I'm developing some basic twitch games, 2D shooters mainly. And I'm wondering if my ideas are along the right path. Based on my personal experience with these types of games I'm guessing the user type that likes these kind of games does not have alot of time to play games, they just want to boot something up and play for a while and then get back to work or whatever. With that in mind I further think you have to grab the attention span of this kind of user quickly, so the game needs to push some excitement or energy pretty quickly in order to keep their attention. But this complicates things a bit because you don't want to give too much of the game away quickly, especially in demo (non registered) mode. So I'm guessing a typical game span for this kind of user prolly shouldn't exceed over 30 minutes and the beef of the game should be made available at the 10-15 min mark. By this I mean if they are playing for around 10-15 minutes they should be rewarded with some decent eye candy and visual gratifcation. After the "half way point" if they havn't quit due to kids bothering them or their boss yelling, I would think they are "into it" and trying to go for a high score. So with catering to the twitch gamer in mind, I'm saying grab their attention quickly, deliver some eye candy fairly early in the game and develop a game cycle that lasts around 30 minutes or so. Am I close or way off in your opinion? Thanks...
That sounds about right, but I wouldn't be so quick to assume that all gamers who enjoy twitch games think the same way... or even want the same thing. Some people play twitch games, not because they lack time, but because they can't be bothered learning a game with too many rules. They like to just sit down and play. If you give them all of the eye candy right away (or not even eye candy- your best gameplay offerings also) and assume they're playing because of time constraints, you could make a big mistake. Something to keep in mind, anyway.
My humble opinion: Dont reward player with eye candy, reward them with gameplay elements like a new gun, increased capabilities, new levels, more money, etc. Eye candy is for getting theyr visual attention in the first place, things like this allways happen "hey, this crappy looking game looks too crappy to be professional, i dont want to play even the demo!". So, people like fun games, gameplay make games fun, increase gameplay elements, make it more rich to keep players attention. Think in the game DinerDash, i think that kind of play evolution is what you are looking for.
I think you need at least an hour of contious play before you "complete" the game. 30 minutes seems to short to me.
my opinion I am no expert, but I think that you are right that a casual twitch game does not have to be very long. I think there are two issues: game length and replayability. I think a game like what you are describing can be short (less than an hour) if it is the kind of game you will be interested in playing over and over. Asterioids or solitaire are both examples of games you can come back to many times so that they don't need to be that long. I also think for this kind of game you don't want to give away too much in the demo. I played Super Dudester (and I really liked it) but the demo had all the game I needed. I liked the game but I didn't feel compelled to buy it.
Tempest 2000, my all-time favorite twitch shooter with 100 levels, took 3 weeks to complete (or about 30 hours). Then it repeated the same levels ad infinitum only with spiced up enemies.
The nice thing about games like asteroids is that the length can be as long or short as the player's skill level dictates. There's no pot of gold at the end, just the high score. Games that simple have to be addictive, though.