You can retry each Daily Challenge as many times as you want until the end of the month, which makes the true cost of failure nothing but more time spent playing. At the end of each month, those coins go toward in-game trophies of increasing rarity, an onscreen recognition of the time committed to the game. Taps mode removes the ability to place flags, requiring you to uncover a few blocks without that crutch, while Flags mode only allows you to mark a set number of mines on a board where some blocks have already been revealed.Īs interesting as the Daily Challenge modes are, though, their implementation can't help but feel exploitative.Ĭompleting these challenges rewards the player with virtual coins that fly into an onscreen account with a jangly animation. Other Daily Challenge modes offer only small restrictions on normal gameplay. Treasure Hunt mode is more frustrating, asking players to intuit the single square on an Expert-sized board that's completely surrounded by mines. (This mode is also easier to play on touchscreen devices, since you don't need to use multiple taps to place flags). Detonation Mode is perhaps the most satisfying, asking players to tap the mines rather than the safe spaces. There are some interesting ideas to be found in the Daily Challenge puzzles. If a standard game of Minesweeper is a game of chess, the Daily Challenges are a bit like those newspaper chess puzzles that ask you how to get to a checkmate in a set number of moves: micro-sized doses of Minesweeper with a small twist on the formula. That said, the need to drive more player engagement - and therefore more ad and subscription revenue - seems to be behind the new Minesweeper's other main gameplay innovation: Daily Challenges. Number 2: How do we make a good game?' It was more of a balance We're always balancing the user experience with revenue opportunity." "It wasn't like, 'Number 1: How do we make money. Lambert, for his part, insists that monetization was never the core design concern in Microsoft's Minesweeper revamp. Still, I have to wonder how many people are still getting billed for a version of Minesweeper they no longer even think about. That's not such a high price to ask for those who play regularly, even if it is a big bump up from the former price of "free with OS purchase." Instead, you need to sign up for a $9.99 annual "premium" subscription plan (or a $1.50 monthly subscription). But you can't simply make an upfront payment to remove ads forever. Then you have the entrance to the hidden level and you have big satisfaction grabbing all of these treasures really quickly."įor those players who are somehow, inexplicably not "happy to see" an ad before they get to play a bonus level, there is an option to pay for an ad-free version of the game. We even introduce this video ad with a cinema theater, curtains, it's like you're watching a movie. "Everyone likes to do this, they are happy to see this. "Every time you find the entrance to a hidden level with treasures, you need to see a video ad," Porechnov said. In Treasure Hunt, the Minesweeper Adventure Mode spin-off, these video ads are even integrated in the presentation as a major event. Similar banners appear next to each individual puzzle and even on the results screens after you finish a challenge.Īs if that wasn't enough, a new game is occasionally interrupted by a 30-second video ad that runs before you can play. The first one appears right on the main menu screen, a small square banner of the type you might see on the side of a web site. While you can still download and play the game for free, you now have to endure a number of ads to do so. The Windows 8 version of Minesweeper changes this in some serious ways. Minesweeper had become a vestigial appendix in Windows's increasingly bloated body, contributing next to nothing to Microsoft's bottom line Minesweeper had become a vestigial appendix in Windows's increasingly bloated body, contributing next to nothing to Microsoft's bottom line. Originally, the pre-installed freebie served as a marketing tool, helping to teach players how to use a mouse and differentiating Windows from competing operating systems.īy 2011, though, no one was taking Minesweeper into account when deciding which computer OS would best fit their needs. Eastern on March 7.)įor most of its existence, Minesweeper had only existed as a free add-on for the Windows OS. It is one of four titles in Boss Fight Books' "Season 6," which has a Kickstarter campaign running until 10 p.m. (The following is an excerpt from Kyle Orland's upcoming book Minesweeper, an in-depth look at the history and evolution of the classic puzzle game that has been a mainstay of Microsoft's since it came pre-installed with every copy of Windows 3.1.
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