Infamous warning haiku for game designers

Stil on that casual x hardcore debate:

Forcing a blend between
mass market and niche
makes "medio-core" games?

Lessons from other media: addressing different levels of literacy

For this round table, I´ll adopt Bateman´s suggested terminology and discuss casual and hardcore in terms of levels of literacy. This terminology, I believe, makes easier to approach videogames as part of a large group of different media - and that´s is pretty much what I´ll try to do here. I´ll not, however, directly compare films to games, music to games, etc. The intention is to discuss how other media manage to please and attract heterogen audiences comprising varied levels of literacy.


I am not suggesting that a designer should necessarily aim at a varied public - there are niche products and genres, and that´s fine. But you will notice that most examples have been quite successfull in both short and long terms. Here they are:

TV: The Simpsons

The longest running animation in history is capable to please children and adults of all age. It is no secret that part of its success is due to its allusions and references to works and characters that should be familiar only to a parcel of the audience. Still, it also has a very strong, straightforward, comic verve, that does not depends on sophisticated levels of literacy and can please anybody.


Literature: George Orwell´s Animal Farm

Again, a very clear piece of work that can be read and enjoyed by children, but that also is very interesting to adults for its political message, which is about Orwell´s strong critical view on the communist regime.
(It seems there´s a film adaptation)


Music: The Beatles

Or even just Sargeant Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band, for that matter. The Beatles successfull fusion between catchy pop tunes, avant-gard art and classical music (this one, thanks a lot in part to producer George Martin) took rock music to a new degree, earning even more respect and credibility for their work. In a single album, sometimes in a single song, they could add elements that would please the ears of people with different musical background and taste.


Web: Google
Its front page is still a single form line with two buttons. However, in the hands of experienced users it can trasform into a all-in-one online center.

---

In the end, it seems that it all comes to what the reader/player/listener chooses to pay attention to. It´s about giving not only variety, but depth. Taking care of 'casual' and 'core', to bring back these terms.

Ok, so what games would you say that have this kind of quality? Well, I would start a list with Sensible World of Soccer. Very simple to play (one button!), and several levels of micro-management that could be safely ignored, if so the player wished to. What games would you add to the list?

Flora on FILE 2007

FILE SÃO PAULO 2007

Net-Art, Video-Installations, Interactive Works, Games, Robotic Performances and Beyond. Hypermedia Works, Telematic Actions, Artificial Intelligences, Interactive Cinematics, Expanded Realities, The New Culture Of Interfaces, Tangible Immaterialities.

FILE - Electronic Language International Festival was held at Sesi 10-Paulista's Cultural Space, in São Paulo, Brazil, from August 13th to September 09rd,

For the second consecutive year I´ve got something to show at FILE (Electronic Language International Festival), which is a great pleasure and honor. This year, Flora is being exhibited along with other experimental games. Here´s the list.

Check their website for more details.

Musical / Visualization game for iPod

This is Musika, developed by NanaOn-Sha and created by Masaya Matsuura, the designer who gave us PaRappa the Rapper:



Musika can be either be played or simply watched, so it´s pretty much a non-game too. Its spirit feels a little bit like those Llamasoft synths, although I think this one has more rigid rules and goals. Here they are (EDIT 24/11/2008: from apple's website):

"Your music is your game! 'musika' is a ground-breaking music visualizer game for your iPod that uses the songs on your iPod to create original game play.If you see a character that is in the song title, just hit the Center button!Faster reactions will earn you more points!"

It´s good to see interesting alternative games on the iPod. This could be a very interesting platform for, well, any kind of game really. As long as you can play with one button and a wheel (hey, have they ported Rally X already?).

(via Gamasutra)

The DS has been drinking (not me)

The WiiWii website has a post on alcohol-related non-games being released for Nintendo´s portable console. Apparently, there are at least 3 titles in development:

- Sakeshou DS, which seems to be an encyclopedia on Sake (Japanese spirit made of rice).

- Bartender DS, edutainment about drinks tp be published by EA.

and

- Sommelier DS, its counterpart for wine lovers.

There has been a number of cooking titles released for DS, so this is a logical step. Any guesses on how much it could sell and how it could be received by the press/public opinion?

ps: it´s good to post something after such a long break from here. Due to some news I might slightly change the focus of this website in the near future. stay tuned.

Molyneux on Emotions in games

Watch the video below to hear Molyneux talking about emotions in games:


Maybe I'm being too critical, and that's the sort of feature you can only evaluate by playing the game, but isn't the dog thing less impressive than what you expect from an interview like that? What do you think?

(via New Scientist Tech Blog, thanks to Hugh)

Apply Serious Games conference 2007

Got this by mail:

"Do attend the UK’s leading serious games conference Apply Serious Games and dedicated AI Innovations conference, all running 28th June in London. Focus is on virtual worlds, web 2.0 and brands.

Attendance at any of the conferences allows free access to the very first open consultation of ‘Games for the London Olympic Games’ - a lunch-time session as part of the conference where you can express your views on how serious games and games should be used to support the London Olympics, hosted by South East Media Network (SEMN). Whilst the first academic serious games network is also launched at this event."

If I were there, I would like to attend to:

"Peter Molyneux of Lionhead (Fable, Black & White) show-casing emotion and realism in games"

I wonder what is meant by "realism" here. Believable NPCs, maybe? Could he be talking about his project nicknamed Dimitri?

The website for the conference is:
http://www.applyseriousgames.com/

Flora reviewed on Gameology.org

Zach Whalen was very kind to write a short review on Flora. Here is a passage I really like:

"Similarly, I've found that playing Flora affords the most pleasure by striking a balance between the generative chaos of frenetic play and the order of strategic play. Maybe we could call that a balance between ludus and paidea, but I like the gardening metaphor because of its spatial connotation. From a design point of view, Chico has done a nice job of making that balance available by creating tools and actionability in ways that encourage balance, but because this is a nongame, the player is the one who ultimately gives structure to her play."

Read the whole article.

The Marriage - A Review

(cross-posted at Gameology.org)

The Marriage, a game developed by Rod Humble, has ignited a very welcome discussion on games as art, and their capabilities to convey more complex and delicate matters. In case you are not familiar with the game, you can download it and read about its background, rules and interpretations on Rod's website. Here are some passages explaining the game experience:

Background:
"The Marriage is intended to be art. No excuses or ducking. As such its certainly meant to be enjoyable but not entertaining in the traditional sense most games are. This means I am certain to be perceived as being pretentious by some who read this, my apologies. This is also a very difficult game to understand, again my apologies, I have tried to assist those who are interested but frustrated with the rules summary below."

Rules:
"Initially you have two squares a blue and a pink, on screen.
Soon different coloured circles will enter and leave the play space.

You have two controls.

1.) When you mouse over the blue or pink square the blue square reduces in size and both squares move towards each other.

2.) When you mouse over a circle it disappears and the pink square gets smaller."
(...)
The general game flow will be balancing the need to have the pink & blue squares “kiss” to insure the pink square does not fade from the marriage versus the blue square needing to touch the circles to insure it does not fade."

Meaning:
"The game is my expression of how a marriage feels. The blue and pink squares represent the masculine and feminine of a marriage. They have differing rules which must be balanced to keep the marriage going.

The circles represent outside elements entering the marriage. This can be anything. Work, family, ideas, each marriage is unique and the players response should be individual.."

Having played the thing myself, and having read some comments on several websites, here is some of what I think of the game:

The Marriage is art. Although I spoiled my experience by reading the game meaning before actually playing it, I was delighted to see how Humble managed to express his views, in a elegant way, on such an intricate subject as marriage.

Apparently, the economy of possible actions within the game has upset some players, who argue that a handful of variables cannot handle the complexity of the relationship it tries to simulate. I can understand it does not illustrate the total experience of being married. But at the same time, it is enough to express the author's view, if not in its totality, at least regarding a specific feeling he must have had at some point about a personal issue.

The Marriage feels, to me, like poetry. On a personal note, it fits within my interest in unorthodox game modes and non-games. The Marriage is an auteur game, for I've seen, through playing, how Humble perceives marriage and - maybe that's the point - how Humble perceives his personal experience of being married. This is not something we see everyday in games.

New blog on games - Ludonauta

Ludonauta, by Diogo Ribeiro, is a new blog on game critique and analysis. From Portugal, the website is written in Portuguese, although Diego has made an exception for his current entry for the Round Table.

Check it out.