[casual_games] The Making of Casual Games

[BRENT SILBY (def-logic)]

Its true that casual arcade games give the impression of being simple and that all surprises have been discovered within the first few minutes. However, I'm not sure that this is a disadvantage. Consider a game like Collapse. All the surprises in that are gone pretty quickly, but people keep coming back. It is because of the purity of its gameplay. It is addictive, and many people have purchased the full version.

Having said that, I think its possible to hold back surprises for later stages in a casual game--even if they are simple surprises. In the game I've just put together, the gameplay is very simple and people may not think there are any surprises. Yet on stage 5 there is a surprise--Giant Bugs, which people wouldn't expect. Its a simple surprise, but a surprise nontheless :)

Brent.
DEF-LOGIC
VIDEOGAMES
www.def-logic.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duncan Gough" <duncan at 3rdsense.com>
To: "IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List" <casual_games at igda.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: [casual_games] The Making of Casual Games


> In terms of making casual, browser-based games, this is an excellent  
> overview:
> 
> http://www.drizzle.com/~scottb/gdc/flash-paper.htm
> 
> One of the problems I've encountered is making the trial version of a  
> game 'good enough', whilst keeping back enough features for the  
> retail version to be worth the money. Besides scoreboards and other  
> game modes, it can often feel like the benefit of paying for the game  
> is negligible. As Brent and machaira have pointed out, the browser  
> game or the trial version have to be addictive enough to hook people  
> on almost the first play. Which in turn means that the game can  
> suffer from the perception that it is too simple, that all of the  
> surprised have been discovered.
> 
> On 22 Jul 2005, at 22:07, BRENT SILBY (def-logic) wrote:
> 
>>
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