Innovative casual meta-games

[DrWilloughby]

Casual games are starting to have a pretty standard meta-game concept: the player progresses through levels, which are points on a map showing progress through the game. Sometimes these levels have story elements associated with them. Sometimes these map progressions are broken into chapters which deliniate changes in gameplay. Luxor, Prof Fizzwizzle, and many other games use this meta game concept.

What other meta-game concepts are there out there in the casual space? Any that you particularly like? Any that are particularly innovative?

[Bmc]

Trophy (or some other item) collecting
Unlocking mini-type games
High-score lists

[Hiro_Antagonist]

shopping (earning money through play, spending money on functional upgrades.)
customization (anything from insanaquarium's pick-3-functional-pets to CCG-style deck buiding.)

[DrWilloughby]

The reason I ask is that I'm currently implementing the story mode progression for Venture Arctic and I'd like to add in something fun and special. We were thinking of having a "trophy collecting" type of thing except with photographs of events that the player witnesses.

[Nauris]

Since your game is about animals, some kind of pet acquiring/unlocking would seem natural perhaps? Kind of "god`s pet", a penguin, seal, whatever, who, once in posession, would be your little helper or something.

[whisperstorm]

I've seen a few meta games:

1) Dress up your character -- buy more clothes
2) Trophies (already mentioned)
3) Tokens to power up your character in a custom way between levels

One concept that I dont see anywhere (perhaps its on Xbox live? ) Is the idea of a "universal player". This player is something that spans individual games - as you beat games your ranking / skills go up and you may have more points/skills/powerups starting out in a new game. The more you play the more benefits you get in other games. I'm not sure how this would work, but It would be cool to spend the day playing bejeweled during off times and find later when I'm in World of Warcraft that some skill had been boosted.. :)

[ggambett]

We've used or are using : unlocking story and scenes (Betty and Wendy), unlocking new characters and gameplay elements (Wendy), unlocking powerups (Pigllionaire), collecting trophies (Pirate Poppers and a WIP), earning points to buy upgrades (WIP), online high scores (Betty, Wendy, Pirate Poppers, FaceIt). We have yet to experiment with "merit badges" or whatever they are called.

[Grey Alien]

none of those are particularly innovative are they? The thing is nowadays you pretty much have to have a "standard" meta game to fit in with the crowd of portal games.

[DrWilloughby]

I agree. I suppose I'll have to be brilliant on my own ;)

[zoombapup]

Mario typically uses unlockables of all types to stimulate this kind of thing.

An example would be trophy collection, basically it places a mesh of an object into a "gallery" of sorts.

In fact, the whole "gallery" metaphor is really a treasure hunt metagame isnt it.. you complete the game in a certain way to score trophies, you hunt the trophies out by playing the game (and replaying), you are generally rewarded in many different ways (unlock levels, points systems to attribute to certain unlockable features, simple "gifts" you can view etc.

Personally, I'd be inclined to add a bit of a nintendogs inspired thing, basically a "screensaver" mode where you can leave the game running and it shows a penguin or something doing various silly animations, but then also allows you to intereact with it (i.e. play with it) and once done with that return to the game itself. Think nintendogs/catz/dogz.

Hmmm, penguinz... polarbearz... :)

[DrWilloughby]

Personally, I'd be inclined to add a bit of a nintendogs inspired thing, basically a "screensaver" mode where you can leave the game running and it shows a penguin or something doing various silly animations, but then also allows you to intereact with it (i.e. play with it) and once done with that return to the game itself. Think nintendogs/catz/dogz.
Yeah, this is kind of the Virtual Villagers approach, which I really liked. In many ways, I think the reason we see the same meta-mechanics over and over again is that to really come up with a new one, it really has to be the central focus of the game. Most of the meta-games (or mini-games) we've talked about so far are things that could clearly be tacked on at the end of development.

[Pallav Nawani]

In many ways, I think the reason we see the same meta-mechanics over and over again is that to really come up with a new one, it really has to be the central focus of the game.
Interesting idea, I like it. Can you give me an example of games which have a meta game done in this way? I'd like to study those and maybe come up with something for my new game even!

[Pallav Nawani]

Interesting idea, I like it. Can you give me an example of games which have a meta game done in this way?
On second thoughts, if a meta game is the focus of the game, then it becomes part of the core gameplay and so by definition, it can't be a meta game, can it:confused:

[Game Producer]

Sounds like casual games are having the "FPS clones" syndroma.. ;)

[Pyabo]

On second thoughts, if a meta game is the focus of the game, then it becomes part of the core gameplay and so by definition, it can't be a meta game, can it:confused:

Things that make you go HMMMMmmmmm....