GnomeTown Invites Residents to Party, Pillage and Pummel

Playdom has launched GnomeTown, its latest foray into Facebook gaming. Since going live earlier this month, the game has seen significant, sustained growth in both daily and monthly active users. According to our traffic tracking service AppData, GnomeTown currently has 162,869 monthly active users and 31,726 daily active users. The basis of GnomeTown lies in the familiar mechanics of clearing a plot of land and constructing buildings on it. Throw in a bit of agriculture here and there, then collect money from buildings and food from the fields. You won’t find one thing in Playdom’s new ‘ville, though, and that’s energy. Players are able to build, harvest and interact with the game without the common artificial wall of energy units that must recharge over time – or by purchasing more. Also, instead of requiring that players spend premium currency on set units of land expansion, the game uses machetes, single-use items that can be used to clear one ‘block” of land at a time and can themselves be purchased from the in-game shop. Players can also team up with helper characters, cutesy animals that can be assigned to complete tasks independently while the player performs another. These tasks can be paused if necessary, or accelerated by using up the player’s food stock. In another twist, GnomeTown’s social features include the ability for players to compete with others through some novel interactions. It’s possible to “brawl” with other players by raiding, “party” together and trade in what’s called “journeying.” Additionally, the decorations and structures players can purchase for their town each have attributes which provide boosts to performance in these interactions. For example, a carnival game might give the player an edge in “brawl” encounters. Allying with friends can also help tip the scale in the player’s favor in these situations. Players can earn coins for performing various actions in the game. This soft currency can then be spent on an assortment of items and structures from the in-game shop. A portion of the game’s content can only be purchased using gold, a hard currency available for Facebook Credits. (Coins can also be purchased directly using Credits.) GnomeTown has just emerged from a closed beta and we’ve seen an enthusiastic response to Playdom’s handful of recent updates to the game’s Wall. The title seems to have a good deal of momentum behind it and a genuinely engaged – and growing – legion of players , even if it is a little weird for a game to let players put cute forest creatures to work in their fields. You can follow GnomeTown’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

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GnomeTown Invites Residents to Party, Pillage and Pummel

Randy Nelson

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Randy Nelson