My sister had me hooked on Restaurant City. First 2 days into playing this game, I dished out $15 real money for virtual coins spending in the game.
I’m no stranger to Facebook games. But willingly pay for virtual items this was a first time. Following the great tradition of Playfish games, Restaurant City is cute as a button but the style is more refine and the game play seems more sophisticated.
The game type is Time Management. Players oversee their restaurant business. The restaurant started small with just the player and another employee. Overtime players are rewarded with bigger space and more employees as players gain higher levels.
The in-game micro-economy is well thought of. Players started with enough fundings to get a taste of buying items in the game. At the beginning, the profits “coins” made from restaurant business is slow. It would take a long time until coins are accumulated enough for a nice item in the shop.
I was complaining to my sister how I can’t get most of the items with the coins I earned. She suggested I purchase some coins. “Just $5 will get you a lot of stuff.” That sounded like an approval to spend money on something silly like this. So I put $5 in, and the rest was history.
Look at my fancy restaurant “Piggie Chow’. It’s all decked up with pretty flower and eye catching restaurant signs. Step into the dinning area, you’ll see furniture hand picked by me and layout arranged in a way the restaurant runs most efficiently.
This is a really fun game. I hope I don’t spend too much money on it.
I’m currently in full swing addiction to PackRat. The game play is high in retention and low on learning curve. Just when I thought I did all the tricks there was in the game. A fellow Facebook friend let me into something she learned about the game and bamm, I’m right back to playing nonstop.
The game’s reward system also is well-balanced. I get rewarded frequently in modest amount, and in rare occasions I hit a jackpot like this. I could not believe my eyes when that happened.
Shortly after Erich reported his company’s legendary 9-hour all-staff meeting marathon, the company I work for scheduled Tuesday our first quarterly meeting of the year. We were promised food (the unhealthy kind), drinks (2 alcoholic ones and unlimited soda and water), and 2-hour free play at Game Works.
The real meeting was kept under 2 hour. We were (or at least I was) entertained by customer story shared by support team, hat tossing to new employees, cash and reward giveaways, short video montage of popular games from studio and people behind it.
The game started as I submerged from stormy ocean. The rendering job on water and fire were simply stunning. I thought I was watching a theatrical intro. A game tip popped out then I realized I was already in the game play.
Way back when Bioshock was debuted at the 2006 E3, I was blown away by the game images. The game environment was dark and gorgeously decorated with rich art-deco settings. And the plot involved a deserted underwater city, utterly violent and twisted survivors, eerie little girl, and her protectors. Sounded like a kick ass game to me!
Bioshock certainly lives up to its hype. The play experience was so creepy I actually wasn’t in the mood to appreciate the details and aesthetic efforts put into the artifacts and environmental design.
My game progress has being quite slow. Mostly because I took too may breaks whenever I got freaked out by the ghostly surroundings or after taking down a savage attacker.
A full orchestra performing music from video games we spent many sleepless nights. That is one event I couldn’t afford to miss. On Saturday, I attended “PLAY! A video game symphony” at Benaroya Hall, performed by Seattle Symphony.
For me, the chance of listening to my favorite video games’ soundtracks being orchestrated in a musical hall was the ultimate treats. The excitements from game plays, the memories, and friendship developed over gaming, game soundtracks reminisced these fond moments.
The program covered a good range of titles from classic games such as Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog to more recent Battlefield 1942, World of Warcraft, and Halo. I would be lying if I deny I came largely for Halo.
Halo’s original composer Martin O’Donnell was in the audience. He stood up to accept a good 30-second applause from the audience before the music began. My emotion was high as the chores started Halo’s vocal.
It was good as I had expected. However, I think it could be better. That night I searched You Tube for “PLAY!” footages taken at other locations. Last year’s performance at Stockholm seemed up a notch. I also found a clip of Guitar Hero III performed at Norway’s “PLAY!”. That was pretty entertaining as well.
Living in the Seattle area, Smelly is a user-centered designer with a decade of design experience. 
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