Homescapes is a part of Playrix’s Scapes series, which is a casual free-to-play puzzle game, whose slogan is “Your Home is your puzzle”. It was developed and launched by Playrix in 2017. As of now, Homescapes has been downloaded more than 438 million times and it has bagged almost $1.5 billion in revenue and continues to increase over year. This is not common for a casual game like Homescapes.
In total, 10,858,847 reviews are found in Google play store with 4.4 stars rating. There has been 100,000,000+ installs and the most recent update is December 23, 2021. While in Apple app store Homescapes is ranked No. 17 in Simulation category with 4.6 stars rating by 1.6M users. The app is rated 3.5 star by 84,020 global customer reviews in Amazon App store. The app is rated as 4+ on Apple iOS App store and “Everyone” in Google Play store.
After initial release, Homescapes has released regular updates, one of which is the addition of Daily bonus. Subsequently, Playrix’s developers have built a robust framework of recurring events and launched limited period mini-games such as Flying High, Cake o’clock and others to keep users interested. In total, Homescapes had 7390 match-3 levels and 10 mini-games in September 2021.
In Homescapes, player follows the adventure of the main character Austin who returns to his childhood mansion and begins to restore it by solving match-3 puzzles to earn the resources needed. In essence, Homescapes is a match-3 puzzle game with a storyline and home & decor meta layers. A board of each puzzle includes colourful tiles such as teacups, books and lamps etc. Players need to move two adjacent items to match three or more of them. New chapters of the story are unlocked after solving challenging puzzles and player can watch how Austin interacts with his parents and childhood friends.
Various assignments range from installing new stairs, restoring the statues to petting a cat. Upon completing the task, players will be awarded with in-game currency. The coins can be used to buy additional lives or power-ups for puzzle levels or apply customization to the mansion. There are more than 100,000 design patterns that players can choose from.
Playrix added unique power-ups for the Homescapes like Hammer in Level 8 and Rocket in level 14, those powerful boosters will help to achieve level's victory conditions faster.
In conclusion, Homescapes as a casual game attracts primarily casual gamers. This group of gamers play to pass the time and simply want to be entertained and have some fun during a break without too much thinking.
Cons
- App can’t load properly after upgrade.
- Technical issues like user can’t log in or can’t download upgrade.
- App reduces battery consumption .
- The game moves to difficult/challenge levels too soon for some user.
Pros
- Easy-to-play and fun to play with shorter play session.
- Content is suitable for all players .
- Simple and straight forward gameplay and visual style.
- Incorporate different meta layers designs.