dustin1138
05-01-2006, 11:33 PM
So, for the last year, I've been plugging away after hours and most weekends on my first casual game. After months of toiling I completed the game and switched to the game art and animation. My day job is 3D artist so I'm in comfortable territory now. I have enough game elements built now that I can create mockups to check that the overall look is coming together the way that I want. So far so good.
But my lovely Wife disagreed. See, she isn't a gamer. She doesn't see the point of games. She has no intrest in playing them and can't understand who would. And she thinks I'm smoking crack when I tell her 60% of the casual gaming crowd are 'Soccer Moms.' Upon seeing my mockup she explained that my colors were too 'vivid', too 'contrasty'. I tried to explain that *vivid* coloring is a key component of casual games and ranks right up there with gameplay. She still thought I was wrong so I decided it was time for a 'vivid' example. What better choice, I thought, then "Zuma" for show and tell. Right?
So I bounced over to Popcap and fired up Zuma in my browser. About 3 milliseconds after I started playing she shouted "hey, that looks like fun! Can I play that on my Mac?" You can guess where it went from there. I could barely get her attention long enough to admit that my 'vivid' coloring was spot on. Yep. She's hooked. She even confessed to downloading it at work and is now planning on buying it. So much for the "I don't understand the point of games" argument. :)
Egad, I think I've created a monster.
But my lovely Wife disagreed. See, she isn't a gamer. She doesn't see the point of games. She has no intrest in playing them and can't understand who would. And she thinks I'm smoking crack when I tell her 60% of the casual gaming crowd are 'Soccer Moms.' Upon seeing my mockup she explained that my colors were too 'vivid', too 'contrasty'. I tried to explain that *vivid* coloring is a key component of casual games and ranks right up there with gameplay. She still thought I was wrong so I decided it was time for a 'vivid' example. What better choice, I thought, then "Zuma" for show and tell. Right?
So I bounced over to Popcap and fired up Zuma in my browser. About 3 milliseconds after I started playing she shouted "hey, that looks like fun! Can I play that on my Mac?" You can guess where it went from there. I could barely get her attention long enough to admit that my 'vivid' coloring was spot on. Yep. She's hooked. She even confessed to downloading it at work and is now planning on buying it. So much for the "I don't understand the point of games" argument. :)
Egad, I think I've created a monster.