Things to consider in casual game designing

[Tertsi]

Things to consider in casual game designing

* The player should not be bothered with loading and saving games manually but the game should be saved automatically on exit and the player must be able to continue the game easily.
* I would think that it would be a good idea to adjust the difficulty as the player plays, so that it never gets too easy or way too hard.
* The player should be able to skip levels.
* The player usually wants to be rewarded but overdo this and it will just get annoying.
* Depending on the game, the player should be able to complete levels in 5 - 15 minutes. (Over 10 minutes only if it won't be hard to continue playing the level after exiting.)
* Cute and/or high quality graphics, cartoony and/or colourful.
* Simple gameplay where only the left mouse button and mouse is truely needed though the right mouse button can do something less important.
* As small learning curve as possible
* Usually plots seem to just downgrade casual games (for example, BreakQuest), so if there's a plot, make it a great one.
* Etc.

Those are just some points what I've learnt from researching the casual games and casual players so far.

If you've been researching casual games and/or making them, I'd like your input too!

[Bmc]

all good points

here one thought/opinion I have about casual game design to add with yours (btw I applaud you for doing the research)

- A game doesn't have to be devoid of any challenge, as long as the game provides the player with enough help to overcome it.

This help shouldn't be immediately obvious as to make the player think that they "suck" and need help to beat the challenge. It should be disguised in the form of rewards, or incoporated into the game play from the very beginning.

ex: a card game i worked on
When you mouse over a card, it's highlighted one of two colors - green if you can place it on the card pile, or red if you can't.
This is a very subtle visual clue that most people won't even notice while playing but it helps them determine their move much quicker, allowing them to make more combos at a faster pace with less stress on their minds, thus making them feel like they are an "advanced" player. They even understand the color scheme without you having to say a word (all thanks to traffic lights) Green means go, red means stop.

another ex:
Right now I'm making a word game, I've grouped the letter pieces by frequency in the english language. Groups that are more frequent draw the eye to them more then groups that are less frequent by having brighter colors and "popping" off the screen more. It works quite beautifully, it's a great visual aid and most will be none the wiser that they are being helped.

[ManuelFLara]

* Depending on the game, the player should be able to complete levels in 5 - 15 minutes. (Over 10 minutes only if it won't be hard to continue playing the level after exiting.)
I'd say it should be in the <5 min. range. Matching colors more time than that without a break just gets tedious.

[Bmc]

I'd say it should be in the <5 min. range. Matching colors more time than that without a break just gets tedious.

yeh 15 minutes is a little high

I'd say more like anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes (averaging more towards 5) depending on the type of game.

BTW casual != matching colors, sure there alot of those games but I think from this point on you'll be seeing most portals turning them away if they dont have anything special about them.

[Speckled Jim]

I don't think being able to skip levels is a good idea. If the game design allows for it, a better method might be to make a level easier in some way if a player repeatedly fails to complete it. This would link in to the idea of difficulty changing with the skill of the player.

[Pogacha]

Things to consider in casual game designing
* Usually plots seem to just downgrade casual games (for example, BreakQuest), so if there's a plot, make it a great one.

what's a plot?

[TimS]

* Usually plots seem to just downgrade casual games (for example, BreakQuest), so if there's a plot, make it a great one.

I might change this one to read:

* a bad plot has no place in a good game -- especially if it happens to be an arkanoid clone.

Games like Diner Dash and Mah Jong Quest seem to get away with a plot quite nicely -- in fact I've seen many folks attribute sales directly to the player being addicted to the plot that the character is not quite finished with after the demo time is up...

[edit] It could also be noted that these games don't have "great" plots... especially in the case of Mah Jong, the plot isn't so good, and the dialogue is even worse... but it STILL helps the game sell, IMO [end edit]

Just something to consider...

[Nexic]

I don't think a plot can really hurt any game as long as any story sequences are easily skipped/ignored/turned off. I also feel plot can help a lot of games sell. Playfirst's Trijinx springs to mind, it has a good plot that fits well into the game.

http://www.playfirst.com/game/trijinx - Look at the testimonial.

Also svero's Beetle Bomp undoubtedly will gain sales as a result of it's fairly good story.

[Bmc]

I don't think a plot can really hurt any game as long as any story sequences are easily skipped/ignored/turned off. I also feel plot can help a lot of games sell. Playfirst's Trijinx springs to mind, it has a good plot that fits well into the game.

http://www.playfirst.com/game/trijinx - Look at the testimonial.

Also svero's Beetle Bomp undoubtedly will gain sales as a result of it's fairly good story.

that game is well done, it's also an example of taking something that has already be done and improving on it so much that it more ends up being popular than the original version ever will be (the original version here being Triclops which is what I'm guessing they based TriJinx off of) and it becomes a much better product... sort of like Zuma is to Puzz Loop.

[Greg Squire]

Here's some excellent thoughts on game and story (by Joe Maruschak)
http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/1449/8500
http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/1449/8646

Also, another rule of thumb to add

* Use profiles to allow multiple saved options and save points for different users (lots of times there's only one family PC in a home)

[ninjasamurai]

what's a plot?

It's like an explosion but bigger :)

Just kidding. (Plot es la trama de una historia)

[oNyx]

Skip levels... mmmh... no.

But depending on the type of game you could use that X out of Y pattern. Like beating 4 out of 5 levels (one row) unlocks the next row. Beating all unlocks an extra row and getting whatever in all levels unlocks yet another extra row with really hard levels.

Being just able to skip to your heart's content won't help... that is if you get the difficulty ramping at least somewhat right. I mean if you skip because its too hard, its futile, because it wont get easier anyways.

[Tertsi]

Well for example in Luxor I've only lost a life a couple of times in all other levels but there was a level which took more than three lives and frustration to get through, lucky for them it was after the Trial Version.

Even though the designer thinks level X is easier than level Y, it might not be so to the player and the player can also think that a particular level is boring. However since levels have to be so small that boring factor won't be an issue and I do think that if the game automatically adjusts difficulty the skipping levels option won't be necessary.

Well at least the story can't be like a few statements long like it was in BreakQuest. I do agree that a Wild West Wendy quality story increases sales quite a lot but then again it's a good story for a game like that and it's an extensive story which goes on throughout the game instead of merely being shown in the beginning.

[Pogacha]

It's like an explosion but bigger :)

Just kidding. (Plot es la trama de una historia)
Ohh, thanks!