Spry Fox Targets Facebook, Google+ With Compelling Kindle Game

Triple Town is a puzzle game where players try to match three or more of an object type by placing them in tiles on a grid to create a new object type that fills a single tile. For example, three tiles of grass will combine into a bush object that takes up one tile. Combining three bushes creates a tree, three trees create a house, and so on. An additional challenge comes from giant bear creatures that move around unfilled tiles each time the player places another object. The player can convert the bears to tombstones by trapping them in a single tile with no available adjacent tile. Three tombstones convert into a castle for a higher scoring bonus. The game ends when all tiles within the map grid are filled.

With each map completed, players earn a certain number of coins — the game’s only currency — depending on what they’ve achieved with the map (e.g. building a certain number of cathedrals). These coins can be spent on objects available in a storefront that immediately replace whatever tile the game has currently offered the player. Players can also purchase additional moves for the move counter that depletes during a level with each move the player makes.

Triple Town is monetized for social networks through the sale coins via Facebook Credits or Google Checkout (on Kindle, the game is a $3.99 one-time download). Social features are currently limited to a leaderboard that tracks friends’ scores. The game is available in both Spanish and English from within the same app.

David Edery, CEO and co-founder of Spry Fox, tells us that the developer plans to add new social features and new game modes to Triple Town on Facebook and Google+. This is the company’s first social game, and so they wanted to experiment with a simple title that carried few risks. As the company is entirely self-funded, they’re careful with where and how they distribute their games.

“We try to be everywhere. We’re already on mobile with Steambirds and we’re bringing other titles there as well. We weren’t on Facebook or Google+ yet; this seemed like a fine first title to try there,” Edery says. “Our understanding was that most Facebook games suffer from pretty low retention. Our experience on the Kindle led us to believe that Triple Town might be the kind of game that could buck the trend and have a much better long-term retention rate.”