Gameplay mechanics and You

So many types of casual gameplay out there. What is your favorite and which do you see emerging to the forefront?

Match3
Hidden Object
Zuma Clones
Adventure
Shooter
Platformer
Pairs

what about solitaire ? is that hidden object...... of late the online fantasy multiplayer genre is good. (Adventure)

Digital Jack Straws?

pairs?

BP: solitaire is of the card game genre. Hidden object is like Mystery Case Files etc.

thx Grey, I enjoyed playing your fairway solitaire and was trying to shoehorn it into Chroma's cats (meow). Chroma the following does not fit easily into a category on your list.... maybe add a 'sports ?' category ? on your list, but the following makes for fantastic festive gameplay:-

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/2420/elf-bowling-7-17-the-last-insult/index.html

Here's the list I use on my site (I realised a few days ago that it's missing Sports:

$genres[1] = "Adventure";
$genres[2] = "Board";
$genres[3] = "Break Out";
$genres[4] = "Card";
$genres[5] = "Hidden Object";
$genres[6] = "Mahjong";
$genres[7] = "Match-3";
$genres[8] = "Platformer";
$genres[9] = "Puzzle";
$genres[10] = "Quiz";
$genres[11] = "Shooter";
$genres[12] = "Simulation";
$genres[13] = "Sphere Popper";
$genres[14] = "Strategy";
$genres[15] = "Time Management";
$genres[16] = "Unique";
$genres[17] = "Word";

It hasn't got FPS or racing etc as they are not casual. Nor are perhaps some of the other genre's like shooter, but it entirely depends how the game is implemented.

I suppose you could use arcade/action instead of the sports title, sports takes me back to DT's decathlon, z.., x.., z.., x.., space,

Is that an actual genre?, lol. Sounds like a great title for a game though :) - More like what my girl friend is, she's a right ball breaker :p

Back on topic though....

I think any genre has a chance of making it. It all depends on the implementation of it.

Let's take Jakes latest. Now we all know solitaire has been done to death and back many times over, yet take a classic game, add some fresh life to it, add polish and more polish and voilà! - a huge congratulations to him :)

A single style of game isn't the key thing. I think it's a solid game wrapped in a bigger goal that's the key I feel. But it needs to have something different, unique and be polished.

My recent holiday swapz game, while ok for what it is lacks one huge thing, there's no greater picture. It's just a match-3 and mini games. It's no good for these days. Lesson learnt :)

I think hidden object has another 12 months life in it. Mind you a blinding hidden object game could come along and then that genre could last another few years at least due to clones and variants.

The game I'm doing at the moment is a word / puzzle game. Not exactly high on the current popularity tree but what the heck :) - I have a unique game style which I've not seen before so it'll either sink or swim :p. If my current game fails to makes it onto the portals then I'll rethink my whole strategy, but for now I'm 100% full steam ahead :)

It's how you say Zuma Clone without saying "Zuma" ;-)

Go for it Qube, that's the spirit!

@Qube - ball breaker - LMAO

On the word front, I'm with you there. Just consider Nintendo (the current console leader) marketing strategy with brain training.

My guestimated top 3 genres the world will consume:

1: Sims: 2nd Life has created the worlds 1st online real estate millionaire
2: Shooters: Most young kids like shooters
3: Unique/cards: Grey Aliens Fairway Solitaire Will do well

Like the game of concentration or memory.

I get the feeling it's the year 1989. The year before Nirvana broke onto the music scene. Heavy metal (match3...hidden object...etc) was laid to rest by them in 1990. Something new is on the horizon. What kind of gameplay it is, I don't know. But we'll know it when we see it. Something big will happen soon, I can feel it.

I'm surprised to see shooter and platform games in that list at all. Are retro types of games now becoming the new casual games, in comparison to the seeming intensity of 3D first person shooters and the like? Are those new 3D games so serious and in-your-face that something like a 2D shootemup or platform game suddenly becomes `casual`?

@Chroma, you seem to forget the world will always have young children that, if thier (irreponsible?) parents allow them to play 2d shooters they might. 3D has its limits, there is no substituting good gameplay.

@ImaginaryHuman, I think your point about causal games (2D) coming to the fore is a good one. Non commital, enjoyable, and a nice little bit of relaxation. I'm off to be one off santas helpers now..... enjoy the festivities everyone!

Yeah, and guess what? I've been asked to make it in 2008 for BFG. So I'm not telling, sorry ;-) beside it may flop anyway haha.

The top two genres right now in casual games are Hidden Object (by a long way) and Time Management. But how long will they last? You can't do much more with hidden object can you? Yet I've seen quite a few variations on the Time Management theme. Match-3 is not so hot any more (barely ever makes it into the BFG top 10. Adventure games seem to be hot but they take a huge effort and budget. Everything else just follows up the rear. Yep, we are waiting for a "new genre" for sure...

ImaginaryHuman: regarding platformers and shooters: Like I said "it entirely depends how the game is implemented." For example there's some Turtle platform games aimed at kids that have done pretty well, they are not hardcore at all. Most shooters aren't casual though, I agree. Platypus has been called casual (mainly because of the look and the feel of the mouse control etc) but I think it's pretty damned hard...

Of course you've been asked to make BFG another game in 2008! They're making loads of cash from your game (which is legally their property), and they're paying you peanuts. It's their way to avoid paying a full game dev studio.

Let's estimate you make them 10 games in 10 years. That will keep enough money in your pocket to keep you satisfied while they rake in millions? My degree is in Technical Management so stuff like that just bothers the crap out of me. You're being paid nowhere near enough. And even if you think you are, multiply that by 10 and you're getting close.

They probably have your next 10 games already down on paper GA. And I'm dead serious about that...

Who told you that? I got paid VERY well for the last game and I'm going to be paid even better for the next one (can't say specifics for contractual reasons) + GOOD royalties, that kinda thing is pretty attractive. Plus I LOVE my job :-) I know how much money they've made from Fairway because I'm kept in the loop. Having run a business before that brought in £100,000K net profit per year yet I only saw 3% of it in bonuses, I'll never make that mistake again. If it goes well with them (which I'm sure it will) I'll stick at it, otherwise I'll do some stuff on my own once I've built up more skills/contacts/budget etc.

Fairway was their IP and I was just hired to code it. I entered the agreement with "eyes wide open" because it was such a good opportunity to prove myself (and get paid) - a "stepping stone" if you like.

So they paid an in-house Designer, a Programmer, and an Artist (all for 9 months) and a Sound Studio for the fx and music, and that doesn't count as a "studio"? It does in my book - just a small one.

btw, before you say I'm "ruffled" haha, I'm not, I'm just explaining for you because you seem to have made some assumptions without any data (might work for Poirot, but hasn't worked for you in this case).

Well I'm glad to hear they're paying you well since it's your only income bro. And I'd take a pay cut if I loved the job. I think being happy at your job is very important.

Agreed. Actually it's not my only income, I have eggs in several baskets, but it is the biggest basket.

As for the next game, there are lots of options and we've been having the very discussion you started here about what to make next. We've got quite a lot of game plans that need fleshing out before we choose one. I'm very much involved in the process, I'm not being spoon fed games to code.

Slightly on topic -

Family over at Christmas lunch today, some of the kids wanted to play some of my games I'd made using blitz, along with other demos and freeware games/incomplete games I'd downloaded over the past year. I was surprised to see that the most popular game/demo amongst the group was "marker world' the crayon/chalk physics type demo posted on gamedev. It's kind of a puzzle game I guess - lots of problem solving which could be adapted to use in an educational setting perhaps and still be fun - and there are many different ways of solving each puzzle - different people approach the puzzles in different ways, solving them with unique approaches. Was quite fun to watch as some of the kids would build structures in perhaps the 'expected' way while others would simply stack lines on top of one another to form a very unstable pile/stack of objects, it was also interesting to see how long it would take people to vary their approach to a problem.

I guess something like marker world would be considered a 'puzzle' game then?

I particularly like Japanese-style urban mystical/post-apocalyptic RPGs. I also like action-adventure games with cute, non-photo realistic art styles. I used to like point'n'click adventure games, but I've not played any that I've truly liked since Curse of Monkey Island.

And that's about it.

I don't like any of the types of games that spring to mind when you think "casual gaming". Generally speaking, I only enjoy games with decent plots, dialogue and characterisation, themes and settings (in fact, I'm a fan of interactive storytelling rather than games) - features that are usually completely absent from casual games.

Well if they're paying your salary then I'm guessing they're gonna have the final say of what game you code. :p

I've been looking for a way to combine a puzzle game and an rpg. I think puzzle quest misses the mark horribly because a match3 game is just too random. You could go a whole game without lining up 3 items that make you attack.