Aesthetic of Webkinz’s Pizza Palace

One of my all-time favorite games is a game I’ve been playing since 2006. This game is none other than Pizza Palace on Webkinz. While this game was initially designed for 10-year-olds, it is insanely addicting, making it a game I still play as a full-on 20-year-old adult.

Mechanics

Pizza Palace is the perfect combination of strategy, challenge, and fun. You are the owner of a pizza restaurant and need to create all of your customer’s pizza orders before time runs out. The mechanics of the game is relatively simple: get the customer’s order, click on the pizza maker to make a pizza, click on toppings to add a topping, put it in the oven, and serve to your customer. Easy! Yet, there are a few twists and turns along the way that create a challenge in the game dynamics. For one, you never know what a customer will want (the size of the pizza, the toppings they want, how impatient of a customer they are, how much they tip, etc.).

Additionally, the game has several levels. Each level gets increasingly more difficult. After each level, you win Kinzcash and funds. Kinzcash is a type of currency you can use in Webkinz world (Pizza Palace is just one minigame in the big world of Webkinz). Funds are the money you gain from each customer that lets you customize your pizza palace restaurant. After each level, you get to decide which items you want to upgrade and where to spend your money.

Dynamics

After playing a few rounds of the game, you begin to recognize patterns and build a game strategy. This point is where the experiential play that the game mechanics create come together! You will start to understand what customers are more impatient (or tip more) and, therefore, you should serve them faster.

Additionally, you will begin to notice patterns about the customers’ orders. In each level, the amount of customers stays consistent, and you can start to memorize what the customer might order. Recognizing patterns allows you to prepare the pizzas before even taking the customers’ orders!

Another fun game dynamic is deciding where to spend your funds. You have options to upgrade a wide range of items. For me, this is what makes the game so addicting. If I fail and the game ends, I convince myself its due to the items I chose to upgrade. Therefore, I am in this constant loop of repeatedly playing while trying to test out the best use of my funds.

Conclusion

This game is one of the most popular minigames in the Webkinz world. In my opinion, this is a result of the seamless combination of great mechanics and game dynamics.