Everdale – the farm of future. Part I

iINCYMO
30.05.2022
10 min.

asic game info

Soft launch release date August 23, 2021
Live-ops start date March, 2022
~Revenue 270 days* $1.8k
~Revenue 30 days $180k
~LTV All time tier-1 $1.8k
* If the trend of improving metrics continues, you can probably expect a result of about $2.7-2.9k within 360 days.

Boom Beach’s first year of operation brought in ~$300kk, Clash Royale ~$730kk, Brawl Stars ~$350kk.

With such projected results, the project does not look like a potential hit after one year, but Brawl Stars was in a soft launch for 1.5 years and got revamped. Perhaps a similar fate awaits Everdale!

Right now, Supercell is looking into 3 of their projects: Clash Mini, Everdale, and Clash Quest. Everdale looks the most compelling and has the most interesting public metrics among the mentioned projects.Let us analyze the game components, what changes the developers make, and how it affects the project metrics.

The app icon is a popular design choice: a female figure in work clothes + care/harvest + beds/grass”.

Family Farm Adventure FarmVille 3
Dragonscapes Adventure Family Farm Seaside
Taonga Island Fairy Town

Other relevant themes used in icon design:

  • Adventure farms typically use characters in clothing suitable for travel;
  • Survival farms and island exploration games use primitive clothing and simple means of transportation: rafts, carts, and horses.
  • Tycoon is a niche genre, so it is more difficult to talk about design themes. As a rule, these are either characters in special work clothes or specific objects used within the game, such as trains and airplanes.

Current Creatives:

The first ads on Facebook have been up since April.

The first few seconds of the video focus on Clash of Clans, although the closest game in the genre would be Hay Day, while Clash Royale currently has more installs.

It is possible that Supercell is intentionally avoiding links to Hay Day. Previously, Supercell had some negative experiences launching a game of a similar genre. After the success of Clash of Clans, they released Boom Beach 2 years later. While its reception was cold, it did not stop the project from becoming a commercial success. But perhaps it involved some redistribution of players, their payments, and the developers of Supercell wish to avoid a repeat. Although, they continue to expand into other genres similar to industry flagships.

The most effective creatives at the moment:

The character is making their way through the foliage to a clearing where the farm is located. CTA: Build peacefully (no stealing from neighbors, no wars) and expand together with the neighbors.

Approximate percentage of game installations:

  1. 20% Facebook 
  2. 80% Google Admob

At the same time, the developers limit their channels by publishing the promotional materials in Australia and the UK only.

Hay Day launched an advertising campaign in April 2022 and used a different visualization and theme for its videos. They also demonstrated their promotional materials in other regions: Germany, Italy, Indonesia, and the USA.

Game Description

Brief information on the game:

  1. The basic standard resource cycle is to collect resources to complete the quest board and upgrade the player buildings.
  2. A guild in the form of a village of neighbors with an additional resource cycle.
  3. There is a guild quest board that requires resources of the base cycle and the village for completion.
  4. There are player and village researchers, that open new levels of buildings and new opportunities.
  5. There are village-wide events. Success requires player activity in the village.

The game creates strong social bonds and player responsibility for the overall outcome.

Villages, like guilds, have a maximum of 10 people: the participation of each player greatly impacts the progress of the guild and raises the feeling of personal responsibility in the participants. It seems that such important emotions should have an impact on player retention. Maybe it is what Supercell’s developers are counting on.

What’s new in the game

Acceleration of all activities

At the bottom, in the middle of the screen, is the villager management panel, which the player can use to select and assign villagers. On the left and right are acceleration functions. If you use the pink elixir, time within the player’s town will be accelerated. Production and research will be accelerated. The player can also pause it. The elixir itself is purchased in limited quantities from the store.

This mechanic is not new to Supercell, previously introduced in Clash of Clans in the Builder’s Village. There is also a unique building that, for a limited time, allows you to speed up construction, resource mining, and scientific research.

When accelerated, all the “inhabitants” start running around very fast, which looks very interesting to the player. It is also not the only acceleration method, as there is a potion with the same effect.

Acceleration through the use of the building and the elixir allows the player to quickly solve the problem of cleaning up all the “junk” objects on the map: bushes, trees, and tree stumps. Elixirs and books of acceleration were the basis for selling special offers in Clash of Clans (long before the release of Everdale), where the developers included the acceleration mechanic itself in the main cycle.

Acceleration potions are available in Everdale, but there are some important changes:

  1. The effect of the potions stacks with the basic acceleration provided by the pink elixir. If you use both types of acceleration, you can become dozens of times more productive than if you just wait around. It is a powerful speed boost for player development within the game.
  2. Potions are only made in a building in the village, and crafting materials for them are limited as it requires resources from the quest board. It forms the scarcity and value of the potions.

Acceleration mechanics are the foundation of the game. Without a speed boost, the player’s progress is greatly slowed, as is their contribution to the guild’s development. Selling speed boosts is the basis for monetizing the game.

Social responsibility 

Various events appear on the village screen. They have multiple phases and cannot be completed by one or two players, requiring the participation of at least half the players in the guild.

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