Lucas Englehardt is CEO of BloggerInsight and an editor of ChinaSocialGames.com who is working with social gaming companies on executing their China plans. Based in Shanghai, he consults and speaks on Chinese tech, internet and new media.
This has been a milestone year for social gaming in China. What started with Parking Wars grew expediently with Happy Farm – currently Happy Farm has 27 million daily active users (or DAU, meaning in any given day, 27 million users log in) in China, putting it on par with Farmville’s 29 million DAU on Facebook. Local social networks followed Facebook’s lead in transitioning from sites for sharing with friends to platforms for casual gaming. Chinese netizens clearly enjoy letting their competitive juices flow. They play long and hard to secure bragging rights amongst friends, paying for virtual goods to advance faster.
Shanghai-based crowdsourced intelligence company BloggerInsight has released a detailed assessment of the top social games in China. The following is an overview of the Chinese social networking apps that have helped shape the worldwide landscape and predictions for where things are headed in 2010.
1. Happy Farm
The first social network farming game worldwide, Happy Farm, was developed by Five Minutes, a Chinese developer. Its simple “plow, plant, water, pick, and repeat” formula has since conquered the world. Moreover, the addictive, log-in-every-hour mechanics have spawned countless copycats and variants. Chinese versions are more competitive than their Western counterparts: they allow users to steal and add worms and weeds to friends’ farms.
2. House Buying
House Buying is the most popular game on Kaixin001, China’s hottest social network. House Buying innovatively combines a real estate section, No. 1 Happy Farm, a pasture section, and No. 4 Parking Wars into a single game with a common currency. For example, bamboo grown on the farm feeds pandas in the pasture, which can in turn be sold for cash to pimp-your-house. Because Kaixin001 develops all games in-house, it offers unparalleled integration.
3. Happy Aquarium
Happy Aquarium = pet game + Happy Farm underwater. Fish games are rapidly growing both in China (Happy Aquarium, Bubble Fish) and on Facebook (FishVille, Fish Isle). In fact, Hong Kong developer 6waves transferred Happy Aquarium to Facebook in Chinese, where it is has enjoyed remarkable success (1.9m DAU, No. 21 game overall). Game themes and mechanics translate across China and Facebook.
4. Parking Wars
Parking Wars is an adaptation of the Facebook title of the same name. It sparked the social game craze in China and remains popular to this day on Kaixin001 and Qzone. Parking Wars is a pioneer of product placement in SNS games: BMW, Toyota, Cadillac, and Ford are all included in the Kaixin001 edition.
5. Renren Restaurant
Renren Restaurant is acopy of Restaurant City by Playfish on Facebook. The social network Renren, despite having a mostly open API, had its in-house game developers copy the game almost screen-for-screen. The game’s relative sophistication (3D graphics, high social interaction) indicates the future of China social games. As Chinese developers become more accustomed to such features, titles will undoubtedly become more original.
6. Slave Manor
Slave Manor copies the original Facebook game Friends for Sale! While in decline, this highly socially interactive game remains fairly popular on Kaixin001 and Qzone. White-collar workers flock to Kaixin001 to hire their boss as their virtual slave—upon which they can make him shovel shit or marry an extremely ugly girl. Female slaves can be assigned to different hardships: serving as a “special hostess” or marrying an old black slave. The punishments on the original Facebook game were likely far tamer.
7. Building One
In Building One, users virtually live, work (e.g., by opening a hairdresser or spa), and socialize together in a single tall tower. Visually, this creates an appealing skyscraper to explore. Stealing customers and coins from other shops is a key part of the game. You can see from the picture you can develop different parts of the building, such as a restaurant with a dining area where you can serve cakes and whatever else you want to cook for your guests. It’s like a bunch of different simulations in one game.
8. Wonder Hospital
In Wonder Hospital, users heal patients to acquire money and fame. The game includes innovative and controversial ads: a zeppelin flies overhead promoting the Yu Ting brand of contraceptives. Moveover, in-game actions are especially nasty. When visiting a friend’s hospital, players can enforce fines, steal patients, throw rubbish, let a dog loose, park a truck to block access, and ‘mystery mischief’ indicated by a bomb icon. This could change as the government “integrates” social games into its harmonious society.
9. Animal Paradise
In Animal Paradise, users raise and collect products from animals, a combination of the popular farm and pet game formulas. Users are behooved to log-in-often lest an animal’s loyalty score drops to zero, in which case it can be stolen away. Here, you can see a flock of ducks nesting on eggs. There are all sorts of breeds that you can create and manage. If you take care of your animals properly, they will multiply. Rekoo, the game’s Beijing-based developer, recently scored $1.5 million from a Japanese VC and already has games on an impressive list of social networks worldwide: Facebook, Myspace, Cyworld (Korea), and Mixi (Japan). The game is similar to a lot of Western games, so it will be interesting to see if Western social game developers take it back and clone it for their own markets.
10. Small Games
Small Games is a collection of classic games ranging from Tetris to Air Hockey, similar to MindJolt Games on Facebook. The games are quick, simple, and mildly socially interactive. Such casual, single-player games are quickly being eclipsed by richer social games, both in China and on Facebook.
Three trends for 2010: This year was just the beginning!
1. Keep it squeaky clean – New Chinese government regulation is forcing game companies to “harmonize” everything. Forget mafia themes, players can no longer “steal” their friend’s vegetables, but instead “pick” them. Local networks and developers have little choice but to follow the rules.
2. Ultra competitive – Chinese users love to show off online. Top player lists and virtual goods help them differentiate themselves; look for more ways to show off next year.
3. Producer consolidation and Western Entrants – The social gaming market is currently very fragmented and relatively undeveloped. Expect social game producers to consolidate similar to the current trends in the West. Additionally, watch as Western developers continue their efforts to work with local SNS’s and enter the Chinese market.