Rovio has released a narrative match-3 about the investigation of murders. The company used AI for testing

The authors of Angry Birds have become another company that decided to borrow the experience of Playrix. She released match-3, which is very close in mechanics and concept to such box office hits as Homescapes and Gardenscapes.

The novelty is called Small Town Murders. Like the Playrix projects, it is a horizontally oriented three-in-a-row with the same types of bonuses and obstacles. Moreover, the game has an almost identical UI with them.

The main formal difference of the project is meta. You can’t build anything in the game. Instead, the user, together with the main character, unravels insidious murders. The essence of the mechanics is to reward the player with a plot for completing levels.

This approach is commonly used in hiddens. The brightest representative is Agent Alice from Wooga. Another equally vivid example is The X-Files: Deep State from Creative Mobile. But in fact, the same technique is used in match-3 at Playrix, when in addition to the opportunity to build something, the player is rewarded with a funny scene.

It is assumed that the desire to find out “What’s next?” and “Who is the killer?” in hidden is one of the important tools for retaining the gaming audience. This is also believed in Rovio. They say that such an approach will help them keep the audience and thereby reduce the CPI.

The appearance of the game in Rovio is also explained by the desire to diversify their portfolio with an unusual product. They believe that conceptually there has never been anything like this on the market. Say, a new niche.

Already at the start, more than 1000 levels have been created for the game within the framework of eight detective stories. It is assumed that updates for the project will be released regularly. Every month, players will receive a new story for a couple hundred levels.

This speed has become possible thanks to AI testing of levels. Rovio has not yet completely switched to this type of content verification. But the company claims that AI allows you to seriously reduce the testing time and balance levels.

The developer of Small Town Murders was Rovio — Puzzle Studio. She has previously created match games for the company. She has projects such as Sugar Blast and Angry Birds: Dream Blast on her account. Both are commercially successful (the first earned more than $ 5 million, the second more than $ 50 million).

Also on the topic:

• Rovio’s quarterly profit rose to $14.1 million due to lower UA costsRovio: “We use machine learning when creating levels”
• The former Wargaming studio was bought by Rovio
• Is there any news?