How to Play And Deconstruct Match 3 Games Like A Pro

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In previous posts, we’ve been talking a lot about which games you should play. But have you ever thought about what it means to “play” the game as a professional puzzle developer? Obviously, everybody has a different answer to this question. But in this article, I will share some principles that will help you better understand the Match 3 games you play. Playing a casual game sounds easy. But it could be tricky to spot all the interesting and important details. And even harder to understand if the game has market potential. Let’s check what you should look for and how to digest the puzzle product properly.

When you are just starting a new game, the first step is to check for the icon. What does the icon say to you? Can you understand it? These days icons are primarily a marketing instrument, but you still can get some sentiments and see how the game creators see or want players to see their game.

Check for the loading process and timing. How much time passes from the launch of the game to the first gameplay bit? Is it starting actual gameplay from the puzzle level, from a story beat, or maybe from a trendy hypercasual minigame?

Is the game asking immediately about notifications permission or patiently waiting for the right moment?

Ok, you are in the first level now. What to look at now?

Check basic pieces! At this point, we are not talking about the beauty of the elements. It is very subjective and quite different for everyone. What we should review first is:

This particular point also could give you some tips about the development team. Usually, teams that care about the puzzle quality polish this moment a lot to get the best “match readability” of the board.

The big thing you need to understand is what the game is doing with power-ups. Those unique pieces you have as a reward for big matches are essential to comprehending the game. Power-ups are usually the core differentiator of the experience.

Inspect that power-up system, and follow tutorials. Usually, the first levels explain everything about power-ups. Don’t neglect and read them all. How to create power-ups, how to use and what they are doing. It’s painful and boring but necessary.

Try to figure out if it’s something new or something you have seen before. If it is similar to another game, do you see any changes? What is your feeling? Is it better than the original? Is it improving something?

Let’s say you are playing Homescapes first time. What would be your thoughts? Probably something along:

Do you feel it’s different from what you’ve seen before? Probably yes.

Do you like it? And here, the correct answer should be “I don’t know.” Because you need to play at least 30 levels to understand what you feel about the power-up system.

Do you like those explosions and clearly understand how everything works together? Does the whole system improve the overall experience? For example, the good old Farm Hero Saga still makes money and does not have a power-up system at all.

Also, you need to spend more time digging for the hidden details.

For example, targeting rules for “Flying power-up” in Royal Match. This game improved their behavior significantly in comparison with the existing market.

Those are relatively minor modifications that are challenging to spot initially but undoubtedly satisfying and influential for the player in the mid and long term.

When you complete starting tutorials, you see different goals and blockers. Boxes, chains, gummy bears, carpets, plenty of those.

Every other works a bit differently. You should memorize or write down the first five of those.

You need to think about those first five elements as the starting element ecosystem.

Do you think this system is diverse? But what does diversity mean here? Definitely not the visuals, even though everything should look great. What is more important is logical diversity.

The most typical mistake of mediocre puzzle games is when the game makes all first elements “Match near” type. They could look different, but interaction is always the same, and players will be bored pretty fast. The first elements should offer diverse experiences:

Let’s take Homescapes again. The starting five will be:

This list shows a clear sign of diversity. I am not talking about how interesting it is, but it’s easier to build interest with logically various elements.

Art alert here! After you get yourself familiar with five new elements, you should make a second check if you can still easily find matches. Or maybe the board became messy and noisy.

Ok, we came to the point when you saw the power-up system. You saw at least the first 5 game elements and played around 30 levels.

If all answers are “no,” that probably means that game is hiding innovation somewhere deeper (which is risky because not too many players will see it) or simply counting on high-quality clone implementation. That’s also an option.

This one is essential and easy to check. Does the game allow you to make new moves while pieces from the previous match still fall? To inspect that, make a match somewhere on the bottom left/right and while pieces are falling, try to make a match on another side of the board.

This feature is not intended to allow you to pull off some crazy tricks but to give you the freedom to make your next move while something is still happening on the board. Basically, saving your time!

I am not going into the black hole of level design here, but I just want to share some tips that you can quickly review:

1. What kind of level design approach prevails in the game? Do you see a lot of strategic puzzlish levels where you need to think a bit and define some kind of strategy for how to pass the level, or do you see levels where you just need straightforwardly destroy everything in any order? So-called “puzzle approach” VS “digging approach.”

“Puzzlish” levels

VS

“Digging” levels

2. The number of goals you see in the levels. If you see 1 and 2, it means the game is trying to put some focus on a particular element for you. If you see 3 and 4 goals simultaneously, it usually indicates that the game is just pushing everything in the goal panel to increase players’ satisfaction with achieving something with every move.

3. Do you see levels with multiple boards and long scrolling boards? If yes, developers tried to bring additional diversity to your gaming experience. Or maybe they are worried about win streaks and trying to artificially limit their power. Or just blindly copied it from somewhere.

It is tricky to understand the difficulty, but I still need to mention it. You should play more than one hundred levels to get an INITIAL feeling for the difficulty, which will still be subjective and not representative. But you can at least understand whether the game is easy or hard.

Also, you should try to understand where is the first paywall level. How frequent are the paywalls? How rapidly does the paywall difficulty rise after the initial 20-30 levels?

This one is tricky to explain, but that’s the feeling you get from the game. Forget about everything we discussed here and just play 10 levels more. Don’t concentrate on specific things but follow the flow. After those additional levels, stop and think about what you were feeling. Did you like the overall experience? What were the friction points for you?

Let’s summarize the steps:

The next day you need to think about what kind of aftertaste game left you. Do you want to return? Do you believe that some people would like to return? Why?

When you check all those things and answer all those questions, you will understand the game’s core condition and potential. It’s not guaranteeing anything, but you will measure against industry standards and common sense.

Also, I exclude features and live ops discussion here. Just the pure basic gameplay. Because if the basics are broken or not working smoothly, it will damage the entire game.

Have a nice and thoughtful playtime!