Week 7: Casual games design

For week 7 we we're asked too look at an article about casual game design, dedicated mainly on the success of the game company Popcap Games. This case study was titled Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design, by Marcos Venturelli.

A casual game is that of a game that can be given to a player of any skill and can sit down and play without much difficulty at all and receive short bursts of enjoyment out of the game. These features are some, which Popcap Games focus on, and will be described later on.

The case study started by addressing how readily available casual games are now becoming, by the advancement of portable devices and wireless Internet, casual games are within a arms reach away. This being said, the fact that the games should be easy to play to a wide area of players, is becoming one of the main goal of game designers, keep it simple to begin with. One of the main reasons why Popcap games has produced successful games is because their games focus on pacing the players through the game predicatively. Pacing is responsible of creating complex interactions between the player and the game.

Pacing:
These elements build up to create the games pace

Tension:  Is the perceived danger that a player might become the weakest side of the opposing forces within the conflict

Threat: Is generated on the level of game mechanics existing as the power struggle tips in favour of the system/players opponents

Tempo: Is the intensity of play. It is also the time between each interaction between the player and the game e.g. the time between clicks.

Movement Impetus: Is the will and desire of the player to progress through the game.

Space of possibility:

As game designers we create a space for possibility, this space is the area that we can limit to create a desired effect on the player. Raph Koster [2005] "The destiny of games is to become boring, not fun"

What he means is that our brains are programmed or enjoy to work out patterns in everything, especially games. We are always trying to master and discover these patterns, and its only a matter of time until these patterns are all used. Whilst designing casual games, we want the game to have a restricted space of possibility so that the game will be easy to play for everyone, but not a large space so that there are too many patterns that it becomes a hard game. Creating a game is within a game itself, its all about creating the right balance.

To keep the players movement impetus stimulated, the game must keep the player interested. Popcap have done this by adding certain elements of mechanics every few levels in their games. A game i am very fond of Peggle, is a game where every 5 levels the game introduces to you a new character to play as, which in turn gives the player a new mechanic to play with. Whilst doing this in the background, the game is also increasing in difficulty slowly, by introducing more obstacle to work around, the players movement impetus is continued.

This is the reason why Popcap are seen as one of or the best casual game designer company at this current time. They focus on giving the players a enticing and exciting experience that thrills the player even in short bursts. This element I will be trying to work into my own group game I am produces currently. We are introducing a new weapon every few levels to entice the player to play even more to increase the movement impetus. The players will continuously be rewarded with death animations of the enemy in a humorous fashion. As well as having the difficulty and Tempo of the game gradually get faster.