What better way to get into the Christmas spirit on Facebook than heading over to the fictional New England village in the winter time, in the new Facebook game Holiday Village, created by Samantha LeCraft.
Holiday Village is set in a typical 1930’s village, complete with old reminiscent buildings, such as Toy Shops, a Town Hall and Grocers. Players will start with basic buildings, and 12 coins, used for purchasing new buildings and items. The objective is to construct a new and complete village, collecting happiness, prosperity and/or unity. Players will purchase new buildings, and place items such as trees in their village. Every 24 hours, the buildings will then give off Happiness, Prosperity and Unity points which can earn Tokens. Earning a certain amount of tokens can be exchanged for Coins. Additionally, Coins can be purchased for money if the player wishes. A bar at the top indicates how many tokens a player has, and a shortage in any of the three bars will indicate where the community is out of balance, requiring the player to build new buildings appropriately. A helpful building to players is a Post Office, where residents of the village can leave mail, sometimes indicating which buildings are required.
Yay! I’m excited about the new gameplay aspect, and also that it’s not like other Facebook games (no more “HOLY CRAP I HAFTA CHECK MAH CROPS!”). The happiness level of the city makes me think of Sims/SimCity.
The game play is slower, and relaxing, with no time constraints. The game manages to create an atmosphere that draws the user in, with day and night lighting, and melancholy music that really sets the mood. The game follows real life season changes, and is currently set in the wintertime, and even produces light snowfall. The real time dynamic season changes are an interesting feature, which strikes a thought of the similarity to Second Life. Although the two are different, the thought of two lives running simultaneously rings a bell.
The concept of the game was first thought up of in October, and has already been released on Facebook. It has already been said that the plan was to release a minimum viable product, with regular updates. Admittedly, the game at times does feel a bit barebones. However, with regular updates already been promised, and some details of further features, the game does has huge potential, and it looks like we are seeing the start of something special here.
