Gamasutra has uploaded an informative post-mortem for Infinite Interactive’s Puzzle Quest. CEO and designer Steve Fawkner is basically a master at mixing casual and hardcore gameplay, so if you’re keen to learn a few of the ingredients of his magic recipe, this is a good place to start.
The article also has some great insights into the minds of casual gamers. Take this, uh, gem, from the end of the piece:
* Some of the standard RPG conventions were absolutely mystifying to casual gamers, such as matching purple gems to level up.
I know I don’t blink an eyelid at terms like “level up”, “skill points” or “man girdle”, so it’s hard to imagine how a casual gamer would feel faced with such esoteric concepts.
There’s loads more on how Infinite pitched the game and the challenges it faced with different platforms, as well as the steps the developer took with the original prototyping.
Postmortem: How Puzzle Quest Saved Infinite Interactive [Gamasutra, via Sumea] More »
Quick: Are you hardcore or casual? Answer! For those who cannot pick either, you might be something else. You might be a “mid-core gamer,” somewhere between the hardcore and casual netherworlds. Blog 8bitrocket has not only coined the term but also come up with a neato manifesto. Writes 8bitrocket: Hardcore gamers consider me a casual gamer and casual gamers consider me a hardcore gamer, so what am I? …In any case, I have decided to call myself a MID-CORE gamer. I have no idea if there is another term for me or the millions like me, but I like this one and I’m sticking to it. I know it’s not CATCHY or SEXY, but it is accurate… I always hear industry people talk about CASUAL and HARDCORE, but never the in betweens like me. I have to search online and bargain bins for games that fit my needs.
This is truly delightful. Bravo to 8bitrocket’s Jeff Fulton for coming up with this. So new question: Are you hardcore, casual or mid-core? Mid-Core Gamer [8bitrocket via GameSetWatch via Joystiq][Pic]
At one time, Japan was the centre of the gaming universe. What about today? Does that still hold true? Sure, Japan has its fair share of influential software and hardware companies — but, so does the West. Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert knows Japan and Japanese gamers. He’s worked directly under Miyamoto and Sony. What’s his take on the scene? Cuthbert says:
Video games used to be taken far more seriously than they are now; over here the gaming culture was affected adversely by advancing mobile phone tech., which back in the late ’90s and early ’00s was years ahead of the West. Suddenly people were playing (not games) with their phones and being more sociable than before, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the human race. However, the Japanese still think of themselves as a kind of gaming mecca because they have a few god-like presences. In reality though, gaming has become less central and more a standard commodity; the Wii and DS have proved this with their huge demographic range. People want to play games, but without the huge investment of time and money games used to take up.
You could look at it the other way around and consider that games are taken so seriously here they are a “standard” in everyday life. There is just an increasingly diminishing core of hard core game players and increasing number of light, casual, “least-possible-investment” players.
Case in point: The DS and the Wii’s Japanese success. Pixel Junk Interview [Newsweek][Image] More »
