GDC: Reasons for the success of Candy Crush Saga

At the round table “Free-to-Play Game Design: a review for the year” at GDC 2013, the speakers analyzed the latest trends in “free” games using the example of the King – Candy Crush Saga project.

Looking ahead, the main outcome of the round table can be quite fit into two words: socialize it! 

The speakers, first of all, noted that success on the mobile platform is accompanied by success on the social platform. Candy Crush Saga has been occupying the first position in the box office top of Google Play US for many weeks, recently it came in first place in the box office and in the App Store US. 

According to App AnnieAnd, accordingly, last February, the game also became the first number on DAU on Facebook.

Since 2009, there has not been such a thing that anyone has caught up with Zynga in this. 

According to AppDataSo here we can deduce the quite banal idea that for success it is necessary to be present on as many platforms as possible.

But the bottom line is that today a developer who wants to succeed does not have the right to divide the casual gaming market into segments. Yes, you can work effectively by focusing on something separate. And this is perfectly demonstrated by the experience of Supercell, who bet on the iPad. But at the same time, with the closest possible integration of iOS and Facebook (as well as Android coverage), there is a chance to earn much more. 

Candy Crush Saga is not even so much a game of the future as its standard, which you need to look up to now. In this future, there is no difference between which device you run the app from. 

The cross-platform nature of the game has played a very important role in its promotion and success. The developers from King tried to make the project not only identical for all platforms, but also allowed it to save progress from device to device.

“This solution encourages players to interact with the app more often, and also significantly increases engagement and monetization,” Dave Rohrl, one of Goko’s vice presidents, said at the round table. 

It is clear that Candy Crush Saga is far from the only such project on the market. The described model allowed such games as Diamond Dash, Zynga Poker and even Words With Friends to succeed, but he became its evangelist to some extent. When everyone decided that the future belongs to card games, builders and casinos, King showed that sometimes for success you can just go back to the origins of the casual market, adding sociality.