I won’t lie to you! When I told my friends that I’d downloaded an app called “Snatch”, they wondered what I was doing? What did you search to find that was one comment. It wasn’t any thing dodgy, but a risk free game to play on your smart phone. I’ll try and enlighten you while I explore Snatch and share some photos of my playing with Snatch.
Snatch – Mobile App
I was busy working in my daytime job, while I spotted an advert for the “follow on game to Pokémon Go”. The kids and I enjoyed Pokémon Go, but it didn’t hook us in that far. We still play it on car journeys. Ok I drive and the kids play it. So, the idea of a augmented reality game like that appealed. And I’m sure that the opportunity with AR games is only being skimmed upon. However I’m sure there is a great responsibility on developers to maintain players safety.
The advert and logo for Snatch is a pair of eyes peering out of the darkness. It potentially looked like a spy game and sadly my imaginary version of the game was a totally different game. But I wasn’t expecting a game where you can win physical prizes. Or even cash prizes!
What Prizes can you win in Snatch?
The potential for the prize list to expand is huge and I’ll leave a view point on this at the end. Currently you can Win cash prizes, via another mobile app called Circle. Circle is a money transfer service to enable peer to peer transfers. Vouchers for money off £10 at Vue, £10 at ASOS, £30 with TicketMaster, £10 at Nando’s, £10 Amazon Gift card and £150 to spend at a Salon with Rock Pamper Scissors. There are 6 month premium subscriptions to Spotify and 2 months of Now TV up for grabs too. Also according to their website there are tie ins with Pizza Hut, Marmite, and Top Shop. The more companies that join into this game the more the prize potential could grow.
How do you play Snatch?
There are 3 main ways you play in the game.
Discovering Packages
Just like Pokémon Go, the emphasis on discovering the collectable items is to get out and move. My icon in the middle of the screen shows that there are 2 packages to collect near me. I would guess that they are about 200 metres away from me. Simply tapping the package on the map, bring up the mini game.
The Augmented reality kicks in, in the mini game. Here you need to align the floating package with your on screen crosshair. Thing is it isn;t always as simple as that. The app uses your smart phones motion sensors on all three axis and creates a mini puzzle. Sometimes, you need to tilt your phone up to move it down, sometimes its reversed. Sometimes you need to rotate your phone a little to move the package down. I’ll admit that I have been struggling to align it several times and by pure frustration and chance it aligns.
Snatch a Package
For a cost of 25 in game coins you can snatch a package from a near by player. I’m not sure how close near by is, but occasionally I find 2 or 3 other player pop up with in the vicinity.
Defend you Packages
So, as you can imagine, if you can snatch someones package. Then someone can snatch from you. When that happens you are given two options. Surrender or defend the snatch! If you defend it you are given two options, both of which cost in game gold.
What is ultimate Goal in Snatch?
When you’d found a package in your area it starts a 6 hour timer off. The idea being to keep hold of it until the timer reaches zero. If your still holding it when that happens you win what ever is inside it. If you’ve snatched someone else’s find you continue on their remaining timer. So you could snatch a box with only 30 minutes left! Imagine the last few seconds of a game of pass the parcel!
So far I’ve won in game gold, in game diamonds, a 2 month Now TV subscription and £1 cash. Looking further into the Now subscription is it possible to claim more than one (if you win them). You simply activate it during your second month.
Is Snatch Game App worth the download?
It is a free game, with in app purchasing as an option. Which has the great advantage in a try before it costs you anything move. I’ve sort of enjoyed it while playing and can see ways it could be improved. For example if you could see the the list of packages your opponent is holding an chose the one you want to snatch. Which would add real excitement if you have a cash prize package. These are listed in gold so you know they are special. These would become targetable and mean you need to work harder to keep them.
The down side is that you can only hold 10 packages at a time. So if you collect them within 5 minutes, you’re sort of redundant for 6 hours, unless you need to defend.
I mentioned earlier about potential for the prizes and this is my view on it. The concept of playing a game and receiving a physical prize is brilliant. It does give you the hook to keep going. However the majority of prizes seem to be money off vouchers, which made me think. Is Snatch just an amazing voucher marketing app. If I signed up to ASOS for example could I get a £10 off my first order (I don’t know if I can or not).
Likewise my £1 cash prize with Circle, is a hook to pull me into that service. I haven’t claimed it yet. Looking through their site it appears to be a free service, if you use a debit card to create the funds.
I’m sure there will be loads of other large national chains and online retailers join in the project as it’s potentially risk free. It alerts the player to brands and services I didn’t even know about. If I did claim the item I’ve either added more money to it to complete the order or it’s a starter to a longer service. Or as I have, I’ve won the £1 cash and 2 months Now TV prizes and not claimed them (yet). Which has cost the retailer nothing.
Finally, I’ve never said “Snatch” as much in recent years, just like I haven’t said “divvy”, “kets”, “chudda” and “wazzak”! Strange words with different meanings from my school days.
If you do download it and start playing here is my referal code to claim 500 in game gold –
TKBRDW
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