What Games Are

Why Must Orcs Die? [Signifiers]

Orcs Must Die is a great indie game in which, as the title says, you kill a lot of orcs. Buy it, play it, it’s well worth it. But why must it be orcs that die?

Why not someone else for a change?

100,000 Players for 60 Days [Traction]

‘I don’t really care about being right’, Steve Jobs said in an interview for Triumph of the Nerds, ‘I just care about success.’

There are infinite ways to kid yourself that a game is successful, but there are also many ways to misinterpret success as failure. Here’s what I think: If your game can attract 100,000 players who each play for 60 days then it’s a success. It might take time to realise its value, but you’re definitely onto something.

It has traction.

All Great Marketing Stories are About the Future

Many game makers look at figures like Peter Molyneux and wonder why he gets all the press and they get none. And the answer is that Molyneux understands marketing stories and how to tell them. Most industry legends are the same. They get that the public does not just see a game as a thing, but in context.

You might think you’re just making a game, but you’re not. You’re either creating or contributing to a marketing story, whether intentionally or otherwise, and it’s increasingly important to tell the one you genuinely believe in. Especially if it’s about the future.

Echoes [Thauma]

Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night because you were being chased by Bowser in your dreams? Did you ever, after playing Doom for the first time, find yourself walking around a mall and appreciating three dimensional reality? When you daydreamed your World War Z plan, did running zombies of the Left 4 Dead variety feature? Have you ever been listening to a track from Rez and visualising in the game while shopping?

Relax, you’re just engaged. The game made an impression in your subconscious, signifying itself as something more than just a fun way to pass the time. It got inside your head and bounced around, like an echo.

Echoes are how you know if a game is thaumatic. Echoes are cool.

 

(Today’s image is from the I Am Iron Man 2 augmented reality app.)

The Other Way [Industry Issues]

Many developers want game making to be treated as a skilled profession. They want it to be serious, have stable working hours, to acknowledge their contribution and to be paid accordingly. They want to see themselves as craftsmen bringing decades of experience to bear on projects.

This desire reminds me of a scene in The Wire where Marlo steals lollipops in plain view of a security guard, and when the guard challenges him Marlo sizes him up and says:

‘You want it be one way. But it’s the other way.’

You Need A Niche [Marketing Stories]

Traditionally, labelling a game niche is a sideways way of implying that it’s trapped in a ghetto. It invokes a sense of smallness, where games that are strictly for hobbyists struggle to survive.

In an industry that used to want to eclipse Hollywood, maybe that was a justifiable attitude. However in the age of single-franchise publishing, niches are really important. They are where tribes of engaged players come from, and if you want to change the world then a niche is where you need to start.

The Next Wave: Local Games?

Your MMO guild members may be good friends but they’re scattered all across the world. Your mobile games steal your attention away from talking to people. Your social game hassles you to bug your friends for gifts, but otherwise you play alone. Your co-op sessions of Portal 2 tend to be played with mute strangers.

Most innovations in digital gaming tend to produce solitary experiences. This is fine most of the the time, but players don’t always want to be solitary. They like to gather to play, to participate and hang out. Social contact is healthy, and games have always had an important role in helping to bind communities together.

Video games have not really tapped into that spirit yet, but it feels to me like that’s the next wave. Local games are coming.

How to Look at Resources vs Risk [Game Startups]

A startup developer contacted me today with some follow-up questions from my post about why Facebook is over. He wanted to know what I thought would be his best strategy for development and publishing given that he has a small team. I asked his permission to print his mail and my response (anonymously) here to discuss the importance of looking at risk in the right way, and he kindly consented.