Farm Frenzy

Farm Frenzy
Genres Arcade, time management
Developers Melesta
Publishers Alawar Entertainment
Platforms Windows
Mac
iPhone
Android
Nintendo DS
Windows Phone
First release Farm Frenzy
November 2007
Latest release Farm Frenzy 4
April 29, 2014

Farm Frenzy is a series of downloadable casual games for the PC developed by Melesta and published by Alawar Entertainment. The series utilizes a point-and-click arcade gameplay model that enables the player to manage the production processes on a farm using a mouse.

Gameplay

The goal in a Farm Frenzy game is to raise animals, process the goods they produce and sell the products for cash. To raise animals, the player must regularly water the grass they eat. A well with a limited capacity supplies the water and costs money to refill. Once the player buys an animal, the animal starts eating grass and dropping goods for the player to pick up. For example, chickens lay eggs, sheep produce wool and cows produce milk. The goods the player picks up are stored in a warehouse with limited capacity. From there, the player may either sell the goods by having a truck transport them to town or turn them into more valuable goods using a specific processing facility.

Predators such as bears sometimes appear on the farm. The player must cage them by quickly and repeatedly clicking on them; otherwise, the predators will toss the other animals off the farm and destroy any goods lying on the ground. In addition to purchasing animals that produce goods, the player can also buy cats and dogs. Cats collect goods that lie on the ground, while dogs chase down predators and prevent them from doing harm. Farm Frenzy 2 introduced an airplane the player can send to town to purchase items the player can't produce on the farm, such as ingredients needed to produce more valuable goods.

Each level in a Farm Frenzy game has a unique set of objectives. These might include owning so many of a particular animal, producing a certain number of goods or having a specific amount of cash on hand. The animal and money goals are checked off as soon as the player completes those objectives, and remain checked off even if the player sells the animals or spends the cash. The game also keeps track of the number of goods the player picks up. If the player uses or sells a good he's collected, the game doesn't reduce the tally. The player must complete the goals for a level within a specific time limit. Skilled players can earn Silver and Gold awards by completing levels within shorter time limits.

When a player completes a level, he earns stars with which he can unlock upgrades. Once an upgrade is unlocked, the player can purchase it while playing a level. (The only exception are the cat and dog upgrades, which make the cats and dogs permanently faster and more intelligent.) Other upgrades are connected to the items found on the farm. For example, the first few well upgrades increase the capacity of the well and reduce the cost of refilling it; the final well upgrade activates automatic watering. When upgraded, processing facilities are able to process more than one item at once, the truck and plane travel faster and can hold more cargo, and the warehouse increases in size. In order to access certain levels, the player must have already unlocked specific upgrades.

There are 14 games in the series: Farm Frenzy, Farm Frenzy 2, Farm Frenzy 2: Pizza Party! Farm Frenzy 3, Farm Frenzy 3: American Pie, Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age, Farm Frenzy 3: Russian Roulette, Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar, Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing, Farm Frenzy: Ancient Rome, Farm Frenzy: Viking Heroes, Farm Frenzy 4, Farm Frenzy: Hurricane Season and Farm Frenzy: Heave Ho. Farm Frenzy 3 contains a number of additional features, including a central character named Scarlett, a storyline involving Scarlett's quest to help farmers around the world, reworked gameplay that gives the player more control over the operation of her farm, the inclusion of five farms around the world and additional farm animals unique to each region and Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing also contains a story but instead of farm animals there are different sea animals and the products, machines are all different.

The visual style of the Farm Frenzy games is lighthearted, with the artists employing bright colors and humorous animation to portray the action.

To date, Alawar has translated the Farm Frenzy series into more than a dozen languages and ported it to multiple platforms, including the Mac, iPhone, the Android, Nintendo DS and Windows Phone.

The PC version of Farm Frenzy received the Best Casual Game award at the 2008 Russian Game Developers Conference.

History

Farm Frenzy started to take shape when Alex Meleshkevich, CEO of Belarus-based casual game developer Melesta, met Kirill Plotnikov, vice president of publishing for Alawar Entertainment, at Casual Connect 2007. After talking for several hours over drinks, they decided to create a game in the time management genre. The business simulator Chicken Chase was their source of inspiration.

The developers of Farm Frenzy changed the setting, introduced new animals and made the trading system more complicated so the player could be involved in producing new products, such as powdered eggs and cakes. In addition, they replaced the grain the chicks in Chicken Chase ate with grass.

Farm Frenzy Mobile

Mobile Farm Frenzy game (Android, Java) was developed and published by HeroCraft.

References

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