I started playing Star Merge while I was interviewing with Plummy Games. Even though we didn’t continue the process, I actually liked the game a lot and I’m still playing it regularly.
Not Usually My Genre but …
I am not a huge fan of merge genre in general (even though I briefly worked on a merge title myself). But Star Merge hook me and I think this say something nice about the overall game play.
What makes it stand out to me is how it combines merge mechanics with resource management and gardening elements. It’s not just about merging items endlessly; players are also planning upgrades, unlocking new islands, and keeping their gardens looking nice.
That extra layer of strategy and creativity keeps it interesting, even for someone like me who doesn’t usually stick with merge games for long.
Design Challenges
One thing I noticed very early on the game is that the boards (“islands”) can get quite messy quite fast. There are so many items scattered around and player needs to bring them together to merge-3. It gets difficult on small screen and I kept thinking “there must be some kind of helper to tidy this” and that brings me to the design of the “helper”.
The Magnet - Why so Late?
Players can use this to bring similar items together, tidy up the boards and merge faster. In my opinion this is introduced a bit late in the game as I can see it a good hard currency sink target. It is very enjoyable perk.
My main complain about the feature is if I am using this between two island, it still scatters my items even though there is space. This still feels like need more iteration.
Live Ops Inspired Much from Monopoly Go!
I mentioned in my other post how much I like Monopoly Go! And it is not hard to notice in Star Merge some events very similar to the ones in MG. It is smart as MG is leading the casual industry at the moment although I am not entirely convinced they fit perfectly, they don’t really bring extra layer to the meta.
Merge Complete!
Even though merge games aren’t usually my thing, Star Merge surprised me. It’s design has personality, fun events (Chop-chop Time!), and attractive monetization design (Short time season pass is complicated but good addition).
Curious to see where they take it next!