How FarmVille Was Written In Five Weeks

[Jared]

Wow...A casual game with a short dev cycle.

*is in shock*

And the method is actually quite inventive.

And, frankly, there's a lot there that "real" game companies could learn from. The idea of developers and designers working together? Rather than being on either side of an iron gate made of tigers [/yahtzee]? Scandalous!

DESIGN IS LAW!

Yeah, this is true...

We may not like Farmville, or, what it represents but they got the job done, and did it quickly

 

[DTWolfwood]

can probably take the award for quickest billions ever for the least amount of work XD

 

[Parshooter]

Damn... That's less time than E.T. for the Atari 2600. And we all know how that turned out.

Oh god yet again the end of gaming as we know it is coming

 

[APVarney]

I commented on this in my Escapist 228 article about Zynga and Mafia Wars, "An Offer You Can't Refuse [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_228/6787-An-Offer-You-Cant-Refuse.2]":

FarmVille is a point-for-point duplicate of Slashkey's Farm Town. At the Austin Game Developers Conference in September 2009, Brian Reynolds - yes, the same Brian Reynolds who this year forsook real-time strategy godhood at Big Huge Games to become Chief Designer at Zynga - boasted how they brought FarmVille from conception to launch in five weeks. Yeah, five weeks to commission new art and press the Copy button.

 

[Plurralbles]

good thing no one's paying for it.

oh wait...


Well... most people anyway.

 

[Stryc9]

*snip*

Alright, you've stated your opinion and here's my rebuttal.

If you admit that Farmville is a crappy game, then why play it? You state simple because its there, but why? In a nutshell I'm asking why you would play this game over something better, a good game. You haven't stated whether or not you yourself have ever spent real money for in game items, if you have then why not play an MMO? At least in an MMO there's actual gameplay. Even if your computer is crappy, or you just like the convenience of playing an online game in an internet browser. If that's the case RuneScape is an internet browsing MMO, that in no way could challenge WoW, but does have a good player base. Its not a masterpiece, but in my opinion its a good game. But if your solely playing it just because you want to play, in my opinion your wasting your time, but hey, its your life, so just tell me to shut up, and live it. I'm only asking you because I don't get it, and you apparently do.

I play because on some level I guess I do find it somewhat entertaining, simple as that. It's a management sim with MMO elements that I don't have to spend a lot of time messing with like SimCity. I never could get SimCity or any of those other SimSometing games to work.

As far as paying actual money for in game items, neither I nor anyone I know has ever paid real money for the shit they sell in that game, and I never will. Like you I don't like the idea of 'micro-transactions' and I don't play other MMOs because either the setting doesn't grab me or I don't want the monthly subscription fee. FarmVille is free and you get what you pay for, it's not great but it's free and it's easy and I have a few friends that were playing before I was so I figured why not?

The only MMO that I've ever dabbled in was Vendetta Online, and I only played for about a month because a couple of my friends bought me a month for Christmas a couple of years ago just to get me to play it, they paid for it I really had no choice. I'll admit that I liked playing it but I still wouldn't pay $10 a month for it out of my own pocket.

I don't feel that it makes me less of a gamer to spend time on something like FarmVille since I spend the vast majority of my gaming time playing other games. If FarmVille were the only game I played I probably wouldn't be here on the Escapist.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Wow...A casual game with a short dev cycle.

*is in shock*

And the method is actually quite inventive.

Very. It's a shame their company is famous for scamming their customers.