Blue are regular RPGs, Red are specifically Puzzle RPGs (tap to enlarge) The Core GameĪs opposed to most match-3 games, Best Fiends has never used the highly popular Candy Crush ‘Swap’ mechanic but the ‘Link’ where the player links long trails of (minimally 3) gems with the same colour instead of simply swapping two gems to get three in a row.
It’s a true outlier in a segment full of games like Empires & Puzzles, AFK Arena and the likes. When looking at GameRefinery‘s top grossing charts, Best Fiends is the only RPG in the top 300 that is catered to be specifically attractive to female audience. Next to this, Best Fiends is truly unique in its field.
The company is also selling physical merchandise. The company has incredible community management and actively expands the Best Fiends Franchise with high quality animated shorts like the one above.
Stemming from Rovio, Seriously knows how to make an IP into a franchise. By making a comparison between Best Fiends and Best Fiends Stars we can see what Seriously decided to keep or change.īut first, especially when you’re not so familiar with the Best Fiends IP, have a look at this animation video:īest Fiend is definitely something worth talking about. Given a Soft-Launch is expensive and Christmas is approaching, Best Fiend Stars is expected to globally launch any time between now and mid December. (check out Miska’s blast-to-the-past DoF post!) The latter, funnily enough is the company that released the other successful match-3 Linker, Jelly Splash in 2013.
The company should also be more comfortable after being acquired by Playtika last summer, who have been on a warpath during recent years, acquiring multiple casual game studios such as Jelly Button and Wooga. Why do another risky genre-switch if you have a working core that you can make a sequel with? With BFS, Seriously seems to go back to its roots, not adding any twists and hopefully setting up the company for another 5 years at least. Last April, Seriously kicked off Soft Launch for Best Fiends Stars, throwing overboard all risky attempts of fitting different gameplay mechanics into the >$100M franchise. Marketability was presumably an issue, given the competitive focus of the game and the audience Best Fiends games normally caters to. Then another product, Best Fiends Rivals was announced to be released, again in October, 2 years ago, only to be cancelled after soft-launch numbers showed underperforming results. The “lack of gameplay” familiar players must have felt when playing BFF was too much to take. Best Fiends Forever, launched in 2016 was a bold genre-switched Idle Game adaptation but was too big of a surprise for the Puzzle audience who knew the Fiends from the initial game. Throughout the years, the company’s pipeline has contained multiple Best Fiends games. Wooga GmbH isn’t affiliated with this assessment in any way.
Disclaimer: The article is the author’s own professional view on Best Fiends. Game Designer on June’s Journey at Wooga, Berlin. But something new is brewing…Įditor’s Note: This post was originally published by Niek Tuerlings writer at. Currently hanging around spot 90 on that list, Best Fiends is still going strong and has successfully sustained the company’s hundred-something employee headcount all these years. One year later, in October 2014, Best Fiends launched globally and impressively hasn’t strayed far from the US top grossing charts ever since. It’s almost exactly six years ago that two ex-Rovio employers left the mothership to start their own company.