Students Blog

Puzzle Quest is a very interesting adaptation of Bejeweled. Just last week, in my video-game production class, two employees of Pogo.com challenged my team to adapt the bejeweled "match three mechanic" into a new game. Although we did try to incorporate combat into the bejeweled system, we did not near the overall effectiveness of Puzzle Quest. This game is addictive on several levels. First, there are multiple facets of rewards. While in combat, the player is rewarded by earning money, damaging his opponent, or gaining mana to caste spells. Each one of these elements is well balanced, challenging, and ultimately entertaining. In addition, outside of combat, the RPG fan can indulge himself by leveling up, customizing his home, or buying gear to help him in battle. Overall, the game is a great casual/hard-core hybrid that is very addicting.

I was at first skeptical of the game's theme. Because the bejeweled system as been manipulated into so many forms, I felt fantasy would just add to the mountain of look-a-likes. I was quickly proven wrong; the implementation of traditional RPG combat (gaining mana, turn based strategy, etc) meshes perfectly with the primary match-three mechanic. After my first battle, I had fallen for the overall dramatic premise.

If I had to propose a different theme, I would have to go with the traditional GTA inspired gangster genre. This probably wouldn't really fit in with the casual gaming market, but it certainly would add some comic relief. The art assets would change as follows:
- Three matched bullets would cause damage (rather than being equipped with swords and shields, you would have an array of guns and body armor)
- Three bags of cash would gain you cash (replaces gold)
- The art assets to replace mana and experience are more challenging; perhaps a jail cell for experience points, and an assortment of drugs and alcohol to replace mana? (this casual game might have a mature rating…).