Hi friends!
I am new here, but it does not mean I do not want an honest opinion!
Recently I have been working on a mobile game that relates to the dogs' abuse and adoption issues. It is a time management game, where player runs a dog shelter. Through the game player learns how to treat and heal the dogs, experiences situations with mistreatment of the dogs and its consequences, faces many challenges associated with maintaining resources flow, manages volunteers to keep all dogs happy and healthy and of course seeks to adopt the dogs to the good and the most relevant people. Thanks to such lessons player becomes more aware of the issues associated with dogs’ adoption and abuse, as well as gets to know what the needs of real shelters are and how she/he can help them in real life.
To perform the tasks with the dogs, player needs to swipe the dog to the proper facility to make a use of it. In a form of windows appearing on the screen (pop-ups) or screen-sized menus, player decides what she/he wants to do with the dog – diagnose or heal. Once player heals all scars that the dog has (i.e. dehydration, flu, broken leg, etc.), she gets to know what the hidden talents of the dog are (i.e. kids friendly, intelligent, independent nature, etc.). While allowing for adoption, player needs to consider dogs’ talents and adopter characteristics to make sure that the dog will feel good with such person.
Game will be directly connected to the charities to help them raise funds and awareness. In the game player needs to perform certain tasks to be able to organize charity events in order to raise donations to keep the shelter running, as well as increase the awareness of local in-game community to progress in the game. While organizing such events, player chooses real charity from the given list, which she/he wants to support in the course of such event, as well as buy in-game currency to donate it to the charity. Through such in-game support, charities collects points that later are compared on a ranking list - the most supported charity in a week/month will be donated with revenue share gathered by the developer.
Charities that wants to be mentioned in the game can create a profile on game’s website and to be added, they need to share a post about the game on their social media profiles, which help the game become viral. In the game, charities are sorted by their popularity among players, but also can be filtered through their location (country and city). Game shows short description about the charity and directs to their created profile to learn more about their profession.
To summarize, game creates strong emotional attachment to the dogs and their stories, as well as through maintaining their basic needs like hunger, sociability, energy and overall mood. The micro and macro management in the game is well balanced to direct player’s focus on different issues and needs of the shelter and the dogs, as well as properly maintain the fun of the game and player’s retention.
I will be happy to hear your thoughts about the game, what is your opinion are the weak and strong sides.
Let me know if you have any questions, I will be happy to assist.
Thanks!
Kate
