[casual_games] [design]Geometry Wars

[Adam Martin]

On 07/12/06, Josh Lee <joshlee at semifat.net> wrote:

> The thing with XBLA is that its user base is a subset of those who

> own XBoxes, and the people who own XBoxes tend to skew towards the

> "hardcore" end of the gameplaying spectrum. (While moms buying games

> for their kids don't often use the term, a lot of console owners who

> buy games for themselves will happily self-identify as such.) This

> audience may be less intimidated by high barriers to achievement than

> the people we usually think of as being the audience for "casual games."


OK, so that's a very interesting point. XBLA games have an audience
that is not only constrained, but is constrained in ways we can
relatively accurately define (demographics of XB purchasers are
reasonably accurate and reasonably well-known).

OTOH, Nintendo has consistently for the past few years been talking
about how selling consoles to children was a means of getting it into
the hands of the parents, and that their secondary target was making
games that when the parent picked up the console (famously IIRC
described in one scenario by a housewife tidying up after her
children!) they thought "hey, I'll have a go".

Certainly, we have a lot of visitors (friends, familes, etc) and
between sessions of full-price 360 games, in the downtime where XBLA
is on, the non-games-players (self-identified) have a much greater
tendency to get involved and start playing (everyone's sitting aroudn
on sofas etc). Still not huge, but noticeably increased.

So ... perhaps games like GW:E are in fact reaching-out to the passive
audiences who didn't actually buy the 360 (or bought it not for
themselves) and happen to be in the room only because, well, the
big-screen TV is in a major social area of the house.

Which would redefine the design and positioning for these games...

(although I don't expect this to be any news at all to those
targetting XBLA already, I'm sure this is where they started from
initially)

Adam