This is a really fun game, great concept and they pulled it off nicely. They went a little too far in making you suffer via grinding though, I would be more likely to purchase something in the app if it wasn't quite so freakin' obvious how they tuned the game. Don't be fooled, they went back and tweaked this game to make you hurt without buying currency, what a shame because in a lot of ways this is one of the most polished titles I have seen. They just make it sooooooo slow to advance your cash, and yes I have played it quite a bit so I am not just jumping to conclusions after half an hour. I would call their IAP model very similar to Tripletown, in that you pretty much have to wait to play.
Wait, what? My stats shows I have spent 15k gold and I have never felt the need to buy the IAP. I get at least 600 gold from either harvesting or mining, 1000 if I'm lucky. Gold coins are 50 xp and 200 gold each.
Mm-hmm, buying any IAP is entirely unnecessary, and enough people have posted in this thread to confirm that this is indeed the case. It is very difficult to get into a position where you're not able to buy or upgrade something; if you think that IAP is necessary, you're doing something very wrong. For those complaining about "grinding", you do know this is primarily a match-3 game, and that that's the biggest chunk of what you're going to be doing, right?
Jcheckel Thanks! We will check it out. Good point. BTW: On IGN Justin wrote are some great insigts about the updates for the game. Some of them are really good ideas! http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/20/where-puzzle-craft-goes-from-here
I think you might be playing it wrong? Anyway, matching games are pretty much playing it over and over. This is like one of the few games out there that what you call "grinding" is entirely justifiable, since the town building part is just an awesome extra, the meat of the game is the matching part, which you will play and inevitably grind, not to progress the city, but because THAT'S the game. @ArsThanea, are you guys considering the stuff written on IGN? I think those ideas are superb!
After playing Puzzle Craft for an hour straight, Id say its up there with 10000000 as one of the best match-3 hybrids Ive ever tried. Not sure how much grinding comes later, but this is literally the perfect "casual" title right now. Should get a great review from TA.
Grinding??? I think some folks don't realize this is a match three with a extra town building mode thrown in. The town building and leveling give you extra powers for higher match three scores.... That's the whole point, and I think this is game of the year material
The castle in my next main building. The end is on the horizon. Don't want the game to end. More content. Take my money!
Game Impressions Great game, except that it crashes a lot on my ipad 2, about 2-3 times an hour. I hope they will fix this in upcoming updates. For those complaining about grinding, try to remember that this is a match-3 game at heart. If you do not enjoy matching, this is not the game for you. I am on level 18, and so far felt no need at all for IAP. I am always able to buy new building, tools. And if ever short on cash, just sell some items you have access of. Great game! Please fix crashing!
Ok - at first I was ticked because I felt like there was a paywall. But I take that back now. Really - you just need critical mass - which takes a day or so. I started opening up the game every few hours even if I wasn't going to play just to collect my taxes and bonus items. Once I got enough gold under my belt to play the fields at will the game got much more fun. I'm at level 23 now and saving up for the Castle. A bit sad that the end of the game is so near. I have to admit - I'm really worried about the game loss bug people are experiencing. I've invested a nice chunk of time into this game and would hate to lose all my progress. I hope the devs can fix it!
Maybe you want to wait and stop playing it until the update is in the AppStore. I really hated losing my save game. I am not starting all over again until the fix is there.
Howdy! Loving the game and close to getting the castle as well! Don't want it to end but have been having a blast playing. Couple questions though. #1) I am missing a bunch of achievements (can list if needed), I saw them pop up in game but they don't show in Game Center. Any way to fix this? #2) What is up with the occasional multitask support / long start up time? I can be in game, hop out to get mail and come right back and get treated to the load screen sometimes and other times can play a bunch of async games and come back a couple hours later and be right where I left of. Thanks again for a great game!
That's actually terrible, he would have done better by just using fertiliser and then clearing wheat to get carrots. Encountered another achievement bug, got 36 dirt and the achievement didn't unlock.
I'm sorry to be so blunt, but that's utter nonsense. A number of people have spoken in this thread about how you would never need to buy coins and could play indefinitely. If you spend coins on anything other than mining or farming, that is your choice, but to say that you "hurt" without buying coins is ridiculous. I refuse to let a statement like that go unchallenged, because I don't want people to not get the game because of a perceived pay wall which doesn't exist. The game is great and deserves to be played by as many as possible.
I am trying desperately to have a build that did NOT have any explosion. The problem I am facing is that the mines are now ridiculously populated with gas pockets, even though I tried my best to mine small bits of dirt a time so it does not create more gas pockets. Is anyone seeing this problem? There are some building and workers that require lots of dirt, yet the game is very difficult to mine dirt (as opposed to iron or rock). I found this to be annoyingly and unnecessary difficult. Any help (note no purchase)?
Be sure to always stock up on plenty of lamps and shovels before you go mining. Also, buy the ventilation upgrade when it becomes available to help rid you of your gas problems ;-) Also, dirt is dirt cheap to buy if you need some. It actually gets harder to farm for dirt later on in the game.
I want this build to be entirely free of any explosion (as shown in the stats page). Because of this, I have no source of rubble required to build the ventilation upgrade. How can I get this WITHOUT buying it from the store?
