While half the games industry is stuck in a yes-they-are-no-they're-not argument about whether games really are addictive (or compulsive, or harmfully habitual) I thought I'd take a different approach. If games are addictive then this might turn out to be a good thing.
We already know what the Nintendo 3DS looks like, and if the leaks are to be believed, we've also had a glimpse of Sony's PSPhone. The thing that I've been asking myself is, why are they doing their best to limit the options for game designers?
The rise of the iPhone (iPod Touch) has taken both Sony and Nintendo by surprise, and while the aggressive price of the games is one factor, I think one of its more subtle advantages is in the flexibility of its form. You see, the iPhone is as capable of hosting games in portrait format as it is landscape.
Gamification is a hot topic. It seems like every new start-up suggests bolting on video game-style awards and achievements to transform any activity into pure fun. I think game design techniques can make the world a better place, but points and badges are not the be all and end all. I'm going to explain why they're not the answer, and why another feature of games - the ghost car - offers so much more potential for game inspired design.
I've played games for over 30 years now and developed them for over 13, and yet there are times when I still struggle to explain parts of the games industry to non-developers. While flicking through some old pages in my OneNote notebook I spotted a set of notes that were going to form a presentation to a class of 14-year olds. One unanswered question I’d asked myself read, "How do you get kids to look at non-mainstream games??"
Let me explain.
I'm a huge fan of PopCap's Peggle, and so when the haters started posting on tunasnax.com, I had no option but to stand up for the world's best ever ball bearing based game. Head over to tunasnax and read it for yourself.
"Action and reaction" is one of the few things that I remember from my school physics lessons, but while recently playing a physics-centric game I found it wasn't just the objects that were reacting to actions, so was I. Forget your interactive-narrative, character-focussed, multiple-storylined experiments; I'm going to tell you why a game about physics moved me more than any professionally penned 'narrative driven game'.
