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CANDY CRUSH SAGA

ARTICLE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT 2014

GROUP 3

ALIA BT. ADAM

55218114069

NURUL NAQIBAH BT. PAMBI

55218114089

TENGKU SOFIAH BT. T. BADARUDIN

55218114269

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CONTENT

TITLE PAGE

0.0 Introduction 3

1.0 Summary 6

2.0 Discussion 7

3.0 Personal Opinion 14

4.0 Recommendation 16

5.0 References 18

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INTRODUCTION

Candy Crush Saga is a match-three puzzle video game released by the developer King on

April 12, 2012 for Facebook, and on November 14, 2012 as a mobile app for smartphones. As of

March 2013, Candy Crush Saga surpassed Farmville 2 as the most popular game on Facebook,

with 46 million average monthly users. It is a variation on their browser game Candy Crush. A

major expansion to the game called "Dreamworld" was launched on November 27, 2013.

The game is periodically updated, adding new "episodes" and playable levels; new levels

are updated first on Facebook followed by Android and iPhone. Candy Crush Saga has

"episodes" of 15 levels each (the first two "episodes" have only 10 levels). An update to the

game in November 2013 added the "Dreamworld" levels, giving players the opportunity to

replay older levels with a new mechanic, which is also periodically updated. As of November

2014, the Facebook edition has 770 regular levels and 485 Dreamworld levels.

This game is a variation of match-three games such as Bejeweled. Each level has a game

board filled with differently colored candies, and might contain obstacles. These different colors

include the red jelly bean, the orange lozenge, the yellow lemon drop, green chiclets, the blue

lollipop head, and the purple cluster. The basic move of this game is horizontally or vertically

swapping the positions of two adjacent candies, to create sets of three (or more) candies of the

same color. Each level contains a certain objective that must be completed in a given number of

moves (or on a time limit); some levels require clearing "jelly" off the board by making matches

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on top of them, reaching a certain score, getting ingredient items to the bottom of the board, or

having to clear certain amounts or combinations of candies. Levels may also contain blocks to

make them more difficult, such as meringue or liquor ice swirls, chocolate (which spreads across

the board if left uncleared), bombs (which end the level if they are not matched before they go

off), multi-layered icing blocks (with tin plates as the last layers), and others. Boosters can be

earned or purchased to provide assistance during levels. In computational complexity theory,

Candy Crush Saga (along with many other similar match three games) was proven to be NP-

hard.

In a secondary campaign known as the "Dreamworld", an additional mechanic is

introduced where players play earlier levels but also must maintain a balance on a moon-shaped

scale throughout the level. Players must control their matches of two certain colors of candies so

the scale does not become entirely unbalanced because a complete imbalance causes

Dreamworld's mascot owl Odus to fall off the moon. However, filling up the moon scale and

keeping it balanced for a certain number of moves will activate the Moon Struck event, causing

either one or both of the colors of matching candies to be removed from the board completely,

and the player is given a certain number of moves to perform until the scale is reset with two

new colors.

Candy Crush Saga had over ten million downloads in December 2012 alone. In July

2013, it was estimated that Candy Crush Saga at the time had about 6.7 million active users and

earned revenue of $633,000 per day in the US section of the iOS App Store alone. In November

2013, the game had been installed 500 million times across Facebook and iOS and Android

devices. According to Business Insider, Candy Crush Saga is the most downloaded iOS app for

2013.

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Candy Crush received particular mention in Hong Kong media, with reports that one in

seven Hong Kong citizens play the game. The game is also featured in Psy's music video

"Gentleman". In December 2013, King entered the Japanese market with a series of television

commercials in Japan, and by December 4 it had become the 23rd most downloaded game in

Japan on Android devices and number 1 most downloaded from the App Store.

Even though the app was released in late 2012, Candy Crush Saga players spent $790.1

million within the game in the first six months of 2014.

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1.0 SUMMARY

Candy crush has been played 151 billion times since it launched as an app on mobile

devices exactly a year ago and it’s the first game to ever be No. 1 on iOs, Android and Facebook

at the same time. Candy Crush’s creator, King, a steckholm-based company, says 1 in every 23

Facebook users play it and while Candy Crush is free, the in-game purchases that some players

choose to make add up. Think Gaming, which releases gaming analytics, estimates that it takes

in $875,382 per day. Players get so addicted with Candy Crush because of some reasons. One of

the reasons is Candy Crush is a game for all ages and it is influential and interactive.

Furthermore, it has many limitations and it is game for chance. Simplicity also is the reasons

why people are so addicted to it. Playing Candy Crush has their own advantages such as it makes

people to wait and try to be patience while waiting for lives. It also can coordinate our brain as

we could play it by one hand and multitask as well. Next, people don’t have to pay for anything

because it’s freemium but people can pay it if they want to make themselves easy and jump to

the next level. It’s also an escape for people to release stress and taps into our inner child. There

are several ways on how to stop Candy Crush’s addiction such as try the lesser of two evils,

make a new mantra, think long term and fantasize wildly. Hence, we think Candy Crush’s

addiction is not the worst disease as it seems because it has its own advantages, disadvantages

and how to overcome this addiction.

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2.0 DISCUSSION

It’s been over a year since a casual game has released on iOS and Facebook that just

about everyone is playing — the last was OMGPOP/Zynga’s Draw Something. King.com’s

Candy Crush Saga is seemingly everywhere today: It’s Top Grossing in the iOS App Store, it’s

the biggest application on Facebook in terms of daily and monthly traffic, and this match-3

puzzler is also in the top 10 free applications in Android’s Google Play store.

What is it that makes this spiritual successor to Bejeweled so successful? Why are people

playing (and paying) for Candy Crush Saga, a game that looks to be an unoriginal clone of many

other games?

There are many reasons why people are so addicted on playing Candy Crush Saga. One

of the reasons are Candy Crush Saga is extremely polished. From top to bottom, someone at

King.com has given a lot of love and attention to detail to Candy Crush Saga. The colors are

bright and inviting, the user interface is intuitive and not complicated at all, the tutorial

experience is slick and the gameplay is simple and familiar enough that almost everyone can

understand how to play from the moment they begin. There is not a single part of the game that

feels ‘cheap’ — every element of Candy Crush Saga is carefully constructed to make the player

feel joy and excitement with each action. While Bejeweled is also extremely polished, it lacks a

light and fun theme that makes it feel fresh and modern.

The candy-coated nature of Candy Crush Saga allows for King.com to have some

lighthearted fun with it. In between ‘chapters’, little cut-scenes are shown that offer up a

lightweight story about helping out the candy inhabitants. The candy pieces and the boosts

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themselves are colorful and appealing to look at. The verbal encouragements (voice-overs that

occur when the player matches candy gems in more interesting combinations) are dripping with

sweetness, such as “Sugar Rush!” and “Tasty!” The music is happy and soothing, and lulls you

into a false sense of security that the game’s AI isn't actively trying to make you lose. There are

sound effects on every button click, scroll, and tap which gives the affirming feedback that every

player needs but doesn't know it.

What is the first impression in this deliciously sweet Candy Crush Saga game? Is Candy

Crush Saga is a challenging game? Whenever people played Candy Crush Saga above level 15,

there is a near 100% chance that they have sworn at it, cursed the developers, and felt as if life

isn't fair. An avid puzzle gamer casually trying the game out might feel that it is simple and

unoriginal, a feeling that people had during their first encounter with the title.

Where a game like PopCap’s Bejeweled Blitz offers up a randomized experience where

the player is given a set amount of time to beat their friends on a leaderboard, Candy Crush Saga

has a true lose condition (something that is rare in social games). It is not uncommon for a player

to be stuck on a level for days, a situation that ends up being just difficult enough to keep the

players trying yet not a ‘shelf moment’ where the player quits playing out of dire frustration.

Similar to Angry Birds, it’s okay to fail. It’s not the point to fail, it’s not the end goal, but it will

happen and it’s not going to make players hate the game or make Candy Crush any less casual.

The constant challenge will retain experienced gamers and puzzle game aficionados, and the ease

of rebounding after failure will keep players of all ages entertained. Candy Crush Saga is

difficult enough that entire blogs exist to host video walkthroughs of each level and tips and

tricks for beating the game. Since time is not a factor in the game, players have time to think

about each move which adds a sense of skill that other games do not possess.

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What to do next? That is not to be concerned by players for this sweet adventurous game.

A combination of the ‘lives’ system (which limits the number of attempts within a session) and

the fact that there is a clear objective which can be failed (such as getting all the fruits to the

bottom or clearing all the jellies) means that a player ends their session wanting more and having

a clear plan of action for the next time they open the application. Candy Crush Saga never has a

moment where the player doesn't know what to do next. Many other social games solve this

conundrum by providing the player with a detailed list of ‘quests’ that guide them to the next

objective, but this is a forced and unnatural way to motivate players to spend more time in a

game. Candy Crush Saga is as linear as a game can get and our minds enjoy having a preset path

to follow.

Candy Crush Saga offer variety that puzzle games often lack which is making this game a

delicious puzzle adventure to play. Candy Crush Saga takes the ‘match-3' puzzle genre and adds

a layer of excitement on top as if King.com said to themselves, “the world already has

Bejeweled; so what do we do next?”. Matching 3 candies in a row simply offers points and clears

the gems from the board, 4 gives a special candy that can clear entire rows (either horizontal or

vertical depending in which direction the match was made), 5 gives the player a candy that will

either destroy a wide region around it or remove all candies of a particular color from the board

depending if they were matched in a T-shape, L-shape, or a line. Mixing those special candies

together causes other surprising things to happen. Each level has a particular objective that has to

be completed to progress to the next level. Some of these objectives include clearing all ‘jelly

squares’ from the board, removing licorice from locked candies, bringing down various fruits

which randomly appear on the board, and preventing chocolate from spreading.

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While Candy Crush Saga might offer points as way to compare score with friends (and

give the game an element of replay ability), points aren't the primary objective. The game can

cleverly offer a nice variety of objectives without altering the game’s rules. No matter the

objective for a given level, players will always be matching candies in various combinations and

trying to clear the board. Players always have the familiar context to rely on, and they always

know how to get started on figuring out the strategy for a particular level. I am always looking

forward to what the next objective will be, and find it a pleasing change of pace when my

ultimate goal is changing from level to level without requiring me to learn new systems. A game

like Bejeweled Blitz is the same every time — while the placement of the gems on the game

board might change each time, the goal is always to get the highest score possible within the time

allowed. 200+ levels of that formula in Candy Crush would grow tiresome.

There’s a long way through hundreds of levels ahead in this delicious puzzle adventure.

From the first time a player starts up Candy Crush Saga, they can scroll up and down the

Candyland-esque map and see that the game offers more than 735 levels of play (note: that’s of

this writing — King.com are regularly increasing the level cap). This gives players an aspiration

and a sense of being involved in something grandiose. The addition of real-life friends’ smiling

faces poised with triumph along this path shows players that Candy Crush offers an adventure

that people they respect are enjoying (so maybe they will too). It alludes to that linear pathway

mentioned earlier and shows the player that this game has decent longevity and a steady stream

of content for them to digest. All of these things assist in making the game appealing to players

as a lightweight and fun experience yet an investment that can potentially give back to the player

through interaction with friends within the game.

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Lastly, Candy Crush is inherently social but is this ‘true social’ we speak of? Candy

Crush Saga hits all the buzzwords when it comes to being a social game. It’s viral in nature,

retains its players, offers up deeper social interactions that investors love to hear about, is

integrated with the social network behemoth Facebook, and literally requires friends to help each

other to progress. Having friends is actually an enhancement to the play experience in every way

in Candy Crush, whereas in some social games it feels as a selfish ploy to spread word about the

game.

A friend assist each other with progressing through this skill-based game by offering

boosts and extra turns; advantages that truly make Candy Crush Saga better when possessed.

After running out of lives, the only way to continue playing aside from spending money is to ask

friends to offer additional lives. This mechanic certainly isn’t new — viral games have been

literally designed around this since Facebook virility became a make-or-break concept for

products. However, Candy Crush Saga also uses friends as a motivator for increasing score on

each level and progression throughout the overall game by showing their position on the map

and telling players how they scored in relation to them.

In Candy Crush Saga, players are simultaneously cooperating with friends, helping each

other out, and competing against each other. Facebook integration isn’t something tacked on to

the game; Candy Crush was designed to use friends as a gameplay mechanic and it works. For

this reason, when developers talk about ‘adding social’ as a feature set post-launch, I want to

cringe. It’s like building an entire fermium game without thinking about the business model.

King.com molded social motivators with individual gratification perfectly.

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Candy Crush Saga is available everywhere. Finally, I’d be a fool to skip over the fact that

Candy Crush Saga is available in the hottest places that free-to-play games flourish. The

Facebook app was the original incarnation and is currently beating all Zynga titles as the most

popular game on Facebook. In November 2012, Candy Crush Saga was released on the iOS App

Store and Android’s Google Play store. It took under 2 weeks for the app to make the top 20 Top

Grossing iPhone apps list and it hasn’t gone below that since. After one month on Google Play,

Candy Crush Saga hit the number 1 Top Grossing list and hasn’t let go since. The iPad version

looks glorious on the larger screen size.

Even more importantly, one connection to the player’s Facebook account and the game is

synchronized across all devices completely seamlessly. Someone can log in on Facebook while

at work, then play on their iPhone on the toilet, and then load up Candy Crush Saga on their iPad

or Nexus Tablet while in bed at night. It’s smooth as butter, and King.com are making sure that

you’re thinking about Candy Crush wherever you might be and that you’re never far from a

device that can play it.

Candy Crush Saga is not a game without complaints. The freemium game developer in

me wants to put Candy Crush Saga on a pedestal and claim it to be the perfect social game. I

want to appreciate that it treats me like an adult and gives me welcome challenges. I want to

unabashedly praise it’s beautiful level of polish, look, and feel. However, I can’t close this article

without discussing briefly the complaints that many players have about the game.

The largest complaints exist around the fact that the game is stingy with resources and

boosts and charges an astronomical amount for some of these luxuries. Every additional

purchased life is 99 cents. Each boost costs $0.99 - $1.99 each. A Charm of Stripes boost costs

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the player $39.99 (but is a one-time purchase that can be used in every level after its unlocked).

The game withholds the ability to purchase these boosts at first and ‘unlocks’ them as the player

progresses, giving the illusion that they will be free when in fact the only thing that unlocked was

the ability to spend money on those boosts.

Candy Crush Saga also artificially gates progression by requiring players to get tickets

from their friends or pay money to unlock the next chapter of levels. This comes as a sort of

surprise because it’s not evident to players that they will be gated from progression in the game

by anything aside from lives and their own skill. For some players, this is the moment where

they opt to put Candy Crush aside and move on to something new. Some people simply aren't

willing to beg Facebook friends for anything game related. For others, this isn't a major issue

because the game is free up until this point and the amount of entertainment enjoyed prior is

worthy of the $0.99 to progress.

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3.0 PERSONAL OPINION

Lately, the Candy Crush Saga has been gathering a lot of attention as people from all ages

are drawn to this very addictive game. The mouthwatering candies that fill your screen will get

you hooked by the hundreds of levels which challenges you and keeps you all day playing the

game and still craving for it.

In our opinion, Candy Crush Saga is actually a simple game but tricky. Some of the

levels are really tricky and cost all of lives but somehow, despite no promise of success. It is

causing the player to keep playing over and over. Why do we say it is a simple game? This is

because the premise of Candy crush is basic enough for preschooler whereby the player needs to

match three candies of the same color. It is also a simple game because it can be played by using

one hand while the other hand is free to do other things. Hence, I think that has a lot to do with

why people have found they will just gravitate towards it in a free moment. If this game remain

this easy, however we will be quickly tire of the jelly beans and gum drops, becoming bored

after a couple of binge sessions. But Candy Crush keeps us coming back in several ways. As we

play, the game gets harder to win.

Furthermore, we believe that Candy Crush Saga is good for our brain. The more we use

our brain, the better it works. For us in order to use less moves in the higher level, we will use

our brain for thinking. In this way, we can win the level easily and faster. It can be proved by all

participants in Dr. Wilson’s study were aged 80 years old and above had listed down all the

cognitively stimulating activities such as reading, writing, visiting museums, playing challenging

cards games and even playing Candy Crush. The results were enhancing. As it proves that they

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who did the activities frequently had less plaques, tangles and infarcts in their brain. It means

that less brain cell death and this proves that Candy Crush Saga is good for our brain.

Eventhough it seems to us Candy Crush Saga is bringing more advantages but there are

minor disadvantages. As we can see, sometimes too much playing candy crush can make anyone

change their mood. Whereas can shorten patience and also disturbing our sleep time. This is the

reason why some of the players woke up late in the next morning which will make their life

schedule to be chaos. Some of the players also will use most or all of their resting time such as

lunch break and sleep time to play Candy Crush Saga as it is addicting to them. In short, we can

see some of the player’s life is under control by this game as they can manage themselves to be

addicted towards this delicious game. As for us, this kind of situation is actually depends on the

player himself whether he can control or just let the game take control of themselves.

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4.0 RECOMMENDATION

There are several ways on how to replace the bad habit (playing Candy Crush) with a

good one—or at least one that's more benign. It's much easier to slightly change a mental pattern

than to reconstruct it entirely, says Jeremy Dean, PhD, psychologist and the author of Making

Habits, Breaking Habits. Since we’ve already trained our brain to respond a certain way in a

certain situation (wake up, drink coffee), we can "trick" it by directing it to respond to the same

situation—with a slightly different activity (wake up, drink green tea). By switching from Candy

Crush to a more traditional game would help addictive player to quit from playing Candy Crush

because the traditional game is easier to beat (so, not Angry Birds) or a game that requires real-

time interaction from a friend, who can alert you when it's time to stop playing and say, "Go to

sleep!"

Next, make a new mantra. Start by asking yourself, "Why do I do this, anyway?" Sure,

because you're bored, but what else is happening? Where are you? Who are you with? What do

you see, smell or hear? That's your trigger, and let's call it X. The next time X happens (because

it will—you cannot rid the world of coworkers bearing baked goods, for example), you need to

be ready. You need to have a plan to combat it. That's your Y. Repeatedly remind yourself: "If X

happens, I will do Y." It will work because of your reminding yourself of your resolution—out

loud, and often. Research on both humans and animals suggests that even after bad habits seem

to have disappeared, they still lie dormant, waiting to be reactivated. If we have a plan for how to

deal with that situation, we won't be taken by surprise and default to our old enemy; the bad

habit.

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Furthermore, player needs to think of their long term. They have to accept failure at first.

There's a depressing irony to the way habits work; the more you try not to think about them, the

more they dominate your thoughts. This has been proven time and again in different experiments

where people were instructed not to think about white bears, or cigarettes, or disturbing

emotional memories, or their favorite food. In all cases, the people in the studies began thinking

about these things even more than before. The mind starts an unconscious monitoring process to

check if you're still thinking about the verboten subject, and then anything that looks vaguely

like it triggers the thought again ("That crumpled tissue reminds me of…a white bear"). This

may be why people sometimes find that when they first try to change a habit, they actually start

doing it more. The resulting disappointment often sends them deeper into the clutches of their

vice.

In order to stop quitting playing Candy Crush slowly, ones need to fantasize wildly. They

need to keep telling themselves how their life will improve once they’re no longer over snacking

or picking or procrastinating. At the same time, remind yourself how unhealthy, unnecessary,

distracting or just plain annoying your habit is and how badly you want to change it. It raises the

stakes. The more relevant and vivid you can make the negative thoughts of the bad habit; the

more likely you are to exercise self-control. These mental caricatures serve as reminders to keep

you on track. Multiple experiments have shown that those who attach strong feelings to a habit

are more motivated to change than are those who treat the habit like it's no big deal. You have to

start with things that gross you out—when you're not the one doing them (like nail-biting, hair-

chewing). They're easier to visualize and harder to justify to yourself, since you've already seen

on others that those habits are unattractive.

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REFERENCES

Jessica Gardner. Reader’s Digest. (September 2014). Could Candy Crush Saga Be a

Gateway to Gambling. [Magazine].

Eliana Dockterman. TIME.com. (2013). Candy Crush Saga: The Science behind our

Addiction. [Online]. Available from http://business.time.com/2013/11/15/candy-crush-

saga-the-science-behind-our-addiction/. [Accessed: 26th November 2014].