Author: Jesper

Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games

I have put up a new article, “Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games.”

Swap Adjacent Gems is an attempt at writing the history of matching tile games through the last 20 years.

This is a quite detailed article that discusses a large number of small games. It touches on a few things I consider underexplored:

  • How does a game genre develop historically?
  • What is special about casual games and the casual games channel?
  • How do developers perceive the issue of originality in casual games?
  • How does a player make sense of a new game?

Swap Adjacent Gems is slated to appear in the Artifact Journal, October 2007.

Acknowledgment: Thanks to everybody who helped me by commenting on my earlier post about matching tile history.

Ex-core Gamer

Main Entry: ex-core
Pronunciation: 'eks-'kor
Function: adjective

1: Gamer that is no longer a hardcore gamer.

Coined by Juan Gril on the Casual Games mailing list.

I meet a lot of these. Jobs, kids, etc. making it impossible to be a core gamer anymore.

I Want some Freedom. (XNA Refreshed)

The XNA framework has been updated to version “1.0 refresh”.

The important change is that it now should be possible to build an Xbox 360 game and send the binary to other users and have them play your game. Previous versions required you to share the source code.

If you were hoping for a blossoming of indie games for the 360, the answer is NO: Games can only be shared with members of the XNA Creator’s Club ($99/year).

Having played briefly with XNA, I can say that it is an amazing step up from building in C++ and DirectX directly – so much clearer, so much faster to use, so much easier to debug, and using a nice managed language, C# (which I enjoy because it is amazingly similar to my favorite language of Java).

*

But we are still stuck with our main problem: The console manufacturers retain complete control of what gets published. Imagine if Philips could decide which audio CDs came out, JVC could decide what DVDs came out, and Penguin could decide what books came out. Only PCs and Macs remain a small haven for free expression in games. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM.

This control is partially about money, but still … is it that far-fetched to imagine a future where everybody is allowed to make games for consoles?

I will be happy to give Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo 50% of any money that comes in, just allow us to make the games we want to make. Now.

Workshop: For a Theory of the Novel of the 21st Century

Center for the Study of the Novel, Stanford, April 20-21:

Workshop: For a Theory of the Novel of the 21st Century

Here, I will be participating in a two-day workshop of a more literary nature:

Please join us for our last event of the CSN 2006-2007 season. This two-day workshop gathers together a younger generation of novel scholars now emerging to national and international prominence to discuss future directions in the field.

More here.

Sorry, but You Can’t Do That: Talk at University of California, San Diego, April 18th

When

Date: Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Time: 12:00 ? 2:00 PM

Where

University of California, San Diego
San Diego Supercomputer Center Auditorium
10100 Hopkins Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093?0505
Visitor Information

Sorry, but You Can’t Do That: How We Make Sense of Video Games

“We have yet to see a Citizen Kane of video games.”

In this talk, I will argue that there have been many Citizen Kanes of video games. By this, I mean video games created with a deep understanding of the medium, while simultaneous pushing the boundaries of what video games can be: Examples such as StarCraft, and the Legend of Zelda and Grand Theft Auto series fit in that category. These are, however, also Citizen Kanes in the sense that they are hard to play, and that they speak primarily to a specialized market of players with prior experience with video games.
Compared to other media, video games are really missing The Da Vinci Code or Night at the Museum: somewhat shallow but easily enjoyable games that require no specialized knowledge to use or understand. The question therefore becomes to understand gaming literacy: to identify the conventions and cues that trained gamers understand, but which are incomprehensible to the uninitiated.
By playing games with the audience, I will illustrate what it means to be literate in video games, what happens when you pick up a game, how a player makes sense of a game, how small changes in a game design can radically change the gameplay of the game, and how the player changes his or her understanding of the game over time.

Thinking Outside The Game Box

Judith Faifman, an educator and codirector of the Digital Cultures Research and Design Group, will follow with a discussion on the impact of video games on modes of thought. Faifman will also discuss how literacy in new media can promote social inclusion for students from low-income and minority families.

Faifman has sought to integrate new, digital cultures into existing educational environments. Her group is collaborating with the National Ministry of Education in Argentina to develop youth-media production. She is seeking to provide solid, theoretical foundations for digital, pedagogical practice for social inclusion.

Speaking at How They Got Game Workshop, Stanford, April 17th.

Speaking at a How They Got Game workshop on Tuesday the 17th of April 2007 from 3pm – 4:30pm on the 4th floor of Wallenberg Hall at Stanford University.

Abstract:

In 1977, there were no “hardcore” players of video games: Every video game had to be created with the assumption that players had no understanding of video games, genres, and controllers. Thirty years later, video games are primarily designed for players with extensive knowledge of video game conventions. This is how video games gained a specialized audience, but lost the general public. In this perspective, video games have long ago become a developed “art”, created for connoisseurs, by connoisseurs with a deep understanding of the medium. Using examples, I will discuss the rise of the hardcore gamer market, and how video games are once again opening up to new players via new platforms like the Wii, and via casual games.

These workshops are open to all interested parties with a strong interest in topics surrounding new media, technology, and design. They offer the chance to hear talks by industry professionals and seasoned academics, but also offer the rare opportunity for one-on-one questions as well as collaborative work.

How They Got Game is a research project at the Stanford Humanities Lab dedicated to the historical investigation of computer games and other related interactive technologies. Its diverse membership possesses varying academic interests ranging from machinima, virtual worlds and interactive storytelling.

Talk today: The Sun Always Shines in Casual Games

I am giving a talk at the IT University in Copenhagen today.

The Sun Always Shines in Casual Games:
Cloning and Innovation in a Brand New Field

Time and Place:
Thursday April 12th, 16:15-17:30. Auditorium 1, ITU. Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300 Copenhagen S.


About the talk:
During the past 5 or 6 years, casual games have emerged as an important factor within video games. These are small games, easily learned, and usually distributed over the internet. The corresponding appearance of a new casual game audience demonstrates that video games for a long time have failed to speak to a large part of the population. In this talk, I will discuss how casual games differentiate themselves from other game types, and in perspective, show how “hardcore games” have acquired a set of codes and conventions that requires a level of gaming literacy to navigate.

Consequently, the field of casual games put strong conflicting pressures on game developers: Innovate enough to differentiate, but make the game sufficiently like other games that players find it easy to pick up and play. By illustrating the history of matching tile games, and by discussing games likes Zuma, Bejeweled, and Diner Dash, I will show when and how innovation does happen in casual games, and how developers try to assert their original contribution in a field of clones.