Doing Free to Play the Wrong Way...and the Right Way

The folks at Extra Credits produce some of the most thoughtful and insightful videos on game design, gaming culture, and the game industry. In this latest video, they cover the topic of free to play games (aka 'freemium') and the ways that many companies create poorly designed freemium experiences that not only aren't engaging for players but also hurt the bottom line. As it turns out, though, it is possible to create a freemium game that provides a great experience for players and encourages players to pay for that experience.

Bonus:

First Person Legend of Zelda

While the popularity of making first person versions of videogames has waxed and waned for a while, it looks like now it is officially a thing. Take, for example, the version of Flappy Bird that I mentioned previously or the more obscure version of Mega Man.

Now, it is The Legend of Zelda's turn at getting a first person version, this time on the Oculus Rift.

The game looks like it would be a blast to play. However, the level design for Legend of Zelda was based on the premise that a player could always see everything in Link's immediate vicinity so I imagine that some of the puzzles (especially in the dungeons) would be maddeningly difficult.

Bonus:

More Legend of Zelda stuff from the archives:

Woman Hacks Legend of Zelda to Play as Zelda Instead of Link

What If Zelda Was the Hero Instead of Link?

Concept Animation for a Legend of Zelda Movie

People Just Can't Get Enough of Flappy Bird

We've all seen the innumerable Flappy Bird clones on the App Store and Google Play ever since the game was pulled from the app stores, but some folks are taking things to a whole new level.

Take for example, this version ported to the ancient Commodore 64:

If that doesn't tickle your fancy, then how about a version played with a first person point of view?

If you still haven't had enough, then the only choice is to try it in a box.

Folks, this bird has legs.

Much Ado About In-App Purchases and Arcades

Drew Crawford, over at Sealed Abstract:

See, in the in-app purchase model actually predates phones. It predates video game consoles. It goes all the way back to the arcade, where millions of consumers were happy to pay a whole quarter ($0.89 in 2013 dollars) to pay for just a few minutes. The entire video games industry comes from this model. Kids these days.

Crawford's post was in response to an article by Thomas Baekdal about in-app purchases destroying the gaming industry with the latest example being Electronic Arts' (EA) butchering of the classic videogame Dungeon Keeper. (Both Crawford's post and the original post are worth reading, and I think it is especially valuable to view a few minutes of the two videos in the original post.)

I've written about freemium as a damaging force in modern game design, so my opinion on the original Baekdal post should come as no surprise. I do appreciate Crawford's post for its content on modern app economics and Crawford's musings on potential developer strategies for navigating the various issues with app-based businesses.

However, where Crawford's post goes off the rails is the segment (highlighted by the quote above) attempting to relate today's in-app purchasing model with the arcade model of yesteryear.

The two models could not be more different.

The only similarity to be found, if you squint really hard, is in the vague notion of paying for an amount of gameplay time. The critical difference--and this is at the heart of the problem with modern freemium design--is that the in-app purchasing model has nothing to do with player skill.

Think about those old arcade games. Pac-Man. Galaga. Street Fighter 2. All of those games could be played and conquered with a single quarter if the player was skilled enough. The amount of money that a player had to pay was directly tied to his or her own skill level. By comparison, no amount of skill is going to help you acquire those Smurfberries any faster. Only cold, hard (digital!) cash will suffice.

Even the worst 'quarter munchers' like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Simpsons arcade games had an element of skill involved. Nothing was quite as sweet as seeing how far you could get on a single quarter.

Admittedly, racing games generally fell into the 'pay more play more' model, but that was often mitigated by the game having a 'winner gets to race again without paying' feature.

Folks, claiming that yesterday's arcade business model is essentially the same as today's in-app purchase business model is akin to saying that receiving a high five is essentially the same as getting a slap to the face. I don't think I have to tell you which one is fun and which one hurts.

Quoth the Flappy Bird, 'Nevermore'

Flappy Bird, the latest iOS casual game breakout hit, has been pulled from the App Store by creator Dong Nguyen. Flappy Bird, for the few people who somehow avoided the hype, was a simple game where players tap the screen to make a bird fly over pipes that block their path. The game was renowned for its simplicity and frustrating difficulty. Players were apparently engaged enough to keep playing the game and also interested enough to tell their friends to play (ultimately resulting in the app hitting #1 in the App Store). It was reported that Dong Nguyen was pulling in $50,000 per day in advertising revenue for the game before the app was removed from the store.

Why would an indie developer pull such a successful game from the App Store?

Watching this story unfold online was a sad commentary on Internet culture and the human capacity for envy. For example:

Perhaps the worst part of this whole story is the hatred that Nguyen received from other indie developers. Time and time again, presumably jealous developers were attacking Nguyen from every angle:

'This game is crap that could be created in a weekend!'
'I spent 2.5 years on my game, and it hasn't had this level of success. Unfair!'
'Must be a scam. This game has been in the store for months and suddenly hits #1? Must be paying for downloads!'

Of course, now that Flappy Bird has been successful there are now a bazillion clones cluttering up the App Store. Funny how the industry works like that.

Folks, this isn't the first (or last) time that we will see stories like this.

It's Time to Destroy Seattle

...in a game, of course.

The folks at Mature Gamer Podcast recently posted a trailer for the upcoming edition of the Infamous series titled Infamous: Second Son, which takes place in Seattle, Washington.

This PS4 game is being made by Sucker Punch Productions (owned by Sony), which is based near Seattle in Bellevue, Washington.

Folks, I have to admit that I relish the thought of being able to play a game where I can cause mayhem in familiar streets and around landmarks like the Space Needle and the Elephant Car Wash.

Traditional Video Game Consoles Aren't Dead Yet, Folks

Wow, what a difference a year makes. Last year, there were some pundits who were convinced, absolutely convinced, that the traditional video game console was doomed. Doomed, I tell you! I took the time to write about why I thought that such talk was a bunch of malarkey.

Turns out, I was right.

What has happened in the past year? Well, the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One were released to the public, that's what happened. Guess what? Both of those consoles were record-smashing successes. Sony sold 4.2 million units. Microsoft sold 3 million units. Folks, even poor ol' Nintendo managed to have success with software sales for its 3DS handheld console (though the less said about the much-maligned Wii U, the better).

This was my statement on the reality of the console market in a post-PC, mobile device-driven market:

What then, of the rise of mobile gaming? To those who say the console is in trouble, the success of devices like the iPhone and iPad as well as the success of titles such as Angry Birds point to a future where consoles aren't relevant. This is a narrow view of the world that doesn't take into account what is happening in the industry. Mobile gaming isn't taking gamers away from traditional consoles...it is expanding the term 'gamer' beyond its traditional form. Just as the Nintendo Wii helped to bring games into the mainstream by making games more accessible to non-traditional gamers (e.g. the elderly), mobile games have further expanded the gaming market. And that's what it is, an expansion of the overall gaming market, not a reduction of the market for consoles.

Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony combined for sales of roughly 260+ million units over an eight year cycle for the previous console generation. Yes, mobile device sales easily eclipse that figure in a shorter span of time. However, as I mentioned earlier those devices are causing the overall gaming market to grow, which is to say that they aren't necessarily causing the traditional console market to shrink.

Console gaming isn't dead, folks.

Nintendo Missed a Huge Opportunity with Super Mario 3D World

Sam Byford, writing for The Verge:

One thing that Super Mario 3D World is not is a showcase for the Wii U's signature feature, the tablet-style GamePad controller. While there is the occasional stage that requires you to manipulate objects with the touchscreen, these are few and far between, and for the most part Super Mario 3D World is entirely playable with a regular controller. I actually found it far more comfortable to play with the underutilized but excellent Wii U Pro Controller most of the time. You can also play directly on the GamePad without the need for a TV, though I wouldn't recommend it; the camera angles tend to be too zoomed-out to be comfortable. And relegating Super Mario 3D World to the low-resolution GamePad screen would be a shame, because it's a stunningly beautiful game.

Nintendo has been on an advertising binge lately. Odds are very good that you've seen this commercial, or one of its siblings, on TV or the web:

The commercials are somewhat childish, but they do a decent job of explaining the Wii U in the context of Nintendo's newest AAA title, Super Mario 3D World. It's somewhat sad that Nintendo has to remind people that the Wii U is a new console and not a peripheral for the Wii (a problem that Sony and Microsoft don't have), but the good part of this commercial is that it shows the fun that can be had playing the game with friends and family.

Unfortunately, what the commercial also shows us is that the tablet-like controller for the Wii U is almost a pointless afterthought. The commercial doesn't emphasize using the tablet as a controller (despite its prominence in the still photographs), and Byford's post confirms that the tablet isn't really necessary for the game.

The fact that Nintendo's premier Mario title, delivered one year after the console's launch, doesn't show off the capabilities of the single defining feature of the Wii U is ridiculous. By contrast, Nintendo didn't waste any time showing off the uniqueness of the Wii's remote controllers. Wii Sports may not have been the best game on the system, but it immediately set the Wii apart as a console that--despite graphical shortcomings--offered unique gameplay.

The Wii U is already hampered by the fact that it offers inferior graphical performance compared to its competitors. Nintendo has compounded this business/engineering error by failing to produce a game that convinces people that the Wii U offers a unique experience.

Folks, Nintendo blew this one.

Hilarious Assassin's Creed IV Bug

This is a particularly crazy bug:

(The video is not mine; I found it on YouTube.)

Anecdotally, I've noticed that horrible bugs seem to be more commonplace with videogames (especially AAA titles) than in decades past. I would hazard a guess that the reason for such an upturn in breaking bugs is a combination of high pressure development schedules and the need to create ever bigger, more expansive worlds.

The Seattle Indie Game Scene was on Display at iFEST

I recently had the pleasure of venturing out to the Seattle Center--home of the iconic Space Needle--to join the festivities at the Seattle edition of iFEST, a festival celebrating indie game developers. Here are my quick thoughts on some of the games that I had a chance to demo.

VRCade

The VRcade was on display in a room directly behind the registration booth and was probably the most unique experience available at iFEST.

The idea behind VRcade is to provide a high quality arcade experience. The demo that I tried was a basic shooting gallery game. The point of the game was to shoot as many targets as you can within a certain time limit. The targets would pop up within one of three corridors (one directly ahead of you, one to your left, and one to your right) and make a sound that would direct you as to which side to the target appeared. Perhaps the most impressive part of the experience, in my opinion, is how accurate and natural the gun targeting felt. I've demoed similar VR experiences before, and quite often the tracking wasn't quite up to snuff. With VRcade, however, it felt as though I was using a real gun to shoot at actual targets. When I missed a target, it was because I missed the target, not because the tracking tech failed to keep up with my movements. Kudos to the team behind this technology.

Buddy & Me

Perhaps the most polished game was Buddy & Me, by the folks at Sunbreak Games.

This game is wonderful to play. The concept is quite simple, really: an 'endless' runner starring a boy who is joined by his imaginary flying friend as he runs through a forest/treehouse environment. However, it's not the concept that is the most interesting part of the game, it's the execution. The art is quite beautiful and the game controls very well. It feels a lot like taking part in an animated film, especially when you cross from one of the more restrictive forest environments to the visually expansive field environments, all the while followed by Buddy and any 'flying bunnies' that you have saved.

Note of interest: I found that the Buddy character's design and animation evoked feelings of nostalgia, and reminded me a lot of Falcor from The Neverending Story, Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro, and Flammie from Secret of Mana. I talked to the developers about my impression, and they confirmed that those were all influences on the character's design.

The Bridge

I enjoyed playing the Xbox Live Arcade version of The Bridge.

It's somewhat difficult to talk about this game without spoiling some of the experience (and this is why I chose not to post a picture of the gameplay). It has a distinctive, somewhat unsettling art style and has an 'old timey' feel to it. The idea behind the game is to solve puzzles using changes in gravity and logic. I felt that the environments seemed as though they had been designed by a feverish M.C. Escher, and that's exactly how they developers want you to feel. It's quite a unique game that's worth checking out.

Eucloid

This game is very simple, and it is because of that simplicity that the game absolutely works as a competitive game.

I had a chance to play the creator in a Vs match using Xbox 360 controllers. The left stick controlled the movement of our Tempest -style cube avatars, and the right stick controlled the spheres we used in battle. In the game format we played, the purpose of the match was to hit the other player's cube by launching our attack sphere. The spheres, once launched, are tethered to our cube and will return so that we can attack once again. There are some more advanced techniques too, such as teleporting to the sphere's location or using your sphere to disable your opponent's sphere.

This is the type of game that is simple to learn, yet difficult to master. I could see spending many late nights playing this game with friends.

Chess Heroes

Have you ever played Chess? Have you ever played Final Fantasy Tactics? If so, then Chess Heroes is for you.

The basic idea is that you play a 'Tactics'-style strategy game using chess pieces. The pieces start with their traditional moves, but it is possible to level up and get additional moves like the ability to launch a pawn at the opponent. I was a fan of Battle Chess in my youth, and the attack animations in Chess Heroes made me smile in much the same way that Battle Chess did.

Wrap-Up

I was quite happy with my experience at iFEST. The people were fantastic, the games were fun, and the sense of innovation was impressive. I highly recommend checking out the next iFEST.

Folks, keep a watch on the Seattle indie game development scene.