Daniel's Room: A Game of Toys
Daniel’s Room is our newest in the casual games series. Its a skill game, with almost no luck elements. The game mechanics are based on the familiar match3 system. the player needs to match 3 or more tiles of the same type to make something happen. however, Daniel’s Room takes this familiar mechanism and turns it into a new and exciting experience.
Initially, our player can create the minimal set of 3 or more by either swapping between tiles of different type over the board, or by entering new tiles from a queue, located to the right of the board. The queue provides the player with a certainty of what tiles are expected to enter next, which allows him to plan his moves in advance. this is critically important in Daniel’s Room, as in some levels, every move counts. if you make too many moves or incorrect ones, you will not meet the level targets! therefore, the game encourages the plaers to think and plan their moves 3-4-5 steps in advance which makes for a great brain exercise and a mark of a good puzzle game.
To make things more interesting, when you drop a new tile from the queue to the board, anoter tile will be added by the game, to create some randomness in the game. however, the added tile type is not random. The queue tile and the one added by the game are paired in advance and are fixed in each level. so, even if you fail a level once, you can know in advance not only the queue pieces but also the ones coming from the game.
Unlike other match3 based games, you can create the set of 3 tiles not only in a strait line either vertical or horizontal, but in any shape, as long as there is a similar tile to one of its four sides, a tile is considered part of a single set. Sets are immediately identified by the system and then consumed if they are 3 or more strong, scoring points in the process.
Accepting complex shapes allows players to make clever placements in advance in order to create a cascading effect when finishing sets, which significantly increses level score. You see, the first set will provide a basic score (3 points for 3 tiles). However, if you immediately activate another set, score is multipled with the previous set score by a certain factor. Repeating that will multiply the previous score again with the new one thus creating a cascade effect over the score, which can lead to huge scores for a single set. Some levels will require to create 5 or 6 consecutive sets to clear the level. So plan ahead!
In each level, you need to clear all the white backgrounds over the cells by smasing sets of 3 or more tiles. in later game stages, it is not enough to smash any type ofset, as you need to smash a specific type of set on certain backgrounds. These backgrounds are imprinted with the required type to smash over them.
On top of that, in each level you are required to meet certain targets, one at first and later two or even three targets at once. these can be either earning a minimum number of gold coins (which correspond to the score you get from smashing sets), or finishing a level in a certain time limit or finishing the level with a limited number of moves.
To allow players with different skill level to enjoy the game, the player can set the difficulty level of the puzzle board via the settings menu. the default is standard, but the player can set it to easy mode ore hard mode. the easier mode allows more lenient targets but scores are lowered as well. The harder setting will create harsher targets but clearing a set will score higher than the standard difficulty level.
Ranking – Daniel’s Room provides a ranking system to measure your success against others. Advancing in rank is achieved by completing more levels and scoring more gold in each level. ranking also impacts set scoring, so when you are ranked higher, each set you smash will score higher.
The gold you collect during play can be spent on new toys to decorate your room. You have a lovely looking play room which you can fill with cute and cool toys. From baby toys and toddler dolls to more grownup kids toys, such as football, posters, robot, space shuttle and even a turtle or a parrot. If you like to post on facebook, you have an option to publish your scores at the end of each level to your friends and get a nice bonus as you do so.
Daniel’s room provide in app purchases that allow you to complete levels if you get stuck or to purchase more gold if you don’t have enough to purchase all the toys you want. However, these are not mandatory and you can certainly finish the entire game without them.
The game also provide a very thorough tutorial on both the room controls and the puzzle mechanics, which should streamline players entry to the game.
One more important thing worth mentioning is the superb music in Daniel’s Room. Included in the game several awesome tracks made by great indie composers. The sound truly allows players to immerse in the game and feel they are furnishing their dream room by solving complex puzzles.
Have Fun!