Cookie Run: Kingdom is a popular mobile gacha game made by the south korean developers company Devsisters. It has been my recent obsession(I’ve checked in on my kingdom every single day for the past 3 months) and I’m incredibly excited to discuss the game elements of CRK(Cookie Run: Kingdom). CRK’s general gameplay is based around a team of cookies that you employ to run through the levels and fight whatever enemies are in your path. You must defeat all the enemies to reach the end of the level, and the goal is to do so without any of your characters dying. While you are going through the levels, you are also building your kingdom and collecting new characters through gacha and resources. There is a linear storyline you are following as you run through the levels, and every few months the developers release a new event which brings new stories, characters, and gameplay elements.
In terms of formal elements, CRK employs a “multiple individual players vs game” player interaction relationship, which is quite common with city-building mobile games such as Farmville. In CRK you are also able to connect with friends who are on the same server, visit eachother’s kingdoms, and join guilds which allow you to contribute together to fighting off enemies and gaining resources without actually “playing together”. The objective of the game is “exploration”, seen especially through CRK’s city-building feature. While you go through each level, exploring the story, you are also able to explore the lands surrounding your kingdom. Of course, there is also the gacha system of CRK which on its own is a formal element but can also be seen as a dramatic element due to the unknowing feature of what you might get from the gacha. There is also a dynamic aspect to it, since what you get in the gacha can change your experience of the game as it progresses.
CRK has many great dramatic elements to it, from the Character design to the Story’s premise and progression throughout the game as you go through levels. CRK also allows the player freedom to expand and decorate the kingdom as they please, which itself is a dramatic element engaging the player and allowing them to enjoy the creative freedom of the city-building game. The characters themselves also have many dramatic elements, as they each have their own stories in their information, and when you collect certain groups of characters, the groups get their own little mini-story that includes each of the cookies in the buff group.
There are also many great dynamic elements to CRK which allow for an amazing experience. You are able to choose your team for the battles you run through in any battle simulation parts of the game. Who you pick to be in your team is part of the strategy, and can change the outcome of the level and/or mini games. There are also power shifts as you upgrade your cookies’ skills, levels, star levels, and topping buffs. All of these factors come into play throughout the game and can change the outcomes of a battle.