This morning after a long battle for the last week or so of being quite ill, I opened The Feature to read possibly *The Best* article I have read from The Feature! (Yes, I know that’s saying a lot!) If you haven’t yet read Tom Hume’s article on Casual Gaming, you should!
He captures the essence of an important shift from hard core gaming experiences to engaging play experiences perfectly! Allowing players to engage lightly in the experience throughout their daily lives is essential to creating something compelling and addictive to be used on a mobile device. Allowing players light weight games or frameworks that they can think about while on the move, but not have to interact with continually in the virtual world is essential. Giving them tools which allow them to explore and play at their will fits the affordances of the mobile device. And ironically, the experience becomes richer instead of less interactive as we do this. As well, most people with mobile phones are not gamers. These types of experiences that are easy and light weight broaden the target audience and are compelling to totally different user base.
In Tom’s words:
So, what lessons can mobile games companies learn from this? Firstly, that the console games industry doesn’t provide the only model for success in interactive entertainment. There are games out there with far broader appeal and a longer track-record of commercial success.
Secondly, that immersion is the exact opposite of what gamers want when they’re on the move. Games companies should offer quick-fire experiences that can be picked up and put down as and when players want, and maybe keep half an eye on games which can keep players occupied mentally even when they’re not in the process of playing them.
And thirdly, a corollary to this: that games demanding quick bursts of interaction needn’t be shallow. It’s possible to create rich experiences from quick-fire play.
Points two and three are my absolute favorite! Think about experiences that engage users virtually, physically, and socially. With interactions that are quick and light.
Thanks Tom for this article that states so well this essential shift in thought and opportunity!
Anita
Anita-
I’ve been lurking on your site for a bit 🙂 Thanks for bringing all of the great ideas in the community together here.
I work for a company named Tomo Software – we’re a small startup focusing on social-centric applications for mobile devices. This post is relevant to what we’re doing, so I figured I’d step out and say something.
We totally agree with the idea of casual gaming expressed in Tom’s article. In fact, we started the company over a year ago with that idea in mind. Our first product, SORA is made for intermittent play by the casual gamer. Our philosophy is to maximize reward during short bursts of play. So when you decide to open the game up, you have immediate rewards waiting from your last interaction.
I put a description of SORA below, but I don’t want this post to seem like an advert or anything. I just wanted to say that this post and Tom’s article really validated a lot of our work over the past year. With all of the frustration involved for a small company trying to get a product out in such a hard industry to break into – it helps at least having your idea mean something.
Thanks again, and keep bringing these great ideas to the public.
Rich LaBarca
VP of Research & Development, Tomo Software
http://www.tomosoftware.com
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SORA is a multiplayer social game that allows you to shape the life of a virtual person. This is done through small adjustments in what their likes/dislikes are, who they socialize with, and what group activities they decide to do. The world is a simulation that runs all the time, and you can check in and interact with your character whenever you choose to – not when the game dictates.
The character communicates back through blogging – we have an AI engine that takes the characters’ activities and translates them into blog to keep a record of what they’ve been up to. You can see their adventures and reply and post to their blog just like a real one. You can also see what your character looks like, what it’s up to and what it’s wearing through a graphical representation.
The character can meet and befriend people, and you can organize activites with your friends or go to an activity your character was invited to.
The goal of the game is to grow along skill paths by doing things with your friends. You pick what friends your character has and what you do with them. If you pick your friends and activities well, your character will be rewarded with great adventures, unique clothing to dress your character in, and cool accessories and swag to carry around.
We currently have a web and mobile-based test going on. It is free to sign up and try out. The gameplay will be significantly changed and the content greatly expanded in our next release in June. Also, the web version will go away entirely – our clients in June will be a completely mobile experience.
If you want to try it out, go to http://www.soracity.com
I couldn’t agree more… especially with networked apps and games. I was talking to somebody a while back about a game we’re working on (at mobibots.com) and he immediately said: “Wow! We can use that here in the office to decide who gets to make a decision (or who has to pay for lunch)” – I found it very interesting how somebody who has nothing to do with mobile gaming at all immediately figured it out: games that “…engage users virtually, physically, and socially…” are compelling. People might not know it yet, but that’s what they want!
-Chris Ritke (49mobile.blogspot.com)