Animal Stackers Rules

[avs1roy33]

I hope nobody has posted this already...

Here is a rough draft of the rules for Animal Stackers. I know it is rather lengthly, sorry.


How To Play Animal Stackers

The Story

It was just another routine day at Cloneybrook Farms... until Silo 7 malfunctioned and started creating more animals than the farm could hold! Farmer Fred's solution - pipe all of the excess animals outside the borders and call animal services! In the meantime, it's up to you, Farmer Fred's loyal assistant, to keep the clone population under control. If too many animals make their way over the fence, it's the end of Cloneybrook Farms! (Well, at least until the next game.)

The Basics

Animal Stackers is a turn-based puzzle game in which you must make groups of the same animal types to clear them from the playfield before too many of them escape back into the farm.

To start out, you can grab any animal you choose by clicking on it, regardless of how many other animals are stacked on top of it. You can then move that animal (or group of animals) to any other part of the playfield and drop them by releasing the mouse button. By placing 5 or more animals of the same type next to each other (vertically or horizontally, as long as they're all touching), you'll make a match and those animals will disappear. Consequently, any animals stacked above the matching animals will fall into the empty space left behind.

Every time you make a move, the pressure gauge on the left side of the screen gets closer to the red zone. Once the needle gets into the red zone, you only have one move before maximum pressure is reached and another row of animals is forced into the playfield. If any animals are forced over the fence as a result of a row being added, you'll lose one Life pack from the right side of the screen (per animal).

As you make matches, you earn points. You will also make progress toward the next level, as represented by the "Level" indicator on the left side of the screen. Every time you advance a level, a special piece gets added into the playfield. If you can make it to the final level and match all five special pieces, you win the game and earn a Jackpot spin!

Keep an eye out for power-ups that appear from time to time. Bombs allow you to remove large groups of animals at the same time, while the Freeze temporarily stops the pressure gauge from advancing.

Quick Tip:
Each animal over the fence means one Life pack is lost, so be careful or your game could end as the result of one bad move!

Power-Ups
From time to time (but always after a new row has entered the playfield), one of the animals in the playfield may change into a power-up. Power-ups only last for one cycle of the pressure gauge, so if you're going to match them, you should do it as quickly as possible or they may disappear before you can use them.

* Bomb: The Bomb power-up, when matched along with four or more of the same colored animal, eliminates all of the matching animals as well as any animals adjacent to any of the animals that were matched. In other words, if you match a vertical group of five sheep, all animals above, below, to the left, and to the right of each sheep would be eliminated as well. You can remove large groups of animals this way, and may even trigger a chain or combo as a result of the fallout.

* Freeze: The Freeze power-up ices up the pressure gauge, allowing you to make five moves before the pressure begins to build up again. It may be hard to tell which animal type is frozen, so look closely before making your move. (If you make a mistake, you can always use the Undo switch to go back and try again)

Quick Tip:
Remember, power-ups are only available for the duration of the pressure gauge cycle, but since the game is turn based, you can spend as much time as you like considering the best way to make your match.

Ranks

Animal Stackers has 50 ranks that you can earn as you progress through the game. Your rank is located on the right side of the screen above your score. You can click on the rank frame at any time during the game to see its name, and find out how close you are to earning the next rank.

When you win a game, you are awarded rank points towards the next rank. Higher difficulty levels award more rank points than lower difficulty levels because they're harder and they take longer.

There are five rank badges you can win in Animal Stackers. The badges are given out when you achieve ranks 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50.

[Capt. Morgan]

Thank you avs1roy33
Sounds like another game similar to harvest mania.
Pogo says that the most players are women in their 40-50 age range.
Do they really think this target audience wants these games?
How about some card games that take some strategy.

[avs1roy33]

You're Welcome  :)  Upgrading and Landlords are two new games coming soon and both are rumored to be card games, so we'll see.

[bobby]

You're Welcome  :)  Upgrading and Landlords are two new games coming soon and both are rumored to be card games, so we'll see.

NO! not card games >:(

[notmypogoname]

Rather than card games I'd like to see a puzzle game that's not EXACTLY THE SAME through fifty levels... but, sadly, no one at pogo asked me.

[Carly]

Thanks for posting those Roy

[Madonna]

TY for the post Roy. :-*

[zipper]

Rather than card games I'd like to see a puzzle game that's not EXACTLY THE SAME through fifty levels... but, sadly, no one at pogo asked me.

LMAO! :D How true!

[avs1roy33]

You're Welcome guys  :)

P.S. - the name of the game is now Stack 'em, just in case it confused you.  :o