There's an emoji for just about every major emotion, popular hobby, animal and object, with new ones like a pregnant woman, bacon and a fist bump just added to Unicode 9. And now texting using emojis to help tell a story or express oneself is about to become even more magical.
Disney has announced the launch of a new mobile game that allows players to play, collect and communicate with emojis from its extensive library of content.
That's right, Disney emojis are finally part of our world.
Called Disney Emoji Blitz, this app is a match-3 game that is similar to games like Candy Crush or Bejeweled. The player must pair at least three of the like characters to remove them from the board and earn points.
"At its core it's a match-3 game, which every body is familiar with," the game's executive producer Nacia Chambers told Tech Times. "But we kind of did a little bit of innovation there ... This is a blitz-style match-3 game, so you get 60-second rounds of matching with lots of crafted power ups, with lots of what we call 'blitz mode,' which adds a lot of fun and excitement to the game."
There are over 400 emojis available with the launch of the mobile game, which include 33 characters with eight expressions each, and over 200 of what is known as "item" emojis that are the Disney versions of emojis like thumbs up, cars and various scenes.
Characters featured in Disney Emoji Blitz include those known as the "fab five": Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy; several princesses like Elsa and Anna from Frozen; Disney classics like Tinkerbell and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland; Pixar characters like Mike Wazowski, Sully from Monsters, Inc., and Buzz and Woody from Toy Story.
Sleeping Beauty's castle, Cinderella's slipper and Ariel's seashell are examples of what is included in the item options.
Of course more characters and other item emojis will be released as part of app updates over time, which Chambers said would be a great way to include upcoming studio or animated film releases in the game.
The player starts off with some Disney and Pixar emojis that are available to them upon downloading the game. "You can bring one of your emojis into the round with you, and each of the emojis have a special power up," Chambers said. "When deployed on the board, they affect the board in a different way, but it also relates back to that character's characteristics that you would expect to see in a movie or television series."
The goal of the game is to pair them up to clear each round, which results in prices, coins and gems, which then allow them to collect more emojis. There is a mission system where each level players have to complete anywhere from five to 15 discrete missions.
"Some emojis are better at completing certain missions than others, so we are hoping that the compulsion to play, collect, and then come back and get new emojis and see what their effects on the board is going to be fun for our players," Chambers added.
The gaming aspect of Disney Emoji Blitz is addicting in its own right, but collecting emojis in the game unlocks them so they can be used in the user's keyboard.
The Disney emojis can then be used in texts just like any other emoji keyboard extension, so get ready to send and receive the magic carpet, Boo's monster costume, and expressions like Elsa sending a kiss (maybe to be used after a playful but icy comment) or Donald Duck red with anger.
"There's a really clever kind of shorthand that you can use emojis to help communicate with," Chambers said. "It's like the old adage 'a picture is worth a thousand words' — that's exactly what emojis are for the modern age."
Emojis allow people to express their emotions or reactions in just one tap, and now people can finally do so in the magical Disney way.
"I think it [launching an emoji app] really has do with how prolific emojis are just generally in the culture these days," Chambers said. "It seems like everybody is using them as a new way to communicate and tell their own stories through their text messages and emails, and that obviously goes really well with Disney and our history with storytelling."
Disney Emoji Blitz is now available to download for iOS and Android.
