>>1449I play a game called Two Dots.
It’s a puzzle game, that I think is done right.
The basic game pretense is that you need to connect at least two dots to remove them from the board, and if you connect a loop, usually a square, you remove all the dots of that color from the board. Obviously there’s a lot of special dots and elements like ice, bugs, fire etc. There's over 1000 levels
The game is set up into different stages with different themes, and each level in the stage is a bit harder than the last, with easier levels that teach whatever the new mechanic of the stage in the beginning, and quite hard levels near the end. Each stage overall is only very slightly harder than the previous stage, giving a very slow difficulty curve to the whole game. This game has 5 lives that regenerate every 20 minutes. There are side quests of 7 levels that change out once every 3 days. If you log in with facebook, the game compares your scores and progress to your friends, but wont let you send them invites, or any kind of request, which is good.
In terms of A E S T H E T I C, the game is in a simple material design with a pastel color palette. Each stage has its own theme, and its own musical theme. On a special note (pun totally intended), the music in the game is absolutely fantastic. It fades between almost atmospheric to gentle grooves with a bit of whimsy. Apparently enough people share this thought that they started selling the sound track on vinyl, which I think is silly for electronically generated music, but hey what do I know.
The difference between this game and say Candy Crush is how they make their money.
Like candy crush, you can buy powerups, or extra lives, and you can watch ads to get bonus lives.
How it differs is that the levels are fair, in that I’ve never felt a that I needed to buy a power up to pass one, though I have used them when I had gotten very close to completion and made a small mistake. The game gives you a free random powerup once a day, and there is nothing you can buy that you can’t earn or win. There are no pop up full screen ads that you have to watch ever.
This combination of variety, aesthetics, and respect for the player makes this game among the best in its field.