[casual_games] Use of keyboard on casual games

Donald dbahlman at xblitz.com
Wed May 30 14:20:26 EDT 2007

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Good Point Juan.

I’ve worked in game development for more than 14 years. And there are a
couple of simple things we’ve always done.

1) Listen to what our customers say. Customer feedback is essential.

2) Look at what your competitors are doing and how well they are doing in
the market place.

My 2’ish cents,

It’s not enough to wine & dine an editor to get a good review. It’s all
about what the customer wants and expects. You can build up hype around a
game all day long, but at the end if that game is not intuitive to the
gamer, then frustration begins to out weigh any fun factor...and that
effects sales.

Why do websites have the nav menus on the left or across the top? Because
it is not only functionally correct but it is what people have grown to
expect. UI and control functionality should be no different in games. The
reason things are as they are, is because
it works. ;)

I do agree with you on one aspect, Pedro. I’m all about experimenting and
pushing the envelop. However, first give the customer what makes them feel
most comfortable. Then add a “little” salt & pepper here and there. I
think it best to introduce one variable at a time, if it fits the game.

Donald Bahlman

xBlitz Entertainment

www.xblitz.com

_____

From: Juan Gril [mailto:juangril at jojugames.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:49 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Use of keyboard on casual games

Interesting. How do you think Publishers/Distributor have come up to that
conclusion that games should only use mouse control. Do you think it has
been an arbitrary decision then?

How come is it hard for you to believe that Publishers and Distributors, who
run focus groups every week with real users (those who pay for the games we
make) are wrong on that particular aspect?

Of course, we are always talking about the downloadable games audience. Like
I said before, keyboard control is doing well in web games.

Juan

On 5/30/07, Pedro Honório Silva <HYPERLINK
"mailto:pedro.silva at ignite-games.com"pedro.silva at ignite-games.com> wrote:

I totally agree with Oscar here.

I know that Publishers/Distributors tend to "only bet on the winning horse",
which include really simple (yet amusing) games for their audience.
Therefore the independent game developer companies tend to develop games
that they often don't really enjoy doing just to satisfy the market's
apparent desires.

However, we at Ignite believe that an increasing number of people is getting
more interested on different kinds of games, less simple, yet still amusing
and entertaining. And many of those games have the need to use the keyboard
or even a mixture of mouse and keyboard.

Telling me that the 40 year old woman that plays casual games doesn't know
how to play a game using the keyboard is kind of hard to believe. Even more
when several good (and successful) games out there use the keyboard as their
primary input.

What I feel is that, as Oscar said, being a design issue, it should be left
to the game designer to decide what way is better to play the game. Imposing
these type of rules will only accomplish two things: independent game
developers continue to develop games they don't like just to make some cash
cows; at some point in time we'll have a subset of the casual market where
we'll have "not-so-casual" games (pc downloadable) for different audiences
(which actually will be the same people looking for different games).

Honestly, such rules is clearly Publishers/Distributors rules and not game
developers'. It will most likely level down the quality and variety of the
games in the casual space. Leaving little space for innovation and new forms
of gameplay. Or even worse, it's a huge investment on "keep-doing-clones"
strategy that many game developers follow.

Just my 2 cents

Pedro Honório Silva

Chief Financial Officer

Ignite Games

Rua Cova da Moura, nº 2 - 2º Dto.

1350-117 Lisboa, Portugal

T: +351 212 427 695 - M: +351 933 465 985

HYPERLINK "mailto:pedro.silva at ignite-games.com"
\npedro.silva at ignite-games.com

HYPERLINK "http://www.ignite-games.com" \nwww.ignite-games.com

From: HYPERLINK "mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org"
\ncasual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:HYPERLINK
"mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org" \ncasual_games-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of oscar oscar
Sent: quarta-feira, 30 de Maio de 2007 18:22

To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Use of keyboard on casual games

There are NO established rules that dictate a USER INTERFACE.

Nor SHOULD there be.

IT IS a conversation between the game DESIGNER and the game PLAYER.... and
that palaver is moderated by the DESIGN and INTERFACE... ANYONE who throws
out RULES about how "This is GOOD" and "That is BAD" is taking steps to
reduce the language by which we converse with those who would join us in the
interaction.

A designer would be wise to include as many viable options to join that
conversation in the design phase...

Design Permitting of course.

oscar

On 5/30/07, Andy Fitter <HYPERLINK "mailto:andy at morpheme.co.uk"
\nandy at morpheme.co.uk> wrote:

I think either can be acceptable, many games only real work well with one
and not the other. What your design should avoid, as it's one of the most
painful experiences ever for me, is a game that is 98% mouse driven but then
requires you to press space to exit a menu screen for example, or entirely
cursor key driven but requires you to click a button with the mouse to start
each new level etc.

Forcing the user to un-intuitively switch input methods to continue is has
to be one of the worst design 'features' you see in casual games, and you
see it far too often.

Andy.

From: HYPERLINK "mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org"
\ncasual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:HYPERLINK
"mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org" \ncasual_games-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Juan Gril
Sent: 30 May 2007 15:50
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Use of keyboard on casual games

Keyboard control is well accepted on web games (because of their audience),
although i find that even those web games that use mouse control have a
better acceptance.

You are absolutely right that it is a design decision, so it is important to
design the game for the right channel.

Cheers,

Juan

On 5/30/07, Jose Marin <HYPERLINK "mailto:jose_marin2 at yahoo.com.br"
\njose_marin2 at yahoo.com.br> wrote:

Hi.

This question could look a little silly, but I think it's very important:

Every casual game must allow the user control the game via mouse, or it's ok
to use the keyboard to that?

It's a design decision, because some kinds of games could be more playable
using the keyboard.

What do you think about this?

Regards

Jose

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