SNS Gaming: Restaurant City
I have been suckered into playing Restaurant City by a bunch of my officemates and Facebook friends a few weeks ago. I have actually signed up for a restaurant months before, however I neglected taking care of it and left it closed until now. I admit to being hooked to this game as I log in Facebook a number of times a day just to monitor my restaurant’s progress :D
Restaurant City is one of the casual Facebook games by game/app developer Playfish. Aside from RC, they also offer other popular titles such as Pet Society and Word Challenge. Five of the top 10 games in Facebook right now is developed by Playfish. Did you know that the casual games industry in social networking sites is a fast emerging market? According to a BBC article, casual games in Facebook earn at least $ 1m from micropayments, and that from 20m gamers last year, Facebook gamers have grown to 60m this year. It’s also interesting to note that users pay from $7-$22 a month on microtransactions.
Restaurant City is a ’sims’-like flash-based game wherein Facebook users run their own… well, restaurants. Players can customize the overall look of their restaurant by buying interior and exterior items. Also, players can customize the look of their avatars by buying different ‘fashion items’ such as the facial features, hair styles, clothes and accessories. I guess you can consider RC as one of those ‘God’ games as you cannot directly control or command your characters, however you just micromanage things at the backdrop.
One interesting aspect in Restaurant City is the ability of the player to hire their Facebook contacts as their staff and assign them different jobs such as the cook, cleaner or waiter. In my restaurant, my boss is the waiter/cleaner and it’s kinda funny to watch. But shhh, don’t tell him that :D Another social networking feature found in the game is the ingredients trading with fellow Facebook contacts who also play the game. Players can trade recipe ingredients by visiting their friends’ restaurants and initiating a trade. Ingredients are very hard to come by in the game as the game will give you one (at random) per day… or maybe two if you’re lucky (by answering the daily food quiz correctly).
Earning money in Restaurant City is quite hard at first since you start out with very little resources. Mostly, you will earn money by serving customers (at $2 each) with your 3 dishes — the starter, main course and dessert. As your restaurant grows, you will be able to save up some money to buy those coveted videogame arcade machines and classy Ming vases.
The game is very open-ended, the main objective being improving your place while maintaining the restaurant’s stellar 50 rating. However, if you’re up for challenges, there are some that you can do. Similar to the XBOX 360/PlayStation 3’s achievements/trophy system, there are challenges which players can do for bragging rights. Some of these include ’spending 200,000 coins’ or ‘making a level 10 recipe’. When you’re able to fulfill the condition, an award will be given to you which you can then proudly display in your restaurant.
If you already have a Facebook account, you should definitely check out Restaurant City and other Playfish games. Aside from the usual photo/status commenting (and the stalking, admit it) these casual games make social interaction in SNSes more interesting.
Here are more tips,tricks,guides on Restaurant City:
http://www.thingswelovetohate.com/2009/04/restaurant-city-by-playfish.html