How to Acquire Mobile Games, 2018 edition

Tags

Android, Tap To Riches

In the world of Mobile Gaming, I’ve struggled for quite awhile to find new games.

In theory, the “App Store” should offer a good way to identify games you would like and hook you up.   In reality, the app store is full of a million derivatives of the same idea, with lots of stuff paid for placement, and I only found crap games.

So then you try to find websites, magazines, or other methods of using the web to find out about games.    The days when that worked well seem to be over; all the crap is what gets written about, and I can’t find any blog/magazine that covers this idea well.

So of all the things, it seems the best games are advertised…… in other games.

I enjoyed Adventure Capitalist immensely, and picked up a similar game for mobile called Tap to Riches.    It’s a free game, with all kinds of purchase opportunities, and everything is insanely overpriced so I don’t buy anything.   But I let the game grind on, as I get closer and closer to 10 X 42nd power dollars that allow me to unlock the third and final world.

And there are ads.    The ads have a couple of purposes in the game (and in other mobile games) :

1. Give you game items (profit doublers or just straight up money).
2. Give you “Gems/Gold/Whatever” premium currency for your game if you perform XYZ action with the new game.

So I might find an ad in Tap to Riches, asking me to install Mega Tower.   That gets me 100 gems.    Or I might need to install Super Mega Tower and get to level 100.   That might get me 1000 gems.   You get the idea.

And all games now are Freemium games, where it’s free to start, and they look for ways to get you to part with your hard earned money.

So the best way to find out about a new game is to run through the ads in your current game.   This is how I found out about my current project, Summoner’s War.

War Worlds

Tags

Android, war-worlds

Every so often, I’ll run through apps on the phone looking for something good.   And I finally found a good space game.

A search for “Master of Orion” brought me to War Worlds; inspired by the classic game as per the developer.    Currently in Beta, but accepting certain payments, the game is following the now familiar line of free to play, pay for cosmetic enhancements model.

My empire is now 12-systems; I call it the Hegemony of Burbankanova.    The name could be better – but I kept getting errors so I picked a silly name.    The gameplay works great for me – it’s main feature is to allow you to expand like a virus across the galaxy.

Here’s the screen showing your home planet’s place in the nearby galaxy.

As you may be able to tell from the shot, I’ve got all the nearby stars under my control, and continue to seek out new life, and new civilizations.

My home system has three Terran and one Swamp planet.

The types of planets include Terran (good at everything), Swamp (Excellent farmland), Radiated (Excellent for mining), and other familiar types from the aforementioned MOO.    Your resources tend to be full unless you’re on the game all the time; building silos is a constant thing, to enable you to hold enough minerals to build lots of ships.

The facilities I’ve built on this planet.

There’s only a few types, and you probably want to build almost all of them on each planet.    The developer promises to expand this, and the list of four ship types, in future updates.

An unclaimed system, ripe for the taking….

It’s been a pretty addictive experience so far.     All I have to do is pay attention to my notifications, and take action when they pop up.    Or just ignore them all for a day, then run through all my planets for the next action needed.

Probably one big test of quality, is can they get a cheapskate like me to pony up money ?   Well, I paid the $2.50 to remove ads.     And expect to keep going until/if I have every star under my control.

Criminal challenges

Tags

Android, Life is crime

Life is crime : 95% to level 19.    My dominance of downtown is being challenged by no less than three players, so I have my hands full with trying to stay at the top of the leaderboards.    And that’s fine.    Why else bother to play if it’s not fun ?

The locations I have requested to add into the game have been added.    I was a bit worried it was a waste of time requesting them.   Now that it’s obvious that it isn’t, I’ll have to be more systematic and add a whole ton.   I love the idea of helping to create an accurate in-game map.

One thing I have learned is that there is not an easy way of taking screenshots on an android phone.    I could look for some app to do it, but a cursory search reveals many apps that require admin privileges, and I don’t want to root my phone.    So this will remain a graphic – free post.

A life of crime ?

Tags

Android, Life is crime

Today’s playing lately entry concerns an Android app called “Life of Crime”.    You know all those annoying facebook games with energy, stamina, and an interminable list of stupid crimes you commit by clicking “Rob” or some such ?     Well, it’s a bit like that, and yet thoroughly addicting.

You have energy used for a few tasks, and stamina to kill other players.   The key is, the game is location based – as in meatspace.  The real world.   Where your phone is dictates the actions which you can perform.    There are missions where you spend energy working towards a larger goal, as well as getting leaderboard points; you can push drugs and stolen goods; and you can take over locations by several possible means or you can simply PVP wherever you find yourself.

The game map is built on real locations, and restricted to bars, restaurants, stores, etc.    You can be standing inside the McDonald’s and taking it over in the game.

This leads to the following interesting gameplay conundrums.   I am on my way to work in the morning.   I make sure and leave 15 minutes early, and pull up and park in a shopping mall nearby.    I open up my briefcase and drop some “packages” into local business to ensure I’m kingpin on the leaderboard (IE, number one).    As I travel the freeway, I look for a good exit to pull off at, and PVP several other players at that one for five minutes, before getting back onto the freeway and reaching the office.   Once there, I work to consolidate my hold on the area nearby.

The game is not without problems.   The locations are not very updated; the app force closes a lot.   Still, it reopens right away and works fine afterwards.

It’s strange to actually *go outside*, and walk around with a phone in my hand, to play a game but there it is.    The novel experience has kept me going for the past couple of weeks.   Give it a try by clicking here.   Just remember, Doc Burbank claims Burbank.