Box It Game Review – Simple and Addictive Puzzle Game

By
Yaniv Nizan
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Box It is a straight forward puzzle game that uses both the SOOMLA virtual economy framework and the SOOMLA storefront. The dots in the middle are moving and you need Box it is a simple yet addicting game that lightly uses in app purchases as a monetization source.to block areas of the screen while avoiding your dot or your lines from touching the evil dots. The concept is not new and in fact I remember a PC game called Xonix that had a similar mechanic. Reviving game genres is not a new thing and in fact Box It was able to generate a much more engaging experience compared to Xonix in my opinion. I have been playing the game for the last 10 days at least 3 times a day on both my iPad and my iPhone. The game is also available for Android but I haven’t tested the experience on my Asus.

“Box It” Gameplay Review

Experience and level design

As you progress through the levels, there are more evil dots and more obstacles in the middle. The best way to avoid the dots is to capture them in the blocked areas. In order to do that you have to set up traps for the dots and capture them as they move into the traps. Each one of the highlighted dots gives users a bonus when captured. There is an extra life dot, a dot that freezes all the other dots and also a dot that slows everything down when captured.

The trick to capture the dots is to set up traps. This becomes harder and harder as you progress through the levels

Virtual good types and price analysis

The game is correctly using coins as a soft currency rather than selling items directly for cash. The diversity between single use items and life time items is good, and offering the purchase of single use packs (10 slow dots) is also a good practice. The pricing of the virtual goods is high compared to the ability to collect coin. It took me about 50 sessions to reach a point where I can actually buy something with in-game coins. At the same time, the range of coin packs being offered is too low. Coin packs are the IAP items that are being sold for cash and defined as consumable to allow users to use them for in-game purchases. Our recommendation is to price at least one coin pack option at $20 or higher. Some users might like your game so much they will be happy to pay so why limit it to $3.

High revenue methods analysis

Top grossing puzzle game are all using a sort of energy mechanic that limits the user ability to play continuously. This simple yet highly effective method allows users to play 7-10 sessions or fail 4-6 times before they run out of energy and have to wait for it to replenish. Box it can benefit from adding an energy mechanic in it and since the concept of ‘lives’ already exists in the game it should be simple enough to build a consumption and replenishment mechanism on top of it.

Coin loop analysis

The game allows users to collect coins through the completion of levels. This part of the game requires more attention and can be greatly improved. Here are the basic recommendations:
  • Celebrate coin collection – make a sound, jiggle the price – earning coins is fun!
  • Give users indication of how much coins they have so they know how well they are doing
  • Amount of coins collected per level is fixed – use completion time and number of errors as variables instead

 

Store loop analysis

The store location in Box It is a huge opportunity for improvement. Users want to access the store mainly when they are in the session and want to improve their odds or between levels. From both places the store is 3 or 4 clicks away assuming users even noticed it exists. The store button can easily be added inside the session pause screen and the session ended screen.
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