The article begins with by discussing the idea of casual, pick up and play: what is the "casual" design methodology. PopCap leads market, so they and their games are studied.
Venturelli defines casual games as "games that offer the possibility of “pick up and play”, and experiences that can be enjoyed in small bursts and interrupted by the player without penalty or perceived penalty. Putting it simply, the key element is not the complexity of the system and its mechanics, but how this complexity is presented to the player." This definition helps avoid confusion as to what exactly constitutes a casual game.
Following this comes 5: DEFINING CONCEPTS.
5.1 PACING
A large idea with a small tagline, pacing is the use of MDA to control game flow, and create relaxation, tension and repetition. Creates "pace".
5.2 MOVEMENT IMPETUS, TENSION, THREAT, TEMPO
Four concepts are related to pacing, defined by Davies [2009]:
Threat is generated on the level of game mechanics, existing as the power struggle tips in favor of the
system or the player's opponent(s). For the purposes of this work, “Tension” is the perceived danger that a
player might become the weakest side on the conflict, while “Threat” is the actual power of the opposing
forces on the conflict (the system itself or other players), a concept directly related to game balance.
Aesthetic resources such as graphics and sound can be used to increase or decrease Tension, but not Threat.
Movement Impetus, is the will or desire of a player to move forward through a level
Tempo is the “intensity” of play. It is the time between each significant decision made by the player.
(I had problems here: Low tempo = fast? High tempo = slow? Also, this sounds more like pacing to me than all 3 of the above concepts.)
Section 6 moves onto the ideas of the Space of Possibility and Player Experience
Space of possibility roughly equates to the amount possible within a game. Taking a definition of fun as "pleasure with surprises", no more surprises = no more fun. For e.g:
- Tic tac toe: very limited, , no surprise, boring fast
- Chess: unlimited, constant surprise, intriguing
However, it is not safe to assume that simply making a game with more patterns will turn it into a good experience. An example from PopCap is the sequel to Bejeweled, in which jewel movement is seemingly needlessly limited. However, the lead developer says that because players now have a larger space of possibility to analyze before making their moves. This made the game a lot slower and more deliberate. "No one wants to make uninformed decisions – if a player is forced to take action whithin a system without feeling that he/she has assessed all the possible actions and outcomes for that game state, he/she is very likely to become frustrated."Essentially, as the Space of Possibility increases, Tempo also
increases. Higher Tempo generates lower Player Impetus.
This design approach will lead to an inevitable Catch-22 while trying to find a “right balance” or a “sweet spot” between small and large spaces of possibility.
I thought this was a very interesting article. "Casual" games, and the PopCap revolution especially, are very new in gaming, having seemingly sprung up overnight. The article does a very good job nailing down the idea of pacing and its four connected concepts. I will say that THIS GOT VERY COMPLICATED AROUND THE END. Instead of tying everything together, several new concepts are bandied about on the last page alone, making it a lot tougher to swallow. Perhaps they could have used some better pacing (ha).
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