The Revolution will be Downloaded

There was a great panel at our local IGDA meeting last night. It was called “The Revolution will be Downloaded: Confessions of Five Casual Game Makers”. It was a 90 minute talk discussing why “hard-core” or traditional game developers should be interested in what is happening in the “casual” game space. I am summarizing (and editorializing) the results for you here.

Casual games are largely defined as having very accessible subject matter, are easy to learn and easy to play. They are playable by people who don’t have high-end computers or game systems and often are non-violent. The predominant business model for downloadable casual games is a free 60-minute trial with a $20 price point and yielding roughly 20 hours of game play (similar to the $1/hour of gameplay that hard-core games tend to have).

Some key aspects of successful casual games:

  1. The game is a quick download. 15 megabytes seems to be a good number, but this size is growing ~70% per year.
  2. The game is installable quickly. Players should be able to click all the defaults and the game should start up on its own.
  3. The player should be able to grasp the key idea of the game and start having fun within 90 seconds.
  4. They don’t use the right mouse button much or at all.
  5. Generally non-violent.
  6. Moving, aiming and timing can be used but not at the same time.
  7. Can be played on the phone, while watching TV or carrying on a conversation.
  8. Tend to be relaxing, not stressful or competitive.

Why should traditional game developers care about casual games?

  1. Upwards of 45 million people check a casual game site every month. Unlike many traditional gamers, these people have credit cards and are perfectly willing to buy software they like.
  2. These people are your parents, grandparents, girlfriends, etc. We always talk about reaching the mass market, but casual games are already doing this.
  3. Because the cost of making a casual game is so much lower, it allows developers to bootstrap themselves and forge their own living without a publisher (at least in theory).

These are great positives, but visually, artistically, and technologically, and even interactively they aren’t as exciting or enriching as traditional electronic games. They often look crude and have shallow game experiences, if you can even call them that. They tend to be thin diversions at best. But the advantages are hard to deny. I want to affect as many people as possible.

Wint Deadfeet1Now for my editorializing. I believe that there’s a happy middle ground here. I think entertainment can be multi-tiered and that you should design for both the “casual” and sophisticated. Give your audience a show like Six Feet Under or Sopranos and some will just enjoy the violence, dialog and minute-to-minute interactions and some will read deeper and find the underlying depth, richness and messages. Games can do the same. Instead of either making immersive shooters for a hard-core audience or puzzle games for a casual audience, we can make medium-technology games that are easy to pick up and play yet have a long-term appeal and artistic messages.

What kinds of aspects would these games embody?

  1. They have underlying messages and themes that are cohesively woven throughout the game.
  2. They are a ~50 meg download and can use 3D acceleration, but can never require DirectX or another layer or download. They are roughly Google Earth technology.
  3. They can be multiplayer and can take advantage of extensive back-end technology. The multiplayer should be seamless and player matching should take skill into account.
  4. They should have non-competitive and competitive modes. Most players will only play the former, but advanced players will never grow bored with the competitive aspects. This lets a very wide range of players enjoy and talk about the game for long periods of time.
  5. They can be immersive and have good production values, especially in audio.
  6. They will tend to be non-violent but can have some conflict.
  7. Ultimately, they are artistic experiences which teach you about yourself or the human condition.

Let’s not give people another “match 3” or puzzle game. They deserve better and we deserve to work on more interesting and important games. People are ready for rich experiences that transform them. Maybe they will start playing them on their coffee break or while they’re on the phone, but let’s show them that games can be so much more than diversions. Along the way, we can show the world that games are important and not just violent shoot-em-ups or mindless trash.

Games can be art, once we take them and our audience seriously.