Candy Crush Saga

Candy Crush Saga
App icon
Developer(s)	King
Publisher(s)	King
Platform(s)	Browser, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows 10, Tizen
Release date(s)	Browser: April 12, 2012 iOS: November 14, 2012 Android: December 14, 2012 Fire OS: December 11, 2014 Windows Phone: September 6, 2012 Windows 10: July 29, 2015
Genre(s)	Puzzle

Candy Crush Saga is a match-three puzzle video game released by King on April 12, 2012 for Facebook, on November 14, 2012 for iOS, on December 14, 2012 for Android, on December 11, 2014 for Fire OS, on September 6, 2012 for Windows Phone, and July 29, 2015, for Windows 10 and Tizen. It is a variation on their browser game Candy Crush.^[1]

Gameplay

Candy Crush Saga gameplay on iOS, with candy, striped candies, jelly, licorice, and chocolate

Different "special candies" can be formed by matching a combination of 4 or 5 in a certain formation, such as a "Striped" candy (which clears either an entire row or column), a "Wrapped" candy (which acts like a bomb; clearing the 8 surrounding candies, falling, and exploding one more time), or a "Color Bomb" (which removes all candies with the same color of the one it is matched with). Special Candies can also be matched together, producing varying effects; for example, matching a color bomb with a striped candy turns all of the candies of its color into striped candies, which are immediately detonated.

Other special candies which appear on the boards for free can be purchased from the in-game store, or won from the Candy Crush Booster Wheel. These include Jelly Fish in jelly clearing boards which clear 3 pieces from the board at random, the Coconut Wheel on ingredient dropping boards which changes three candies in a row into striped candies, and Lucky Candy in recipe boards which when matched change to one of the types of pieces the player needs to clear the objective. The Booster Wheel also offers a chance to win a jackpot of all boosters in one spin.

Other pieces known as Blockers appear on boards to add to the challenge: Icing (also called Meringues) cannot be moved and can only be removed by matching next to it, Liquorice Locks cage off single pieces of candy to prevent them from use, Chocolate pieces will multiply if not cleared, Liquorice Swirls cannot be removed with Special Candies, Candy Bombs will explode and end the level early if they are not cleared, Multilayered Icing requires multiple matches to remove, Chocolate Spawners will produce Chocolate pieces at all times, Marmalade guards Special Candies from use, Cake Bombs can clear the entire board once cleared, and Toffee Tornadoes move on the board destroying pieces and shattering the tile beneath them to prevent use for one turn. Other pieces also appear on levels such as Chameleon Candies which switch colors every turn, Mystery Candies which randomly turn into a Special Candy or a Blocker, and Extra Time Candies on time limit levels.

The player can also purchase various Boosters to attempt to win levels more easily or extend play after a lost level; Lollipop Hammer clears a single piece from the board, Extra Moves can be purchased if running out of moves at the end of a game, Free Switch allows players to switch two pieces that do not possibly match, Sweet Teeth to clear out Blockers and Jelly, Bomb Coolers to add onto Candy Bomb timers if the timer runs out, and the Bubblegum Troll to stop Chocolate Spawners from spawning chocolate from its sides. The Dreamworld levels have their own special boosters: the Restore Balance booster to reset the Moon Scale for 5 turns and the Moon Struck booster to automatically activate Moon Struck.

In app purchases

The game is primarily monetized through in-app purchases (through either a credit card, iTunes credits or Google Play credits); players begin with five "lives", lost whenever a level is failed. This applies to all of King's games. When they are exhausted, users can either send requests to their Facebook friends for more lives, wait for them to replenish themselves (a life is restored every half-hour), or purchase them. At certain points, primarily at the start of new "episodes", users must also either purchase, or receive a request from at least three friends before they may access the next set of levels. Boosters, to make the levels easier, can be bought using in-app purchases.^[2]

While the game includes freemium content, 97.7% of those playing the game do so for free, while only 2.3% pay.^[3]

Passing episodes

Once all levels in an episode are completed, the next episode (starting at episode 3) is locked and the player must either get three friends on Facebook to send them "tickets" to unlock the next episode, it can be unlocked directly through the in-game store, or occasionally the game will allow the player to move on for free if the player has not been able to unlock the next area. If the game is not linked to the player's Facebook account, a new level can be unlocked by playing a Mystery Quest, a random previous level with a higher point threshold for winning. Three Mystery Quests must be completed before the next episode is unlocked, and a player can only complete one Mystery Quest in a single 24-hour period. Recently the option to unlock episodes by playing mystery quests is only available after several days have passed and no help is received through friend requests on Facebook. Other than waiting the time period until mystery quests are available, using in app purchase is the only way to unlock episodes.

Characters

A Dreamworld level in the Facebook version of the game, featuring Odus the owl sleeping on the Moon Scale.

Throughout the game, the player solves puzzles so Tiffi (short for Toffette) can solve problems plaguing the residents of the Candy Kingdom. These include tutorial guide Mr. Toffee, whose voice was changed from an over-the-top French accent in the original version of the game into a more modest deep male voice,^[4] the Easter Bunny, the shop owner Mr.Yeti, Odus the owl from Dreamworld levels, the villainous Bubblegum Troll, Tiffi's nemesis, Ghirahim, and many others.

Reception

According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the game received an average review score of 79/100, indicating generally positive reviews.^[5] Ellie Gibson of Eurogamer referred to Candy Crush Saga as 2013's "Game of the Year".^[6]

Commercial

Candy Crush Saga had over ten million downloads in December 2012.^[7] In July 2013, it was estimated that Candy Crush Saga at the time had about 6.7 million active users and earned revenue of $633,000 per day in the US section of the iOS App Store alone.^[8] In November 2013, the game had been installed 500 million times across Facebook and iOS and Android devices.^[9] According to Business Insider, Candy Crush Saga is the most downloaded iOS app for 2013.^[10] In 2014, Candy Crush Saga players spent over $1.33 billion on in-app purchases which was a decline from the previous year, since in the second half of 2013 players spent over $1.04 billion.^[3]

Candy Crush received particular mention in Hong Kong media, with reports that one in seven Hong Kong citizens plays the game.^[11] The game is also featured in Psy's music video "Gentleman".^[12] In December 2013, King entered the Japanese market with a series of television commercials in Japan, and by December 4 it had become the 23rd most downloaded game in Japan on Android devices and number 1 most downloaded from the App Store.^[13]

Controversy

The mobile game known as CandySwipe created in 2010, two years prior to the release of Candy Crush Saga, had many similarities that independent app developer Albert Ransom and maker of CandySwipe picked up on as Candy Crush Saga became more successful. It lead Ransom to believe King intentionally copied elements from his own game stating: "the app icon, candy pieces, and even the rewarding, "Sweet!" are nearly identical".^[14]

The issues arose when Ransom's registered trademark over the name was under fire by King during their efforts to trademark the word "candy". Eventually though, King decided not to pursue the trademark in the United States due to the controversy.^[15]

Candy Crush Saga also received mixed reactions when it was announced that King had struck up a deal with Microsoft to automatically install the game on devices that have been upgraded to Windows 10 Home.^[16]

The game was investigated by the UK Office of Fair Trading concerning exploitative game mechanics with regards to younger users.^[17][18]

Sequels

In May 2014, a sequel titled Candy Crush Soda Saga was soft launched by King, with a similar design but new gameplay dynamics, such as a soda bottle piece that can shift gravity.^[19][20] As of January 2016, there are 705 "Candy Crush Soda Saga" levels.

On October 20, 2014, the Facebook version of Candy Crush Soda Saga was released worldwide^[21] and the mobile app was released in November on the Android and iOS platforms.^[22][23][24] The app was subsequently made available for Windows 10 and Windows Phone in October 2015.

In September 2015, another sequel entitled Candy Crush Jelly Saga was soft-launched in various countries for the Android platform.^[25] Candy Crush Jelly Saga was released worldwide in January 2016.^[25]

References

External links

• Official website