Casual Game DesignDesigning games everyone can enjoy

Last week I attended Casuality Europe in Amsterdam and I had a great time. I can’t write a complete summary, because the conference had just too much to offer. Instead, I’ll just quickly go over the parts that involved game design.

Ten ways not to make a casual game

The first session of the conference was also one of the most interesting from a game design viewpoint. Jason Kapalka from PopCap Games listed ten ways not to design a casual game.

1. Make it really hard.
2. Have a dozen mediocre game modes instead of one good one.
3. Make it a 600 MB download that requires two next generation video cards and 4GB RAM.
4. Price your game at $35 or $3.50 and sell only from your myspace homepage.
5. Use the right mouse button.
6. Give it a terrible name or theme.
7. Award low scores.
8. Expect users to read.
9. Make it challenging and cerebral.
10. Ignore what everyone else says about your game.

Jason then showed us a version of Bejeweled that broke all the above rules. It used a dark red and black color scheme and instead of diamonds you had to swap metal skulls. He called the game Blood War: Assault on Verminus 3 or, even worse, Blood War Manager. The game had loads of text to explain what you had to do and swapping required the right mouse button. And of course, he was selling it on his myspace homepage. I’d just like to point out that Jason’s example clearly shows that game design does not end with a good idea, it begins there.

To end on a positive note, Jason also shared three good ways to make a casual game.

1. Give feedback to players.
2. Consider your customer.
3. Get excited about your game.

Designing successful mobile games

Mobile games got their fair share of attention at Casuality. One of the sessions talked about what it takes to develop a succesful mobile game. I’ll only discuss the design issues that were brought up.

A mobile game is a casual game by necessity. People play games on their phone while they’re waiting for the bus to arrive, so they don’t have time to get immersed in the game. You need to think about what works well on a mobile platform.

• Keep the gameplay simple. Players don’t have time to learn the game, so make good use of common knowledge. It should either be immediately obvious to the player how she should play the game or you have to use existing game schemes like pinball, pool or solitaire.
• Stay non-immersive. Players spend only short bursts of time on the game, so immersive games don’t work well on mobile.
• Make the game interruptable. You never know when the bus arrives, so you should be able to stop at any moment. The bus driver is not going to wait a couple of minutes just because you have to finish a level.
• Design an intuitive interface. It’s tempting to use all those buttons you have at your disposal, but a good mobile game keeps the control scheme simple. Make good use of the navpad.

Game design workshop

Eric Tams from PopCap Games ran a game design workshop and of course I participated. Our mission was to design a casual game in sixty minutes about painting or sculpting. Let me just say that Eric is a very nice guy and I enjoyed talking with him. I know, that has nothing to do with game design, but I just thought you should know.

We formed groups of two persons for this assignment. (Well, most of us anyway; there were one or two lone wolfs.) Designing a game with a partner was a new experience for me, but it really went down well. I teamed up with Adrian Grigore from Lobstersoft. Eric told me that within most groups, people were at each other’s throat, but Adrian and I cooperated through-out the exercise and we had a great time.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you who won the design workshop, because I was outside catching some fresh air when the winners were announced. (The only time in three days that I went to get some air, too. Nice timing.) Not that it really matters: I had a lot of fun.

More about Casuality

Although you’ll hear lots of talks about marketing and development at Casuality, it’s a great conference for designers, too. The programme was well-balanced with sessions about every topic. But Casuality is not just about the sessions. Lots of people that walk around at the conference love to talk about game design. For example, I met one of the game designers at Zylom and we had a great talk. I also talked to quite a few independent game developers and they are always willing to swap ideas.

If you’re anywhere near Seattle at the end of June, I suggest you attend the Casuality conference there (June 27th, 28th and 29th). If you’re not near Seattle at that time, book a plane ticket!

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