When thinking about what makes an engaging and challenging free mobile pirate game, we have really been trying to create stories and characters that are both exciting and relatable, but also design a gameplay experience that is challenging but is rewarding enough to keep players coming back. The task of making one of the best rated pirate games isn’t an easy one and there is a lot of competition out there but we are up to the challenge. We wanted to create something like an Arcade Shooter that was easy and fun to play when you only have a few minutes to sit down, but grows with you and expands as you play more to keep coming back.
When researching other pirate games, one of the things we noticed was the difficulty of the enemies fluctuated a lot. Some were so simple and easy, the game became mindless with little challenge or effort. However, others, especially the heavily tactical games, left us circling the same enemy for over ten minutes. If the goal is to make a fun pirate mobile game, then there has to be a balance – and we tested the difficult increases over and over again and made dozens of tweaks to balance the game. Aside from common attributes like speed and accuracy, we have some more subtle attributes that can affect how difficult an enemy is: like their relationship to other enemies! Some enemies, like the very presence of the “Admiral” ship in the Armada fleet, actually increase the HP of the other Armada ships. The very presence of the Kamikaze also alters the effectiveness of enemies as well, can you figure it out? We hope this type of dynamic boosts Pirate’s Boom Boom to become one of the best mobile pirate games.
Another component that we utilized is the idea of “clans.” Although some of the base enemies are repeated and standard, as you progress levels, the type of clan changes – and each clan has its own set of attributes, altering your interaction with even the most basic enemies.
Lastly, a third type of variation component is the fact that each time you kill an enemy, you gain back a bit of health. While you have an actual skill, button, that can send the Crow to quickly repair your pirate ship, the very act of firing cannons, shooting cannonballs and destroying enemy ships heals you a little bit each time. This can be an incredible tactical way of maintaining your momentum during difficult levels. Instead of just relying on skills or talents to heal you, you can hone your firing skills, become more accurate and kill off enemies to gain health. We won’t spoil the secret, but as mentioned above, another “enemy interaction” dynamic is the Loot Ship (Booty Ship). If you are able to destroy a Loot Ship, something pretty great happens to your health.
All that said, we continue to tweak the difficulty and the bonuses/skills/items you can obtain to ensure Pirate’s Boom Boom is fun, engaging, challenging and will be your favorite of the fun pirate games.
