A tasty treat to play!

April 12, 2022

One of the dangers of devices like the iPhone, Androids, and computers, is that there are, literally, thousands of games and other time-wasting applications just waiting to suck you in.

Such is the case for the game Candy Crush – one of the most popular games ever – which debuted on April 12, 2012.

For the game’s developers, it’s been a dream come true which has, no doubt, made them rich beyond their wildest dreams. For those who get sucked into the game, it’s a way to spend way too much time matching colorful digital ‘candy’, earning ‘rewards’, and – what the developers really want – spending money to purchase in-game boosters.

If you’ve never seen or played Candy Crush, no fear, the Infallible Wikipedia does – of course – have an informative article:

“In the game, players complete levels by swapping colored pieces of candy on a game board to make a match of three or more of the same color, eliminating those candies from the board and replacing them with new ones, which could potentially create further matches. Matches of four or more candies create unique candies that act as power-ups with larger board-clearing abilities. Boards have various goals that must be completed within a fixed number of moves or limited amount of time, such as a certain score or collecting a specific number of a type of candy.

Candy Crush Saga is considered one of the first and most successful uses of a freemium model; while the game can be played completely through without spending money, players can buy special actions to help clear more difficult boards, from which King makes its revenues—at its peak the company was reportedly earning almost $1 million per day.

Around 2014, over 93 million people were playing Candy Crush Saga, while revenue over a three-month period as reported by King was over $493 million. Five years after its release on mobile, the Candy Crush Saga series has received over 2.7 billion downloads, and the game has been one of the highest-grossing and most-played mobile apps in that time frame.”

I’m positive that pretty much everyone who has a computer or a phone has, at one time or another played a digital game. Whether your thing is a fighting game, solitaire, word games, or Candy Crush, the human animal seems to be hard wired to solve challenges.

Which the creators of Candy Crush figured out in spades, so to speak. The game is a visual feast of rewards. When you match three candies (the color palette of the game is bright shades of blue, purple, green, red, orange, and yellow) they sort of explode. And, when you match FIVE candies at once, special candies are created: striped, wrapped, and – best of all – color bombs. These candies, when activated, literally explode and will clear large swaths of candy from the board. It’s this ‘reward’ feature that all games have in common and that keeps players coming back to play again.

I will warn everyone, if you have not ever played Candy Crush AND if you are trying to avoid getting hooked, DO NOT go check out the game. It was in May 2014 when I made that mistake.

At the end of April that year I got my first Android phone. The main reason was to have a decent phone when driving with my son to Tennessee a couple weeks later. Having an Android became important for things like weather reports and communications with the hubby and daughter. (Be sure to read all about the day we outran the tornado here)

My son – who was moving there – had his truck loaded and I was going along to help with the driving, etc. Mostly I ended up riding shotgun and finding roads, motels, and places to eat on the new phone.

Then it happened. We are tooling along and I’m a little bored with nothing really to do and for those who have driven across Wyoming and the Dakotas, you know what I mean. I am still getting to know the phone and the words of one of my Facebook friends echos in my brain: “I’m surprised you don’t play Candy Crush. It seems like you would really like it.” To which I had replied “I don’t want to try it because I don’t need to waste more time.”

But like a dealer tempting me with his wares, I decide to check it out and play a few games just to pass the time. Big mistake.

Next thing I knew, I had played 15 games and had passed the first level. Then it was 30. Then 45. Soon I had ‘won’ 100 games and had started counting how ‘many’ of my Facebook friends were at a higher level than I was.

My friend Elizabeth was soon sending me extra ‘lives’ since – once you lost five times – your playing was over unless someone sent you them or you purchased them with real money.

Level 1476 is a good level to play when you need to collect certain colored candies or color bombs

I also discovered that every day there were bonuses I could earn that randomly gave me striped, wrapped, and color bomb candies. There were things called coconut wheels which when activated, turned regular candies into striped candies that cleared whole rows. There are little UFO’s which fly around and blow up candy and, best of all, a piñata which explodes and clears the entire board. All of these things can be purchased OR you can use your earned coins to get them. Of course you do have to be prudent in what you ‘purchase’ with your coins.

I would say I have become a Candy Crush expert in the past 8 years. I recently passed level 10,000. As of their 10^th anniversary today, there are 11,511 levels in the game. Based on my current level that’s only 945 to go! Time to get back to playing…

As always a couple of links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Crush_Saga

For those who wish to start playing it…

https://www.facebook.com/candycrushsaga

And if you go to your app store on your phone and type in ‘Candy Crush’, then you – like the over 1 BILLION who have downloaded it – can get addicted too.