Run a jungle fruit stand for hungry tourists, keep the reviews glowing, and help the boss chimp save up
for a well-earned retirement.
The idea
You're a chimp running a fruit stand in a park, and the tourists can't get enough. During the day they queue at your
counter, each wanting a particular fruit. Your job is to keep the shelves stocked by sending your troop of helpers
out into the jungle to pick it. At night you count the takings, set tomorrow's prices, plant, hire, and read what
everyone's saying about you on Chirp.
It's a small strategy game that plays in portrait with one thumb, in short sessions: a day lasts three minutes.
Running the stand
- Send helpers out. Tap a fruit to send the next free helper to pick it. They keep picking until
their basket is full, then walk it back. The shelf only holds so much of each fruit, so timing matters: send too
early and fruit is wasted, too late and customers walk out.
- Pick the right helper. Capuchins are quick but carry little. Macaques are steady all-rounders
and can pick thorny berries. Gibbons climb palms for coconuts. Silverbacks haul huge loads, but wander far to
fill up.
- Mind the reviews. Every customer leaves a review on Chirp. Long waits, high prices and spoiled
fruit cost stars, and if your rating sinks too low the park rangers close you down.
- Plan the jungle. Plants block paths, so how you plant is how your helpers get around. Leave
walkways, or plants end up out of reach.
Something new every day
Customers post on Chirp with quests: serve a whole tour bus, earn a target in a day, hit 4.5 stars
before an influencer drops by. Quests are also how new fruit and helpers unlock. Each day brings a
twist, announced the night before so you can prepare:
- a heat wave that spoils fruit left out;
- a rival troop that raids your far trees at midday;
- a park inspector whose review counts five times over;
- a VIP who tips big for the right fruit;
- rain that brings fewer customers but keeps everything fresh;
- a festival crowd that's happy to pay a little more.
There's also a small daily challenge with a cash reward, so every day has something to aim for.
Seasons and retirement
The campaign is four short Seasons of 12 days each: the First Season, then Berry, Peak and Coconut Seasons, each
bringing a new fruit and bigger, pickier crowds. Finish a Season's goals and its takings go into the boss chimp's
Retirement Fund, multiplied by your final rating. Save enough and the boss chimp retires to a
hammock, a beach hut or, for the very best stands, a private island. After that the stand carries on in
endless mode, for as long as you can keep up.
You can run up to five separate stands, called careers, so the whole family can play on one tablet. Each career has
its own name and its own fur-coloured boss.
Behind the scenes
A few things about how it's made that I'm pleased with:
- No image or sound files. All the art is drawn in code, from the island to the chimps' faces and
the tourists' sun hats. All the music and sound effects are synthesized live in the browser. The day has a
steel-pan calypso that picks up when the queue gets long; the night has a kalimba lullaby with crickets.
- A robot playtester. An automatic player plays the whole campaign through the real game rules.
It showed that the first version of the jungle grew far more fruit than anyone needed, so the game was too easy,
and it was used to tune the Seasons until each one is a little harder than the last.
- It saves as you go. Progress saves after every day and every night-time decision, and the game
works in one tab per career, so two tabs can never overwrite each other's progress.
