Martoon
05-17-2005, 09:01 AM
Do you think there's a market for games people could play on their computer at work, without it being apparent that they're playing a game? The planet is brimming with people who hate their jobs, and spend their workday in front of a computer. Some of these people sneak in a few rounds of Zuma, etc., but most workplaces have a pretty tight policy of no games on company computers.
I can think of a couple ways a game can be "sneaky." There's the obvious "boss key" function, where the game can be instantly and easily minimized. Of course, this is only effective in environments where said boss (or other intrusive parties) do not normally have a view of the screen, and can be seen approaching.
Another interesting approach is the very tiny game window. www.tinywindowsgames.com used to have some interesting examples of this, but they've been shut down for copyright violations (many of the games are clones of arcade favorites). This guy (http://lyonslair.larrylyons.com/vault.htm) still has a few of their games on his site. Obviously, this approach limits the graphical richness and amount of information that can be displayed, but I think it could still hold some interesting potential. For example, I could see a simple dungeon-crawl RPG that could have some gameplay depth that keeps you playing.
Another approach might be to make a game that looks like a productivity app (spreadsheet, word processor, etc.). This would obviously place some serious constraints on your game design, so you'd have to be pretty creative to come up with something that has compelling gameplay in this context.
Anyone else have any ideas? I know there are real limitations with a game like this, but I also think there's a very large potential market. The games could be marketed specifically for this purpose (e.g., "Games your boss won't know you're playing").
I can think of a couple ways a game can be "sneaky." There's the obvious "boss key" function, where the game can be instantly and easily minimized. Of course, this is only effective in environments where said boss (or other intrusive parties) do not normally have a view of the screen, and can be seen approaching.
Another interesting approach is the very tiny game window. www.tinywindowsgames.com used to have some interesting examples of this, but they've been shut down for copyright violations (many of the games are clones of arcade favorites). This guy (http://lyonslair.larrylyons.com/vault.htm) still has a few of their games on his site. Obviously, this approach limits the graphical richness and amount of information that can be displayed, but I think it could still hold some interesting potential. For example, I could see a simple dungeon-crawl RPG that could have some gameplay depth that keeps you playing.
Another approach might be to make a game that looks like a productivity app (spreadsheet, word processor, etc.). This would obviously place some serious constraints on your game design, so you'd have to be pretty creative to come up with something that has compelling gameplay in this context.
Anyone else have any ideas? I know there are real limitations with a game like this, but I also think there's a very large potential market. The games could be marketed specifically for this purpose (e.g., "Games your boss won't know you're playing").