I.
Overview
As a popular casual game, Bloons TD 5 has nice reward
loops. The game is rich in content (turret/map/upgrades/etc.), so it has decent
replayability. Meanwhile, it is super time consuming (each play is 20 minutes
in average).
II.
Reward System
The game ties all the rewards to the experience points
(XP). Killing Bloons grants the player XP for the tower used to kill the Bloons
as well as the player’s account. Unlockables (new towers/upgrades/enemies/game
modes) come out as the player ranks up and the towers level up.
It is very easy to rank/level up at the beginning. The
speed slows down as the player progresses.
Because of the reward system, new unlockables are
constantly being introduced to the player. Even I am already Rank 25, I still
get new content in an acceptable pace (I was dropping all types of towers in
order to unlock their upgrades as fast as possible).
Except the unlockables, the game also has accomplishments
being unlocked as the player does something that meets the condition, which is
rewarding to the player. But they don’t appear to be very meaningful, since
they are not real rewards. They are just badges representing what you achieve
in the game.
Below is a rough chart showing the content being unlocked
as the player ranks up. Rank 30~35 seem to be a turning point for the player,
since 80% of the content is available for the player by then.
III.
Time Investment
Each play session is about 20~40 minutes, unless the
level is super challenging. In that case, each play could last merely 5
minutes. Since the game is designed for the players who want to kill time (?!),
I got bored very quickly.
It took me around 40 minutes to beat a Beginner-Easy level
and get the accomplishment. Then I tried Beginner-Medium and Beginner-Hard
modes for the same map, each spent ≈3 minutes, in
order to learn the increase in difficulty. Then I tried some Intermediate maps
and failed at Round 40 out of 50/65/85. Then I tried Advanced maps and felt
overwhelming. So I learned that Intermediate maps were fit for my current
level. Daily Challenges were very hard and I had to give up in a few rounds. Unlike
Normals, Special Missions don’t allow the player to choose a difficulty. The
pace was too slow so I put the game aside after several rounds (or let the game
run by itself instead of staring at the screen, waiting to interact with the
game real time). And I still got some XP and leveled up, just in a slower pace.
After exploring all the modes, I decided to learn more details about the game
by playing Intermediate maps and unlock things.
So, it took me 2 walkthroughs, each for a level and some
quick trials for other modes/difficulties (≈1 hour in total) to get bored with the system. It took me
a few more play sessions (≈2 hours in total)
to familiarize with and experiment on the towers/upgrades/enemies. Then I kept
playing and spent ≈6~8 hours to level
up and try out new unlockables until Rank 25. Because the game doesn’t feel
intense to play, I was multi-tasking and spent more time than planned. But I
felt enough with the game when I hit Rank 25, although there are more content
awaiting me.
In summary, I spent more than 10 hours to figure out 60%
content of the game and didn’t have much interest in learning more at the
point, since the game pace is too slow and I could kind of imagine the rest of
the game.
Maybe they can fix this problem by only showing the next
upgrade for each tower in the tower menu. In this case, instead of being able
to check all the upgrades before unlocking them, the game can not only hold
some surprise for the player to explore as they progress, but also the player
will have a better focus on content when they look at the available upgrades.
Also, as I mentioned, I don’t feel that there is a strong
motivation for a player to keep playing after having unlocked 80% of the
content. So maybe the game can spread out the XP required to unlock the next
upgrade/tower, since the unlocking relies on XP gained for individual tower and
the player have no limit in tower choice as long as they can afford them.
In addition to the limit on tower choice, maybe the game
can trim the game modes corresponding to the theming of each map. For instance,
there is a ship tower which can only be placed on water. The game can just
remove or grey out this tower for the maps with no water area. In this case,
the player won’t get confused why the tower is available even it seems not possible
to be used. The game can limit more on tower choice, which can not only help
the player to explore the towers that they are not so familiar with but fun to
use, but also strengthen the fantasy of each map. And of course, it makes
unlocking a new map more exciting since they might bring different tower selection
and new play style.
IV.
Bloon Franchise
As mentioned in Balance Analysis, the
Bloon series is also very popular on mobiles. I tried the Bloon 5 TD on iPhone,
featuring multi-player modes.
The main content remains the same with the
one I have been discussing, but this version has decent tutorials and a better
learning curve (and much better graphics). Since I already knew enough about the
game, I ran through every available module very quickly (spending ≈30 minutes). Then I tried more of the multi-player modes,
Assault Mode and Defensive Mode. Assault Mode allows you to send Bloons to
crush your opponent, which was fun and more strategic than the classic game.
However, Defensive Mode is similar to the Normals in the Kongregate game,
simply adding another player. You two play the same level and try to defend
longer than the other player. It has some level of social meaning. But I wasn’t
playing against a friend, so I didn’t find the social factor strong. The total time
spent on the iPhone version was ≈40 minutes.
V.
Conclusion
Among all types of rewards the game is
providing, I think the new towers and upgrades are the most appealing part.
Also, using players as infinite content generator adds more fun to the classic
gameplay (Assault Mode in mobile version).
To sum up, the game has a nice reward
system which constantly provides new goals for the player. But the game pace is
too slow for me. Comparing the time invested to beat more advanced levels with
the potential new content, I stopped playing after ≈12 hours in total. But because of the fact that there are
some good content, I might pull out the game again when I want to check or show
someone else something.
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