ROYAL MATCH BREAKDOWN : PART 1

This is the 1st part of a series of articles that aims to understand the superhit game "Royal Match"

Key Information

Publisher - Dream Games Ltd.

Downloads - 100 Million+

Average Rating - 4.5/5

Reviews - 4.68 Million

Playstore Link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dreamgames.royalmatch

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As someone who works in the gaming industry, a major chunk of my time goes into playing mobile games! Yes, I know it’s so much fun and I’m lucky I love my job. It’s also when some nosey relatives they tell me to stop playing games and I tell them it’s my job :) At work I have a reputation of playing games long & hard and gleaning great insights from them. So here I am trying to put my observations together and hone my writing skills (another thing which I supposedly have a natural talent for). I hope you can get some value out of reading this post. Ok enough of my rambling. Let’s get to it.

Splash Screen

Royal Match is a Match 3 game. A Match 3 game is one where you have to make a sequence of 3 or more items that look alike. All these items are arranged randomly in a box like area. A Match 3 game ends when all the items on the board are cleared. The Match 3 market is predominantly held by Royal Match and the big daddy, King’s Candy Crush and dare I say, the more famous of the two.

FTUE (First Time User Experience)

The FTUE or FTU is what the user (player) goes thorugh on opening the game for the 1st time. A FTUE sets the tone for a player’s time spent on the game and hence is crucial. The user must know what the game needs of them and how to do them to it. Think of it as a tour that you take of a building that you are interested to buy. Ever so quickly, it must appeal to you or risk you walking out.

In my opinion, the FTUE was done very well. What was expected of me was easy to understand. The tooltips and the quantity of the text was concise and impactful. The images used and their quality gave it the feel of a solid game and it interested me enough to continue playing.

Tutorial that is part of the game FTUE

Core Loop

Each game, irrespective of the genre it belongs to has a core loop. A core loop refers to the primary actions that the player does in order to progress within the game. In Royal Match’s case the core loop is as below:

1. Make a sequence of 3 or more items that look alike

2. Clear the board

3. Earn rewards for clearing the level

4. Play the next level

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4

Meta Loop

Now that the core loop is set for the game, it is time to introduce the meta loop. A solid core loop is the foundation of every successful game but it is not enough on its own. This is because things will get boring quite soon if the same actions are on loop.

Enter the meta loop. A meta loop is like the dressing on a cake for it gives the game “juice” or “legs”. It gives the player a bigger goal to work towards.

In the case of Royal Match, the meta is “decorating areas”. Once an area is completed, the next one is unlocked. The meta loop is as below:

1. Clear the level

2. Get “keys” as rewards

3. Use the keys to do the assigned mini tasks pertaining to the area

4. Complete decorating the area

5. Unlock a new area

6. Repeat steps 1 through 5

Areas

To make progress in an area, the player needs to complete area related tasks

In Game Currency

Every game generally has two types of currency - Soft and Hard.

Soft currency is generally the currency that the player gets as in game rewards. In the case of Royal Match for every level that is cleared, the player gets “coins”. These coins can be used to buy “moves” in case the player does not clear the level in the stipulated moves. Soft currency is generally easy to earn. A player can also buy it from the game store if they so wish.

Hard currency, on the other hand is tougher to earn. It is generally used to check a player’s progress, especially in games that need to create fresh content on a regular basis. For Royal Match, the hard currency is the “lives”. A player starts with 5 lives. Each time the player fails to clear a level, they lose one “life”. To get lives, the player needs to buy them from the game store. Hard currency constitutes most of the revenue of games.

Closing Thoughts

Whew, that took me some effort! I hope you found it interesting. In the next part I’ll talk about the general gameplay and the heart of the game : “Events”. Until then, ciao!