Booyah takes on crowded pet genre with Pet Town for iOS

Pet Town is the newest game from Booyah, makers of the successful MyTown 2. It launched on January 19 and, according to our traffic tracking service AppData, has so far been performing well, notching up a No. 22 position in the Top Free Apps chart and a No. 18 placing in the Top Free Games chart. Pet Town blends together elements of several different popular social game genres, including city-building, zoo management and even elements of popular console and handheld game Animal Crossing. Players are tasked with building the titular town and moving in a variety of named animals. Each animal has their own list of dreams which they would like to fulfill, with the completion of all an animal's dreams leading to some form of reward -- either bonus money and experience (here called "happiness") or a new animal to move in. These "dream" lists take the place of the quests that are traditionally found in this type of game, and do a good job of relating the tasks the player is expected to complete to the thematic content of the game. Besides their dreams, the pets also have short-term desires, the fulfilment of which fills their "delight" bar. These short-term goals range from wanting to meet a friend and have a chat to visiting a specific business in the player's town. Most are accomplished in the same way -- tapping on the pet and then tapping on the target they're looking for. It's a simple system, but offers a little more interaction with the town's residents than some other examples of the genre. Like MyTown 2 before it, PetTown is also location-aware. A magic pipe at the edge of town allows players to send rabbits to nearby real world locations and return with bonuses -- usually coins and happiness. The player gets several free visits to these real world locations per day, with additional ones available by spending the game's hard currency of carrots. Carrots can be acquired by in-app purchase, but they are also gained at a slow, steady rate by leveling up. Carrots can be spent on a variety of uses, including hurrying timed tasks; boosting the rewards from sending rabbits to real world locations; unlocking items before meeting the level requirement; and purchasing certain premium structures. There is no energy mechanic in the game, so players are able to play as much as they please without paying -- payment only becomes necessary if players are impatient for the longer tasks to complete, or if they wish to build the special structures. There do not appear to be any social features currently implemented in the game. It supports Game Center, but opening the entry in the Game Center app does not reveal any leaderboards or achievements at this time. "Our main focus for the next update is going to be based around deepening the interactions that the Pets have with real world locations and places," explains Seung Won Park, executive producer at Booyah. "In addition to that, we've also planned for social updates as well as much more content and additional features in upcoming updates." Booyah tells us that its predecessor MyTown 2 has been played by 3.6 million people since its launch last fall, with 2.5 million real world businesses built in the game. The company is doubtless hoping to replicate this success with Pet Town. You can track Pet Town's progress in the App Store charts using AppData, our traffic tracking application for social and iOS games and developers.

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Booyah takes on crowded pet genre with Pet Town for iOS

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