Archive for January, 2010
Lessons from Bejeweled Blitz
Monday, January 18th, 2010Bejeweled is one of the world’s most downloaded mobile game, but it didn’t come to Facebook until December 2008. Its simple and fast level design allowed for satisfying discontiguous and solitary play. The combination proved addictive for mobile users desiring a quick distraction. When Pop Cap brought Bejeweled Blitz to Facebook, it embraced the Facebook Platform and turned its solitary game into a team sport.
To earn points in Bejeweled, a player must swap jewels on a grid to form a sequence of three or more similar colors. Players have one minute to earn as many points as possible. Gameplay for Bejeweled on Facebook is the same as it is on other platforms. However, access to a player’s friend list on Facebook increases the competitive motivation for continued play. Players not only desire to beat their own high scores, but those of their friends.
Bejeweled Blitz goes further into the social graph by pitting friend groups against each other and awarding real world prizes to top scoring teams. Beyond the social graph, a player’s score is ranked globally.
Bejeweled Blitz for Facebook effectively utilizes the news feed by prompting players to post stories of high scores. To decrease monotony in the news feed, particularly for Facebook users who have many active friends playing Bejeweled, news feed stories vary when posting the same story type. They’re also seasonally adjusted.
A new high score triggers a Facebook notification to be sent to a player’s friends who were overtaken in the leader board, further encouraging repeat play.
For more feisty players, the Facebook publisher interface allowed direct challenges to be brought from a friend’s wall.
Pop Cap’s enhancement of Bejeweled Blitz for Facebook is an excellent example of how a classic game can become more engaging by becoming more social.
