive them to keep playing.
Another way to add excitement and a sense of accomplishment is by adding timed modes. These challenges require lightning-fast decisions, and the adrenaline rush can be intense. These challenges can be even more exhilarating when coupled with strategically placed timed power-ups and boosters.
To ensure players stay engaged, it is important to ramp up the challenge in a slow and consistent manner. Introducing too many new mechanics at once could confuse or overwhelm the player, and a sudden jump in difficulty can cause players to abandon the game. The best match-3 games constantly introduce new elements and levels to keep players interested.
Challenging levels
Candy Crush Saga is a wildly popular mobile game that’s been downloaded over three billion times. Its countless levels and addictive gameplay provide players with a sugar-coated challenge every time they play. Whether it’s clearing jelly, collecting ingredients, achieving a target score or filling candy orders, each level has a unique objective that requires a distinct strategy to conquer.
The availability of special candies and the potential to create combos is a key factor in determining a level’s difficulty. Some levels may also rely more heavily on luck in terms of the initial candy spawn and board setup.
In addition to creating striped candies, the player can use color bombs and sorbets to clear jellies and other blocks from the board. These candies are also useful for creating cascades of points, which can help the player progress further into the level. Alternatively, the player can choose to use one of several different boosters that will remove all jellies from the board or increase their chance of creating a winning combination.
Plenty of boosters
The game’s many boosters and special candies will help you level up more quickly. These include the lollipop hammer, which can smash one pesky candy, and the color bomb, which can change the color of all the candies on the board. Some of these boosters are available before starting a level, while others can be obtained during gameplay.
The lollipop hammer and color bomb can both be used once per game, while other boosters have unlimited uses. You can also get a daily boost wheel and collect more through the game’s events.
The game’s rules are pretty simple, but it gets punishingly tricky at higher levels. Players only get five lives and can’t play after using them up. You can buy extra lives, pay for unlimited lives for a limited time, or beg your friends for more. However, you should avoid downloading or signing up for any service that promises free lives or cheats. These services can violate King’s terms of service and result in a ban.
Free to play
Candy Crush Saga is a freemium game, which means that you can play it without paying anything. However, some in-game items may require payment. This includes extra lives, power-ups, and unlocking the next set of levels to play.
Each level has a goal to reach, which is often specified by a target score or destroying a specific group of tiles on the board. Some levels also have a secondary objective, such as completing three Mystery Quests. The game uses a variety of boosters, such as the striped candy that removes other candies from the board.
Each time a player fails a level, they lose one of their five lives. When they run out of lives, they can either wait for them to replenish at a rate of one every 30 minutes or pay to buy more. This system can be annoying for players, but it has proved profitable for the developers.
