Facebook Portal/App - Feasibility Discussion

[Dark_Angel]

Moving on from Ogluk's original suggestion for Bushtarion's integration with facebook, and the many others that preceded it, can anyone with knowledge of coding apps for platforms such as Facebook give us any kind of an idea of how we could go about integrating the game with Facebook?

Points for consideration/discussion:

• 1) What would be the best way for integration with Facebook?
• 2) There has been talk of simply making some type of "Portal" to the game, from within Facebook. Essentially an app that provides direct access to the same webpages the rest of us access through normal means.
• 3) Failing the above, how long and how much would it cost to make an app from scratch that provided all the functionality of the main website, and interacted with the servers the rest of us use. (If such a connection can be made at all)
• 4) Would integration with Facebook *force* users to make an identifiable link between their Facebook account and the game. (Some people don't want their real life friends/colleagues to know they play games, especially time consuming games that detract from work productivity! )
• 5) Does anyone know of any examples of browser-based games that are "Portalled to" (for lack of a better phrase) by the Facebook app platform?

I feel I am quite vaguely describing what I mean, and what has previously been suggested, by offering a "portal" to Bushtarion. What we're saying is very simply an app that acts as a kind of browser within Facebook itself, and that provides all the same functionality as the main Bushtarion website.

There's been a lot of talk about Facebook integration over the years, but there seems to be a real lack of knowledge about the potential/limitations of this. If anyone could fill us in on some of the points I've described, it'd be appreciated.

Though Azzer has not had any kind of a presence on the forums/community in recent months, I'm not sure even if he did he could fully get behind this idea. Whilst I'm sure he's well aware of the benefits of this type of integration, I'm not sure he has the capital to invest in the development of an app like this. Pure speculation here, but do we think people would have any interest in donating to a fund to get this off the ground? Bushtarion is a game we all play for free/next to nothing, do people think it'd be a good idea to try and expand our playerbase (thus improving our own experience of the game) by donating to help develop integration with Facebook (or a similarly large community platform).

 

[CFalcon]

I don't really have any experience in this area, but I imagine creating a simple portal would be a very easy job. It'd just be a case of arranging some links on a page.

However, I don't think a simple portal would achieve much. It'd be little more than putting a www.bushtarion.com link on a page somewhere. If you really want to capture interest these days you need at least some kind of graphical interface. Doesn't have to be high-resolution cinematics of each and every battle, but something a little more colourful and eye-grabbing than pure text. Creating a usable interface that can connect to the main servers should be fairly easy, but acquiring sufficient artwork would probably be quite expensive.

 

[Steve_God]

Would we want integration into Facebook properly so it would appear in the news feeds and so on, eg: 'Dave Smith stole 200 land yesterday in Bushtarion'? - as that way it's spreading the word about the game.

 

[tobapopalos]

Would we want integration into Facebook properly so it would appear in the news feeds and so on, eg: 'Dave Smith stole 200 land yesterday in Bushtarion'? - as that way it's spreading the word about the game.

A lot of people won't want that showing though. This game is a bit nerdier than ones like farmville.

 

[Dark_Angel]

This is what I mean about privacy settings, so that news feeds are restricted to you alone, mebbe, if you didn't want to spam people with messages.

As Steve says, though, the odd global message to your friends (if the user allows this, as many do with a lot of games) this would be an effective way of spreading free ads.

 

[willymchilybily]

I dont think is a problem. all the games/apps i have played in the past have the bility to chose if they are allowed or not allowed to post on your wall.

as long as we include this feature on our own app it is fine.

but i do agree with ~CF on this. people expect something more visually appealing and almost more simple. i think if its done properly with the aim of increasing the player base it may need some tweaks. what those might be i dont know.

id imagine. simplified interface. no portal/manual/forum links active in facebook (the link open up a new web page) the game is purely the game.

more interactive links like the pop up helper at start but more like the firefox apps.. something that will baby the new players. tell them they need more harvesters if they need more at night time.

maybe even have a formula to simplify how they interact. they buy land and its distributed for them. they dont have to worry about seasons, acres, harvesters having enough etc.etc. something to make that side less of the focus. and the attacking eachother more of the focus.

give them simple to earn goals. (steal your first 100 acres, steal your first 1,000 acres, kill an enemy, do x amount of damage to an enemy) and they get little rewards. a bit of ingame money. nothing much but something to make the drive more about attacking and give them a helping hand. ofc you need to keep it balanced with the main game. they cant get too great an advantage.

but the reason people play games like these and rpgs, and even call of duty games now, it is to better themselves. i know itsounds stupid. but you always want to get the better equipment, the better perks, the better raid gear. And on bushtarion its to get a bigger army a better army that all you want to do when u first start, but that i think kinda makes you get annoyed when you died. and draws away from the fighting. i think a facebook app could be tweaked to give other awards and perks. so that the focus of fighting is mantained.

 

[Davs]

This is what I mean about privacy settings, so that news feeds are restricted to you alone, mebbe, if you didn't want to spam people with messages.

As Steve says, though, the odd global message to your friends (if the user allows this, as many do with a lot of games) this would be an effective way of spreading free ads.

So long as, as you say, it is optional I'm all in favour of this. Apps that force you to allow them to post onto news feeds are really really irritating.

 

[CFalcon]

Willy makes a very good point, that all popular games these days involve some kind of unlock/level/reward system, that makes people go "if I just play half an hour more I'll be able to get x/y/z".

It's pretty much a must-have format.

 

[Dax]

Willy makes a very good point, that all popular games these days involve some kind of unlock/level/reward system, that makes people go "if I just play half an hour more I'll be able to get x/y/z".

It's pretty much a must-have format.

Dev's are that format. The promise of better units, and more gameplay is alluring. Hence the mass of activity at round start - People want to get into the actual game itself. I personally always believed mid-tech warring stood the good alliances out from the contactable ones.
*cough* dRage *cough*
But really. The idea is even simpler than Farmville to implement an application. I even know people that make shitty games like it for Android and iShop.

 

[CFalcon]

Devs don't really match up to the plethora of upgrades/rewards most other games offer. I see your point, but they don't really fall under the "just half an hour more" category.

 

[Dax]

Devs don't really match up to the plethora of upgrades/rewards most other games offer. I see your point, but they don't really fall under the "just half an hour more" category.

Then another idea - We break developments up a bit. Each unit to need one, maybe two more techs (but keeping the same total value of the development), so people need to appear a little more often, you can afford things a bit faster, and you're finishing and starting techs much closer together.

So, example - Military:

Militirisation; Prepare your staff for combat -> Conscription; Train simple our Gardeners into fighting soldiers -> Training Camp; Arm and further train your new recruits > Unlocks Private.

It makes things seem a bit more drawn out for us oldies, but people like Farmville because you are constantly upgrading, updating. So we take that ideal, and weave it into what we have. It isn't anymore difficult, bar perhaps we have to log in another couple of times per unit tech.
Please also remember this is just an example of what could be done, it's not a concrete idea.

 

[tobapopalos]

That's going down a whole other road. What you're suggesting now changes the game entirely.

 

[Twigley]

Makes it even more complicated than it already is aswell which is one of the main turn offs to new players.

 

[Razorwolf]

One of the problems with newbies is they don't know they need more gards/harvs. Seriously implement a bush calculator included in the app too so new people know exactly how many units they need for full seed gathering, rather than only gettin 10% of seeds that they should be getting

 

[tobapopalos]

One of the problems with newbies is they don't know they need more gards/harvs. Seriously implement a bush calculator included in the app too so new people know exactly how many units they need for full seed gathering, rather than only gettin 10% of seeds that they should be getting

I agree with this. Calculating harvester amounts isn't fun and is one of the most tediously annoying things if you don't have a harv calc. I've been saying for a while that the game should have it's own bush tools included so people who don't know about, or just can't use, the antisback/polo toolkits aren't at a disadvantage.

 

[Davs]

In comparison to the other ideas of different features to be added to the FB version, this is the first one I agree with. The others seem to just be making bush an entirely different game.
I reckon if the fb version had an extended tutorial in place, that could have a similar effect to what the other changes seem to be aimed at. With a small (Read: SMALL!!!!!!) reward at certain stages on the tutorial. Similar to how the tutorial gives you a bit of money to buy 25 gards and harvs at the start and contributes some funds towards your first dev. Likewise it could donate fairly harmless amounts of funds towards each dev (no more than 2% of the cash required, maybe a bit more but this idea is going in this box as I think about it, so values are obviously going to be wrong). Likewise, they could get a small bonus for their first attack in which they steal land (they could get some bonus acres or something).

I like the idea of there being rewards in order to maintain interest, but I personally think that the currently suggested rewards are just too major to allow people playing through fb to be playing in the same game world as the rest of us - otherwise we'd all move to the fb version as it would give advantages that are too significant to just ignore.

 

[Changer]

Nice reply. Thx for input..

 

[webvictim]

As others have mentioned, getting Facebook integrated without big changes to the UI likely wouldn't result in many signups. Alternatively, it'd mean lots of abandoned accounts just sitting there gathering seeds (or likely not as nobody would have worked out how to cultivate land).

I just don't really think the game in its current format is very well suited to Facebook - the news feed integration stuff would be nice, but yeah; the majority of my friends list get pretty irritated with app spam. The other thing is that pretty much every Facebook game's raison d'etre is to spam the hell out of people's friend lists - all they really want is to grow and get more signups.

 

[Steve_God]

As others have mentioned, getting Facebook integrated without big changes to the UI likely wouldn't result in many signups. Alternatively, it'd mean lots of abandoned accounts just sitting there gathering seeds (or likely not as nobody would have worked out how to cultivate land).

I just don't really think the game in its current format is very well suited to Facebook - the news feed integration stuff would be nice, but yeah; the majority of my friends list get pretty irritated with app spam. The other thing is that pretty much every Facebook game's raison d'etre is to spam the hell out of people's friend lists - all they really want is to grow and get more signups.

It's when you're forced to 'click a link to help me out' several times a day that people get annoyed.

Keep it to a minimum, and it'll be fine.

 

[Elderveld]

Yeah, just the game itself in a browser inside FB should be enough!