Dealing with Game Design in general, the main focus of this website will be the quickly-growing videogame genre known as 'Nongame'. The main characteristic of this genre is the aparent lack of traditional 'goals' and 'objectives' or, sometimes, 'challenges'.
Nongames are more likely to work as a sandbox for the player, allowing moments of relaxation and self-expression. Several traditional games have this quality - The Sims being probably the most famous example. In fact, most games by Will Wright allow you to play around in this open ended fashion, from Sim City to his next title, Spore (which seems to take the 'self-expression' bit to the limit).
Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata's description of the forthcoming DS game 'Elektroplankton' also happens to describe the nongaming exerience: "This is designed to produce harmony, not adrenaline." Gonzalo Frasca's impressions on the Warioware DS's Toy Room are also very informative on the nongame nature: "These are the closest thing to videogame poetry that I have ever seen".
The purpose of this website is to discuss nongames (but also videogames in general), and to mantain a record of my own research and practice in the area. I am stil not sure how the website will evolve and how often it will be updated, but everyone is certainly welcome to keep coming back.
chico queiroz
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