Starting from this week, we will share the Soomla Game Reviews here on the Felgo Blog. You will learn the following from the game reviews:
- How to add in-app purchases to games from a game design perspective
- What are the best ways to create a virtual economy in your game
- What to avoid when you try to monetize your game
- Best practices for mobile game design
This game review was originally posted on the Soomla Blog. See here how to get your game reviewed & featured too.
Chicken Outbreak 2 is a 2D platformer for iOS, Android, Mac and PC, built on the Felgo game engine. What is pretty cool and in the open source spirit, is that the Felgo developers decided to share the full source code of this game. You can get the game with the free download of the Felgo SDK. Felgo uses the Soomla framework for its virtual economy, so you get a published game example how to use it in your own games. It’s is a fall down game, similar to Doodle Jump or Fall Down: Elemental, making it a very simple, yet effective entertainer, ideal for the casual gamer. In the game, the main protagonist is a little chicken, trying to escape the terrors of its hen. During the escape, it jumps downwards, from one platform to another, while the whole level scrolls upwards.
Simple controls
It’s a casual game with an easy learning curve. It’s the type of game that’s easy to learn, yet hard to master. This is mostly because the level scrolls faster and faster as the game progresses, and different obstacles appear allowing users to show some real skill and good reflexes, all while having loads of fun. The controls are as simple as can be, with the game using the device’s gyro sensors. As the user tilts his or her device to the side, so does the chicken move. 
The visuals of the game also show real quality. The textures are clean, the game runs smoothly, and the chicken has a cute look, making it a potential sweetheart to animal-lovers around the world. The game has implements a diverse economy with great quality. During the escape, the user collects corn and spawned power-ups. Power-ups, such as angels (extra lives), teleports and parachutes help the gamer in difficult situations, while corn increases the overall score. Based on that score, the user is rewarded with coins, a special in-game currency that can be spent on those power-ups, as well as a few cosmetic upgrades, like skins for the chicken.
Spending money
The game often offers angels, or extra lives, drawing the player to spend more time with the game, while a fairly high price on teleports and parachutes asks for some thinking and careful consideration before heading towards the shop. Building an economy that requires attention and craftsmanship for “how-to-spend” is a best practice in gaming which retains and engages players and is built quite well here. Also, the button for the shop is in a visible place, and the shopping process is seamless. I see great potential in the shop, with the possibilities of adding different skins, depending on current affairs (for example: creating a football skin during the World Cup, or a Santa-chicken during Christmas), as well as reverse marketing potential (The main character can be integrated, for example, into Viber’s or Facebook’s stickers).
Compete with friends
The game has an integrated leader board, where you can choose to be matched globally or with your Facebook friends, and it pops up every time the user reaches a new high score. The “celebration” of a new high score is a another best practice that we commonly advise developers about and is beautifully executed in Chicken Outbreak 2. It also has a set of achievements for collecting corn and using power ups, another way to keep players interested and engaged. To conclude, the Chicken Outbreak 2 is a lot of fun. It’s easy to learn, it’s interesting and engaging. It’s visually beautiful, with simple and effective controls. And it has good ideas on how to implement virtual economies and social integration. A big thumbs up for Felgo. If you’re a developer we encourage you to have a look at their game engine. Especially as you can use the full source code of Chicken Outbreak 2 to build your own falldown games.
Do you also want to add a virtual economy to your game and get real money from players who love your game? That’s easy – just do the following:
1.) Download the Soomla plugin for Felgo here. The Soomla plugin makes it easy to add in-app purchases and a virtual economy to your game.
2.) Have a look at the full source code of Felgo sample games using in-app purchases with the Soomla plugin.
Felgo Games like Squaby, Chicken Outbreak 2 or Stack With Friends are also published in the app stores – to get their source code just download the Felgo SDK.
