What’s New Under the Sea

Making good games requires a lot of things…money, creativity, expertise, luck…but most of all it requires patience.  Legacy and its uber talented development partner, Alder Games, have been at work on our new game, Pearls of Atlantis, for more than two years, and it’s finally launched!

But that’s only part of the story. Pearls is just the latest incarnation of this charming mobile/PC game. Ten years ago, Legacy launched the original version of the game (called Atlantis: Pearls of the Deep), described by Gamezebo as “The Best Match 3 Game of 2012”. We still sell the original PC version on our website!

Why did it take so long to create the new game, Pearls of Atlantis, given that the basic gameplay – match 3 with physics – is similar in both games?  Simple answer. Because while the original game focused on match 3 puzzles, the new game includes that plus so much more.  

What constituted a prize winning game ten years ago is no longer competitive given how dramatically the market has changed.

Let’s start with the biggest difference between the games. 

The new Pearls of Atlantis is the first free-to-play game that Legacy has ever created. This style of game, where you can download and play for free, is very common for mobile games, but less so for casual PC games. As the publisher, the only way we make money is if players watch an ad or decide to buy something in the game store that enhances their gameplay in some way, e.g., more “energy” to keep playing, decorations for Atlantis, etc.  

The second big difference between the games is that there are many more things to do in the new Pearls of Atlantis. You can churn through match 3 levels of varying complexity and then play zen mode when you’re looking for a little less challenge. (Both the old and new games offer this.)  However, Pearls of Atlantis also includes a story mode with fun tasks that in turn spawn a variety of powerups that enhance gameplay. 

There is a decoration mode in which you recreate the original beauty of the underwater city of Atlantis. Scoring is new, with leaderboards soon to follow. There are daily and weekly events that challenge you to improve your score and winning chains that result in special currency (shells) you can use elsewhere in the game. And the list goes on.

While the match 3 mechanic is similar in the two games, the gameplay loop is completely different. You play match 3 puzzles in order to earn currency that you can then use in other gameplay modes. The rich story context and multiple modes of the new game, Pearls of Atlantis, provide many more reasons to play and keep playing.

We love Pearls of Atlantis, and think it’s one of the very best games we have ever produced.  Please give it a try and let us know how you think it compares to the original. It’s available for iOS and Android phones. And in another first, it is also available as a free-to-play PC game.  Enjoy!