Game Digest #1: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
I started playing this game one month ago when the Bay Area’s “shelter in place” order was put into effect. At about the same time, Animal Crossing had topped #1 on Switch Nintendo. Since I don’t have a Switch and it was sold out everywhere by the time of the lockdown, the quickest way for me to experience this phenomenon was on mobile. Thanks to Nintendo to publish the mobile edition.
Right now after one-month of play, I’m at level 86 with 72 animals invited to my camp. I almost feel that I should have stopped playing since there are more and more repetitive tasks as I level up, but I’m constantly pulled back into it by the prospect of new animals in the game. The stickiness of the game comes from their cute animals as well as the music. It’s a type of comfort game, like a simmering bowl of ramen or grandma’s freshly baked chocolate chip cookies… I guess if Nintendo keeps updating their content, people will stick to this game longer like me, already passing the 30 Day retention mark!
Digest of the game
The core game play/ mechanics is to collect things and exchange with animals (fulfill their requests), and get upgrades. The core genre is simulation.
According to MDA model (Mechanics - Dynamics -Aesthetics), the game can be decomposed into three parts.
Basic Mechanics:
Collect resources: fruits, fishing, planting flowers, catching bugs
Fulfill animals requests with items you collect (exchanging collected resources, finding lost items, etc.)
Craft items using rewards from animals (building new campsites, furniture, clothes, etc.)
Dynamics:
Animals as well as their requests are refreshed every three hours and you can keep entertaining them (and more importantly leveling up your friendship) by giving them snacks.
Animal friendship level up resulting in player level up
Continue inviting new animals to the camp and upgrade the camp with more stuff
Aesthetics (fun):
Discover different parts of the map and talk to animals
Self-fulfillment from # of animals I collected, items I owned, bells I accumulated, or level I achieved
Self expression, build the dream campsite you want
Now let’s talk about Game Economy (currency system):
There are two currencies in the game: leaf tickets and bells.
Both of them could be gained from achieving certain goals and leveling up. But leaf tickets are the core currency and IAP item. There are certain exclusive items that can only be acquired through leaf tickets. Or the leaf tickets can be used to shorten the construction time when building items like furniture.
On the other hand, bells are more like experience points and can be obtained in many ways.
More currencies exist in other forms of basic materials, like cotton, wood, plastic - which you will need for construction purposes. You may get these basic materials from either completing animal tasks or use leaf tickets to acquire.
It’s a F2P games with 2 ways of monetization: IAP (purchasing leaf tickets) and subscriptions.
Where does the game break?
Too many bells at one point. There could be better ways to consume bells quicker. Especially after players reach a certain level, they will accumulate too many bells.
Social function is a little bit weak, not much interaction with my friends. For example, if I visit my friends’ campsite, it would be more interactive to collect some special materials in their campsites. Right now I can’t do anything other than just visiting their campsites. So what’s the point of visiting? Other things like giving kudos to your friends, I still don’t get what that’s used for. Or maybe there could be some campsite design competitions and invite your friends to vote for you? Right now I don’t see much social interactions compared to other social games.
There is no proper Feedback system with animals. Whenever players make a decision, there should be some feedback from the game to the players. Right now the game is lacking a feedback system in those animal questions. For example, when the animal asked me which furniture I should pick for another animal, if there is a correct pick, the game should reward me for the right answer and penalize me when I choose the wrong one.
Garden system is a bit useless and unrelated to the other parts of the game. It would be nice to add something like exchanging the flower for animal friendship points.
Ideally, you can game the system with unlimited bells from fruit not grown in your camp, i.e. I can buy lemons at 20 bells from my friend’s marketbox and sell it at 600.
What could be improved in the monetization?
Add rewarded ads.
I’m sure there are a lot of free users like me. There are some potential ad placements: watch ads to shorten the waiting time; add daily tasks to watch ads in return for leaf tickets or some special items that could only be redeemed by ads watched. As user session time is usually quite long, the ad could made even more native within the gameplay where players can opt-in to watch.Different tiers for subscription
There is only one subscription package available in the game now. It would be better to have more than one tier for players to choose from: like basic vs. premier with different offers.
[The end]
Like this breakdown of Animal Crossing? What other games would you like me to review? Leave your suggestions in the comments below! Take care and stay healthy everyone!
Great post. Can you do a Real money gaming post as well. Thanks!!