A Game Is A Game Is A Game
by Denki on Jul 19, 2009
- 3,744 views
Talk given at the Evolve track of Develop 09 conference. The first half is about how there are only games, and that 'casual' is not a genre. The second half just asks people to not waste players' tim...
Talk given at the Evolve track of Develop 09 conference. The first half is about how there are only games, and that 'casual' is not a genre. The second half just asks people to not waste players' time and make great games. Easy, no?
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That seems fair enough, so now, let’s play a little game that I like to call... ‘is this a game?’
I’d say that Space Ace is about as complex as RPS, and I actually think there’s a lot we can learn from it, and not just in the negative sense.
So, is everyone happy that these are all games, designed to provide people with amusement?
But why would you make a game that’s difficult to play?
But to me, you just described...
OK, so let’s use our old friend the OED to figure out what casual means...
I don’t see much evidence of insufficient care at PopCap or Gamelab though, so perhaps not.
I don’t know about you but nothing there really makes any sense to me.
Let’s take a look at the supposed opposite of casual -
I think the commitment part is good, by the way - Valve and Microsoft must love the fact that there are people who buy every single game in order to get all the achievements. Having fans is good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure we should be forcing everyone to think in exactly the same way.
So the definitions are as contradictory as you'd expect...
In film, hardcore defines a very particular genre, not necessarily the viewing audience.
Alright, so let’s look up ‘genre’...
‘Casual’ isn’t a genre either. Nowhere in that definition of ‘genre’ is the demography or the approach of observation/play mentioned.
As an aside, this clearly shows that there’s no debate to be had about whether or not games are art - we have genres, it’s an art.
Time for another little game... let’s play ‘is this a film?’
There can be bad films, certainly, poorly structured, terrible editing, and so on. But they're still films. And you have different genres. But they're still films. And you have different funding and distribution models. But they're still films.
I've never heard the term 'casual films'.
‘Casual’ is not a genre.
And at the end of the day, games - all games - need to be fun. This is an entertainment industry, just like film. Like it or not, we’re performers. We entertain people with our performances, and not everyone is going to like our performance.
The two are inescapably intertwingled. Fun and games, games and fun, that’s just how it is. And just how it should be.
I had a great time, but it’s clearly not everyone’s idea of fun.
Denki is seen - and sometimes dismissed - as 'just' a 'casual' games developer. Whenever I read that sentence, it makes me feel like we're just it in for laughs. And actually, that's true to an extent, but not in the way you might think.
From our previous look at that word 'casual', it implies we're not professional in what we do, and that we have a careless, throwaway approach to game creation.
We don't see ourselves as a producer of any one genre of game, for any one platform.
Denki is seen - and sometimes dismissed - as 'just' a 'casual' games developer. Whenever I read that sentence, it makes me feel like we're just it in for laughs. And actually, that's true to an extent, but not in the way you might think.
From our previous look at that word 'casual', it implies we're not professional in what we do, and that we have a careless, throwaway approach to game creation.
We don't see ourselves as a producer of any one genre of game, for any one platform.
Denki is seen - and sometimes dismissed - as 'just' a 'casual' games developer. Whenever I read that sentence, it makes me feel like we're just it in for laughs. And actually, that's true to an extent, but not in the way you might think.
From our previous look at that word 'casual', it implies we're not professional in what we do, and that we have a careless, throwaway approach to game creation.
We don't see ourselves as a producer of any one genre of game, for any one platform.
Denki is seen - and sometimes dismissed - as 'just' a 'casual' games developer. Whenever I read that sentence, it makes me feel like we're just it in for laughs. And actually, that's true to an extent, but not in the way you might think.
From our previous look at that word 'casual', it implies we're not professional in what we do, and that we have a careless, throwaway approach to game creation.
We don't see ourselves as a producer of any one genre of game, for any one platform.
I think we’re in danger of missing our opportunities -
Why do we want to keep games as some sort of special club? My dad would play this, and he doesn’t play games at all. That’s a good thing.
We’re in this industry to make money so we can make more games, better games.
But really, I just want to encourage everyone to make the games you want to play. Don't fall into the trap of making the games you want to make, or the games you think you should make, but make the games you would actually pay money to play. That sounds totally obvious, but I'm not convinced how often it happens, and I know I've been guilty of it in the past.
We’re in this industry to make money so we can make more games, better games.
But really, I just want to encourage everyone to make the games you want to play. Don't fall into the trap of making the games you want to make, or the games you think you should make, but make the games you would actually pay money to play. That sounds totally obvious, but I'm not convinced how often it happens, and I know I've been guilty of it in the past.
[I stole this slide from someone at SXSW: http://sxsw.com/node/1409. If you’re not aiming for this, why are you doing it at all?]
[I stole this slide from someone at SXSW: http://sxsw.com/node/1409. If you’re not aiming for this, why are you doing it at all?]