Casual
Casual/Social/Facebook is my least
favorite genre, but I definitely understand its merit from a cultural and
business stand-point. Casual games are a great way for consumers to jump in and
get a fun/easy introduction into the world of games. However, due to the ease
of development and naivety of the target audience for these games (i.e.
first-time players), this genre has become the land of "shovel-ware".
The landscape of casual games is oversaturated with terrible games geared
towards making a buck off of micro-transactions instead of actually giving the
player a fun experience. This has caused most of the games in the genre to be
based around a carrot-and-stick formula where consumers can only play for a
limited amount of time, but can use real-world money to essentially buy more
gameplay time. Thus, the majority experience of these games has become less of
a gaming experience and more of a drug dealer/drug user experience.
When
making a good mobile (casual/social/facebook) game, the developer is put into a
Catch 22 situation. The best casual games I have played are made by hobbyists
and any revenue they earn from their games are in the form of opening
advertisements. However, a company is probably not going to earn a return on
investment, let alone a profit, with this method. So I suppose jamming
micro-transactions down consumers throats would make a casual game
"good" because you're more likely to earn a huge profit. With that in
mind, I may disagree with it personally, but the game still has to be fun
enough for people to pay for those micro-transactions.
Regardless
of the business model, any good casual game features easy-to-learn repetitive
mechanics, usually cartoony visually appealing and "happy" graphics,
and small spurts of reward to keep the player addicted and coming back; give
the player the illusion of being able to win and they'll keep coming back.
Essentially, everything that makes a casino game "good" also applies
to the mobile genre.
The
best examples of mobile/casual games are the top rated games on http://www.newgrounds.com/. The game/series that sticks out the most to me is Bloons
Tower Defense (which is now hosted/sponsored by Kiwi Games). The difficulty is
extremely balanced so that players of any skill can win on easy, but the
enticement of the high difficulties and variety of maps/tower combinations keep
you coming back for more. Additionally, Bloons feature super bright, cartoony,
graphics with super cute monkeys to attract players in. In a world of gore and
explosions, it's a nice change of pace to see a monkey pop a balloon with a
dart.
The
casual market has great potential for developers to experiment and create a
unique experience. Any game that accomplishes this with a functional/high
quality mechanics is a "best example of casual/social/facebook" game.
In
opposition to the idea of experimentation and doing something fun and unique
with a mobile game; the "shovel-ware" games of the genre are
definitely the worst examples. Poorly made, cash grab games, are the worst
examples that give the genre a bad name. I'd like to accuse "Candy
Crush" as a worst example because it's almost impossible to beat a level
without purchasing a micro-transaction for "more moves" and one way
to earn in-game currency (other than just paying real money) is to invite your
facebook friends to play the game. As a person who does not play casual games,
I find these invites extremely annoying and any game that uses this kind of
free marketing to suck in more players almost like a pyramid scheme is
terrible. However, my nephew plays "Candy Crush" on his mother's
tablet and being a "gamer" uncle, I have helped him beat levels in
the game. The game itself it actually really fun because it's a colorful
move/match/elimination game. If it weren't for the facebook spam and
un-avoidable micro-transactions; the game would be awesome.
Derek holds a Bachelor's Degree in Game Design and has two and a half years of game development experience. To view his other work please visit www.dereksinex.com or his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JDKevlar
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