FarmVille

FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town, and video games such as the Story of Seasons series. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farm management such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock.

Released: 11 October 2009
Platforms: Browser
Genres: Role-playing Simulation Strategy
Developers: Zynga
Publishers: Zynga
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Fantasy
Engine: Flare3D, Adobe Flash
Country: United States

About

FarmVille is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga beginning in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm and Farm Town. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3 were released in 2012 and 2021.

The game was available as an Adobe Flash application via the social networking website Facebook and Microsoft's MSN Games. It was briefly available as a mobile app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad in 2010. The game is free to play, but to progress quickly, players are encouraged to spend Farm Cash (in FarmVille) or Farm Bucks (in FarmVille 2), which are purchasable with real-world currency. FarmVille was thus one of the first major freemium games.

Keywords

horse
frog
chicken
christmas
goat
management
farming
halloween
achievements
capitalism
dog
economy

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Once a player begins a farm, they create a customizable avatar, which can be changed at any point.

The player begins with an empty farm and a fixed starting number of Farm Coins, the primary currency in the game. Players earn XP (experience points) for performing certain actions in the game such as plowing land or buying items. At certain XP benchmarks, the player's level rises. As the player obtains more items and progresses through levels, crops and animals become available to them via the "market" where items can be purchased using either Farm Coins or Farm Cash. Farm Cash is earned by leveling up or completing offers, or purchased for real money.

Development

The game was presented as a concept to Zynga by a small team from the University of Illinois, and was based on a previous Sims-style browser game. The team of four was hired and paired up with other Zynga staff, and an initial version of the game was released about 5 weeks later.

The game used Facebook's then-new API access, which allowed the game to exploit the interconnectedness of players.

Reception

Despite the initial success of the game, it has received a negative reaction from critics, video game designers, and personalities. Time magazine called the game one of the "50 Worst Inventions" in recent decades due to it being "the most addictive of Facebook games" and a "series of mindless chores on a digital farm".

In a December 2010 interview with Gamasutra, game designer and programmer Jonathan Blow criticized FarmVille for being designed to create an atmosphere of negativity, requiring an unprecedented commitment to the game, and encouraging users to exploit their friends.