FrontierVille
| The Pioneer Trail | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Developer(s) | Zynga East |
| Publisher(s) | Zynga |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release date(s) | June 9, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Simulation, RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single-player with multiplayer interaction |
The Pioneer Trail, formerly known as FrontierVille was a simulation, role-playing video game available for play on social networking sites such as Facebook. Developed by Zynga, and launched on June 9, 2010, it is a freemium game, meaning it's free to play, but players have the option of purchasing premium content. The game was shut down on April 30, 2015.
FrontierVille was the first game developed at Zynga East, Zynga's Baltimore studio led by Brian Reynolds.
In art treatment and gameplay, The Pioneer Trail was very similar to one of Zynga's most popular games, FarmVille. Instead of a farm, however, the player played the role of a pioneer in the "American Old West."
The player created an avatar which resembled an American pioneer. The player then may have completed a total of innumerable collections which could be traded for coins, "experience points" (XP), decorations, livestock, trees, craftable items, energy and horseshoes (rare money that can be bought with real money). The player could also finish goals which included tasks such as gathering money, buying energy, clearing land, chopping down trees, raising livestock and trees, creating items such as beds, furniture, and clobbering unwanted pests such as bears, snakes, foxes and/or groundhogs. Eventually, the player would have acquired a spouse and up to four children. The player could have the other family members perform tasks. They could perform tasks simultaneously with their spouses and children, but the player risked being "kicked off" the game.
Other tasks included collecting from buildings, building inns, wagons, general stores, log cabin, schools, chicken coops, barns, trading posts, barber shops, churches, and sawmills as well as seeding, growing and harvesting crops. Completing goals yielded rewards for the player. One early source of game points, which was changed by Zynga, was for the player to build as many chicken coops as possible. One noted player managed to build 28 upgraded chicken coops. The chickens became ready to feed every 30 minutes, but the chicken coops could only allow the stored chickens to be feed only once in a 24-hour period. Having more than 24 allowed the player to feed all of their chickens for free every 30 minutes, which gave the player added coins, collection items and game points. Feeding coops as often as possible did elevate the player's game level in a shorter time. Sometimes, players could set their own goals, such as surpassing a billion coins, or saving over a million food points, or growing over 1300 horses on their land. One player of note, had passed over 1.2 billion coins, 13 million food points and over 1300 grown horses on his land, when the game was removed by Zynga. Horses were fed for free and gave between zero points to four points of energy. The upgraded barn could hold 1000 cows of various types, 1000 horses, and 1000 mules.
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