Checking in on the state of real-world games

I recently wrote a piece for the casual game website Gamezebo about MyTown and Foursquare and the state of real-world game mechanics.

Being there is playing there: Checking in on the emergence of location-based games

Right now most of these games/services revolve around check-in mechanics. And I can totally see why, check-ins are the atomic unit of location-based data–”I’m here.” With Foursquare you simply raise your hand and state your location. MyTown offers some further gameplay beyond your hand-raising with players collecting rent on properties they’ve visited. They may seem overly simple, but these casual mechanics are what’s required to get the average player used to real-world gaming, easing them into more complex and demanding games.

Read the whole article.

Slides from Casual Game Design webinar for the IGDA

I recently gave an hour long webinar on casual game design for the International Game Developers Association. The talk touched on some of the ground I cover in my book Casual Game Design. I also gave a very brief analysis of some of the design decisions that informed our iPhone Gigaputt. The slides provide a visual guide to the ideas illustrated in the talk (though they make much more sense with the audio).

Here’s a link to a recording of the webinar:
http://bit.ly/cEB3aM

In the presentation I try to define casual games and define some defining characteristics of casual play. I also touch on the importance of developing a mental model to explain games before going into the process of being a game designer. After laying this initial groundwork I look at some specific games and the mechanics that comprise the gameplay.

Do you think the characteristics I’ve identified for casual games make sense? Are there others?

Gigaputt on the iTunes Store

Gigaputt, our new golf game has been out for about a month now and has sold decently. We were featured by Apple for a week, which boosted our sales 10 times over. But as many app developers know, the iTunes Store is a giant haystack. It’s worse than finding a needle in a haystack. At least a needle is made of different material. This is like finding a strand of hay in a haystack. You can find the ones on top but finding ones in the middle, well that takes some real perseverance and digging.

Here’e the skinny on Gigaputt:

With the flick of a button Gigaputt transforms your neighborhood into an exciting 3-hole mini-golf course, complete with popping manholes, treacherous fire hydrants, and giant coins.

I plan to have a more detailed post-mortem on the design decisions behind Gigaputt available very soon. But in the meantime check out the game. The post-mortem will make a lot more sense if you’ve played!

The casual gamification of the world as investment opportunity

Dean Takahashi had a good talk with a number of venture capitalists over at Venture Beat. The most interesting point I thought came from Tim Chang who had this to say:

Gaming 3.0 is about leveraging game mechanics and models to re-invigorate other markets: humans are inherently geared towards addictive behaviors and biases that can be exploited through game mechanics like points, achievements, and leveling up. Gaming + Commerce = Swoopo. Gaming + Music = Red Octane, Harmonix. Gaming + Healthcare = Lumos Labs. Gaming + Local Search/LBS = FourSquare. I often joke that “gaming will rescue us all.” I don’t mean that we all become hardcore WoW players, but that we can utilize game constructs to perhaps revive other industries which no longer monetize as effectively via macro-transaction or advertising.

It’s definitely something I kept thinking about while writing Casual Game Design. More and more I think the lessons of casual game will make a greater impact outside of the game industry than in it. Now I wish I had chapters in the book looking at the “game” mechanics of things like collecting friends on Facebook or bidding on eBay auctions.

Casual Game Design out in February (I hope).

My book, Casual Game Design: Designing Play for the Gamer in All of Us is due out in February.  Quite a mouthful, I know.  The book lays out some basic frameworks for thinking about game design, then delves into the specific mechanics of a number of different casual games.  While I was writing it, I had E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel in mind.  I’ve always admired the way he offered tools for thinking about the writing fiction by looking at specific choices and elements from novels good and bad.  It’s all about reading and appreciating.

When I sat down to write this book, I wanted to do something similar with games.  I won’t claim to match Forster’s wit or insight, but hopefully the book provides thought provoking analysis of game mechanics.  It’s all about playing games and then thinking about them–why they work, why they don’t.  Hopefully people will find it useful.  I know I found writing it enlightening–I got to spend months playing games and thinking about them, talking with other designers about games.  And really, there’s no better practice for a game designer than playing games and thinking about them.