Mobile Games and Community
Written by Erin Norton
I have a somewhat embarrassing confession to make: I’ve been getting into mobile games. Well, I should preface, it’s only one mobile game. Bakery Story was a sizable part of my childhood. When I was around eight to ten years old, I won a raffle at the library and the prize basket was not only a bunch of books about sharks, but it also contained a Kindle. I’ve never been much of an ebook kind of girl, so I used the Kindle to play games. I had a handful of Temple Run rip offs and makeover adjacent apps, but nothing compared to Bakery Story. In the game, players are tasked with creating their own bakery. They are able to design the actual space, curate the menu, and lightly collaborate with other players by visiting their bakery and leaving tips and messages on their wall. I think there were a few factors that fed my addiction as a child. It’s a very low stakes game. If there isn’t enough food for the customers, there isn’t exactly a punishment. If an item is placed in front of the front door, customers can’t get in, therefore a bakery’s rating won’t diminish in the absence of product. On that note, it’s nice that the game is paced slowly. Most menu items take over three hours to make, some of them take two full days. The longer amount of time required to bake something, the more profit it will generate and the less time a player is required to open the app. It’s not the kind of game that requires a person’s full unrequited attention. Additionally, the sound effects have an ASMR quality to them—something I miss about early mobile games like this one and Hay Day.
Rediscovering mobile games as an adult, especially so soon post-grad, gives me mixed emotions. While it’s a fun, lighthearted tool that mimics responsibility and routine, it does, to a certain extent, feel silly. There are many other activities I could be doing that generate those exact feelings, arguably. But I think there’s something to be said for the community these niche games create.
While on the surface level, Bakery Story appears to be a simple management and simulation game. But trust me, it has layers. For the purpose of this article, and also out of my own curiosity, I began to look deeper. This app was developed by Storm8 and distributed in 2010, which I would argue, was the mobile app golden age. Circa 2009-2011, many other well known and famous mobile apps were released. Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, Fruit Ninja, and Temple Run, just to name a few. While they might not be played as frequently anymore, they certainly inspired the future of app creation. Bakery Story interests me because it didn’t reach the same level of fame as its counterparts. I think there’s more to be said about its player retention, which might be so high because of its intricacies.
While I was doing some digging, I came across a subreddit for Bakery Story. In fact, the subreddit was literally one of the first links to come up upon a Google search. I was genuinely shocked to see an existing community of 3.6k“ bakers” on the site. There weren’t too many people active, but multiple posts were being made in a day—a lot for a game that I thought very few played. The subreddit was created in 2014, but on the front page, there is a link to the game developer’s forum where there are over eight thousand discussion threads. The forum was created the same year as the game’s release, and to this day, there are still around ten posts being made on a monthly basis, with each post racking up over two thousand views. One of the most viewed discussion threads has 600 thousand views. This thread is just about“ boxes,” another layer of the game that I had no idea existed.
There seems to be one very active community member on the forum, AnnirasSweets, who joined mid 2012, is still active daily, and has around 300 thousand views in total. The more I read, the more I realize the majority of players have been loyal to Bakery Story since its release or at least the early 2010’s. It makes me wonder if player retention is the reason why the game still exists despite being update-less since 2018 and perpetually ad-less.
Online spaces that foster niche interests are fantastic examples of community building. Don’t get this twisted with Tumblr, fandoms, and the like. I think similarities can be drawn between the two groups, but I interpret a“ niche interest” as a micro version of a fandom. I think even through all of the complexities, there’s no discourse to be had about Bakery Story, unlike Doctor Who or Undertale for example, where they are purposefully subversive or open-ended. There are no characters to ship or theories to be made; everything is very much as it appears on the screen. The majority of the subreddit and the forum consists of questions in the vein of:“ is anyone else’s game bugging?”,“ can we be neighbors so i can expand my bakery?” and“ if i buy the box with gems, do i get every prize?” There’s a community, despite it being a single player game. I think the same can be said about games like Candy Crush. I grew up watching my mom clear level after level. It didn’t matter if she was at the doctor’s office, the salon, or on the couch, she would be Candy Crush-ing away. It never stopped her if she ran out of tries on a level. She could always get more sent to her from Facebook or in-game friends—a single player game that allows other players to remotely support one another.
The Bakery Story community still exists because of its players who continue to support each other. Niche online communities are somewhat of a staple in internet culture and an example of intracommunity support. When I look up “niche online gaming” almost, if not all, of the results are about how to monetize niche interests and how to ultimately profit off of them. Does that not completely defeat the purpose? These types of games are meant to be for enjoyment and the love of the game and its quirks. It would be disastrous if these communities were diseased with greed. Especially when so much of the fun hinges on supporting fellow players in their own gameplay. On a separate note, the thoughts and practices within these circles are integral to IRL communities that are aching for your support. Bakery Story and similar apps are case studies for mutual aid and community building. There truly is no difference between donating a gem to another player and donating to a GoFundMe. There is no difference between answering a question on gameplay and amplifying a mutual aid request. Sure, we work for our money, but we are privileged enough to have a job. We are privileged enough to be playing a mobile game. Don’t let greed take over this mindset. Next time you’re engaging in your niche online community, engage in your real life community too. If you ran out of gems, wouldn’t you want someone to help you get that second chance?
