Mr.Farmville

Army Attack is the latest game from Millionaire City developer Digital Chocolate. The just-launched game focuses on single-player gameplay while incorporating social features to encourage collaboration, interaction and cooperation between players.

According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, Army Attack currently has 33,304 monthly active users and 28,370 daily active users.

Gameplay in Army Attack blends real time strategy combat with a bit of the treasure-hunting social game genre. The player’s military units take it in turns to explore the grid-based map, “conquering” unexplored squares as they go, acquiring items, experience, standard currency and energy randomly along the way. Obstacles can be destroyed by the player’s units, with thematically-appropriate items being released from the various structures. For example, the player can earn enemy intelligence to spend on expanding the play area by destroying “propaganda towers.” Discovered enemy units can be engaged in combat, with defeated vanishing from the map.

Strategy comes from unit placement as attacking units receive a bonus when allied units occupy squares adjacent to both the attacking unit and the target. It costs at least one energy to move a unit to a square and depending on what squares the player has “conquered,” it can be a challenge to maneuver units into a bonus-friendly firing position without spending the entire energy gauge. Moreover, tnemy units get similar firing bonuses, so players must consider attack formations before sending off single units into unknown regions of the map where clusters of enemies might wait.

Army Attack also features a base-building mechanic which is introduced via a series of missions. Producing buildings requires both energy and several resources, the latter of which can either be collected from destroyed structures and enemies or traded with friends. Players can set up a “wishlist” of items that they need and publish this to their wall so their Facebook friends who are also playing the game can help out. Resources can also be used to acquire “fire missions,” which are very strong attacks which the player can inflict on the enemy if they’re encountering a particularly tough challenge.

Lastly, there’s a supply chain from the structure the player builds to the towns the players liberate. Generating supplies from specific locations nets the player additional standard currency. The larger the town or city, the better the payout for supplies provided, though the larger towns and cities take longer to payout.

Despite the violent subject matter, the presentation of Army Attack is similar to a children’s cartoon, with defeated units exploding in puffs of smoke and dropped items rather than any show of gore. The presentation is somewhat reminiscent of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS Advance Wars real time strategy series, so players who enjoy gaming on dedicated platforms will feel right at home.

The game is monetized exclusively with Facebook Credits as the premium currency players use to purchase in-game items and boosts. Players can also use Facebook Credits to buy the standard form of currency, Cash. Certain mission objectives and building resources can also be bought with Facebook Credits, though this is not always possible, and buildings can either be instantly completed as well. Certain particularly strong or useful buildings and units can only be produced through spending Facebook Credits. Buying new maps for the player to conquer can be done with a combination of Cash and the Intel resource that can be gifted by friends.

At present, the game offers three opponents to defeat throughout the course of the single-player campaign. Social features appear to be limited to visiting friends’ maps and gifting; which is interesting, as it seems this type of combat would lend itself to competitive multiplayer. As the game only just launched May 20, we expect to see additional features introduced into Army Attack as the game scales.

In the meantime, you can follow Army Attack’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Source: Inside Social Games