Paul Frew
The secret of addictive games - from the creator of Bejeweled
October 29th 2008 10:24
Wired Magazine has an interesting discussion with Jason Kapalka about the appeal of simple games. Kapalka is the co-creator of Bejeweled, the best selling casual game where players click on gems and they disappear.
To me, the appeal of Bejeweled is simple: it's a game of luck, but it feels like there are things you can do to get further in the game, and it's this sense of strategy that makes it compelling. Well, that and the wicked sound effects when you zap a lot of gems.
This is what it looks like when a bot plays Bejeweled:
It's a casual gaming success story:
"Since its debut, Bejeweled addicts have frittered away around $300 million—and more than 6 billion hours—on the game and its sequel, the provocatively titled Bejeweled 2. And PopCap, the company behind the blockbusters, has become a big player—it now has more than 200 employees in offices around the world."
For example, Kapalka suggests why Solitaire is so popular:
" People compare Bejeweled to Tetris, but this is the real analog. Solitaire is a game in which skill isn't a factor. You're lucky or you aren't, and it just goes on and on until you're out of moves. Yet it doesn't feel completely random."
That's right - take a look into a random office in a random city and there's probably at least one person playing Solitaire. It's a game perfectly suited for office work, taking seconds to load, minutes to play, and a healthy sense of satisfaction when you win.
You know what I'm talking about... that cascade of cards that bounce all over the place. It was ridiculous of the programmers to put that in, but in retrospect, it was probably one of their unexpected benefits. I've seen people react to that waterfall of cards like an addict taking a hit off a crack pipe. It's that good.
Of course, some people just find it plain boring:
"...when it comes down to it, it's just aligning sets of three over and over again. There's no challenge because the game won't allow you to align unless there are already two of the same jewels together, and only when the third jewel is only one move away."
Well, yes. That's what made the game so popular... adding any more complications or rules would have ruined the popularity of the game, and that's the fish that we're chasing now...
*this image is from the Wikipedia page on Bejeweled
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