Giveaway of the Day - Fishdom Premium

Installation:

Fishdom was originally given away back in November 2010 then again last April 2011. The downloaded zip file is 37.8MB in size which is larger than previously, but that’s probably due to the new wrapper. The game unpacks to a dual activation and setup module plus a read me. The installed game is 44.9Mb in size which is the same size as previously and the first time it was given away it was version that was 48.2Mb. There is no sign of a version number nor is there any evidence that this is the Premium edition of the game.

The game installs to the following path by default if you have a 64 bit system:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Playrix Entertainment\Fishdom

or if you have a 32 bit System:

C:\Program Files\Playrix Entertainment\Fishdom

Shortcuts are created and placed on the desktop and in the Start Menu/Programs list under Playrix Games. There is a second shortcut installed to the desktop that takes you to Playrix’s home site where you can find other titles in the fishdom series; you can safely delete this second shortcut if you wish.

You can read previous comments made about this game by following the link below. Click on the View all comments link once you’re at the page as only the first three comments show until you’ve clicked the link:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/fishdom/

Introduction:

Build up and develop your Fishdom! Progress through challenging boards and solve immersive puzzles to earn cash. Use the money to buy eye-candy fish and attractive ornaments for your dream aquarium. Get accessories and supplies to create the perfect conditions for your finny pals and ensure their comfort. Win awards and upgrade your virtual tank as you perfect your aquarium design skills and have fun with the lovely fishy sims. Being a unique fusion of classic gameplay with brilliant new ideas, this game by Playrix with unlimited replayability will bring you lots of joyful moments!

Reference http://www.playrix.com/games/pc/fishdom.html accessed 6th nov 2010

The Game:

Today’s game giveaway is a pleasant match three game with an upgradable screensaver that you transform from an empty fish tank to a fully stocked aquarium while playing the game. Gameplay is as you’d expect for a match three; basically you have to create matches of three or more to destroy tiles. The aim is to clear the gold coloured tiles which are placed under the symbols. When you create matches on these gold coloured tiles they are removed. Creating matches of five or six add explosives, rockets and bombs to the playing field. To activate these either create a match three that moves one of these power ups or double click on them to make them explode. You score points for every tile you remove. As you progress through the levels they get progressively harder, with different layouts and tiles that required unlocking or double matching to remove the gold tiles. I was only able to progress to about level 8 while checking this game as all I had was an hour demo. Taking screen captures (nearly 100) of the tutorial and various items that you can buy in the shop took up a large part of my hour. So I can’t say if there are any more surprises. At the end of a level once all the gold coloured tiles are removed you are awarded money based on how many points you scored, the time it took to complete the level and the number of gold tiles you removed. This can then be spent on fish and other objects for your fish tank screensaver.

The screen saver tank starts as an empty tank. You can purchase fish for it via the shop , where you’ll find three tabs labelled Fish, Beauty and Comfort. For example clicking on the beauty tab you’ll find various plants, animals and other objects to make your tank look like a well stocked aquarium. All of the comfort items which include filters, feeders and air supplies can be upgraded; though each successive upgrade costs a lot more to purchase. There are several tropical fish you can choose from, each with its own characteristics, for example the Emperor Angel fish needs a varied diet in order to preserve their distinctive coloration, whereas Royal Gramma fish though shy will aggressively defend their territory in the tank. To create a good looking tank there are loads of items you can buy from various plant species such as Acetabularia Calyculus, Microsorium, and Myriophyllum Aquaticum amongst several others species, some sea organisms such as the Rapa Whelk and Starfish, to sunken ships, lamps, lighthouses and the traditional treasure chest amongst other items. All items purchased for the tank can be sold back to the shop so that you can choose other items. This makes for an excellent fish screensaver that is very much configurable to your tastes. To unlock new tanks you have to satisfy all of the criteria which can be found at the top right of the screensaver, that is you have to fill your tank with enough fish and create a beautiful and comfortable environment. Purchasing fish or other items from the shop will help to achieve these criteria. you can see what effect purchasing an item or fish makes to the indicator before you purchase it as the indicator bar moves to a new position when you hover your mouse over a particular object. when all three bars are at 100% you will be awarded a bronze cup. You can either unlock a new tank or go for a silver cup in the same tank. Opting for the silver cup reduces the bars to almost zero. to attain a gold cup you must carry out the process three times.

The screensaver is activated by ticking the checkbox via the main menu which also gives you access to the options menu and the start button. There are three different tank settings called Pirate Treasure, Coral Reef and Lost Atlantis, though the second and third tanks are locked at the beginning of the game. The options menu enables you to adjust the music and sound effects as well as toggle on or off full screen mode, a custom cursor, in game tips and hints.

Features:

• The virtual environment is interactive and fully customizable

• Almost 100 items and accessories to choose from

• Unlimited re-playability

• Create an award-winning aquarium of your dreams!

• Set it up as your screensaver

Images:

You can see a slideshow of over 90 images that include many tips and tutorial screens via the following link:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Fishdom/?albumview=slideshow

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQfAMPjTm9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0InkpHSaGHQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHHmnSh0R_Y

http://www.playrix.com/games/pc/fishdom.html

Conclusion:

This match three game play is really just standard fare compared to other match threes IMO; I’ve played many of this genre that have found much better game play; however what I really enjoyed about this game was earning money to upgrade the screensaver. I love fish screensavers and although it’s not the best fish screensaver I’ve seen (for example you can get something similar from other match three games such as Big Kahuna Reef and one of the Atlantis games), it does have loads of items that you can add to one of three tanks, though you need to earn cash by completing levels, and only one of the tanks is available at the start of the game.

I’d give this game 7 out of 10 for family fun and the addition of a configurable fish screensaver.

Thank you to Playrix and the game giveaway team for providing this game for free.

Suggestions:

I don’t know what differences their are between the previous version that we were given last year and today’s Premium edition. I presume we get extra levels and maybe more items to add to the fish tanks.

The addition of the screensaver adds to the average game play, however I’d try and improve the game play by adding some mini games and more power ups to the game. You could also make the power ups upgradeable so that they become more powerful. These upgrades could be paid from some of the money earned to purchase items for the screensaver. I’d also add more species of plant life and enable those to be upgraded as well. Each upgrade could increase the size of the plant or animal that you purchase for the tank.

Don’t forget you can get a whole raft of match three games from MyPlaycity and Gametop; (that’s almost 50 games, some of which are really good examples of the match three genre {including lthe recently given away match three game Inca Ball})

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A Request for help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of ‘potential’ cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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Thank’s so much for this wonderful Game.
Hugs..Tina