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Snood, the Simple Game
Greg Costikyan has penned a
Snood screed
that bears reading for anyone into game design. I gave Snood a try a couple of years ago when I read that
Woz was hooked
on it. Fun. I've played it on and off since then. But the ninth most popular game in 2001? That's nuts. Is Snood part of a series of tiny puzzley games, like Tetris and Bejeweled, that can still do well in a world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments? Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this (maybe for cell phones)? Or is the engagingly simple game doomed to extinction? M : The Snood-equivalent for Linux is Frozen Bubble.
If only this game doesn't come with every spyware software in existance! All my friends have this game, and they wonder why their computer runs like crap after installation. Thank you Ad-Aware.
Games are at heart a form a recreation and enjoyment. Some people find games like Counter Strike and UT2003 disturbing, and with good reason. Games like Tetris, Solitaire, and Snood, are simply fun, without the violence. These are the types of games that parents, grandparents, and wifes play. That's a big market.
Heck, I'm a huge RTCW player, but one of my favorite games is still Columns on Sega Genesis.
I think that was the problem with the .bombs
Everyone wanted to "Strike it rich" and didn't care if what they were striking it rich on was really worthwile. I mean come on dog food delivery?!
While I think that snood would probably be cool to play on a cell phone. Don't do it because you wanna get rich doing it, just do it cause its a thing that you think we need,
I think the quote is
do what you love the money will come.
moo.
Snood is fun, but it's hardly original, Taito's Bust-a-Move has been around for years prior to the emergence of snood, and has seveal arcade games, and ports on the PSX, PS2, GBC, GBA, PC and probbably others as well. It's interesting that almost enveryone in college has played snood, but most have never heard of the original. I don't really think there's any sort of analogy for it.
Bork Bork Bork!!
Blockout.
A 3D Tetris-a-like. Loads of fun.
.
I've had snood on my samsung java-enabled phone for a few months...
Short answer: Most Definately
I've found older people and kids, especially, love Frozen Bubble (in Linux), as well as Tetris, Minesweeper, Tux Racer, etc. There will always be a place for these games. And don't just do it on the hope of making a mint: do it for the challenge, the thrill, the exposure, or even the vanity.
Fight with computer brings SWAT team
Little, simple card, board, and RPG games also get little respect from card, board, and RPG game developers or "hardcore" gamers. Magic: The Gathering (the card game) and Mage Knight (the miniatures game) are both available for purchase in every game store in existence, you can learn to play either in about 20 minutes, and they are fun and addictive. The rules, while not particularly rich or complicated, are elegant, and strong enough to keep people playing. But both of these games are looked down upon by "traditional" gamers.
*THE* best game in the genre, at least for two players, is "Panel de Pon" aka "Tetris Attack" aka "Pokemon Puzzle League". This game has an amazing seesaw action two player, since the garbage blocks you send to your opponent can end up being used against you, allowing combos that will bring garbage blocks raining down on your own head.
EGM mentioned some upcoming mega-puzzle-compilation for GameCube, with 4 player versions of Tetris, Tetris Attack, Dr. Mario, etc...man, I am *so* there.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I've played it on and off since then. But the ninth most popular game in 2001? That's nuts. Is Snood part of a series of tiny puzzley games, like Tetris and Bejeweled, that can still do well in a world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments?
I like the sentiment, wanting the little indie game designer to succeed. That's great!
But at the same time, is it really a success for all these so called inde developers to keep endlessly, endlessly, cloning the same handful of Tetris variants? Even ten years ago these things were stale, and now, in 2003, we have people hailing a design 100% borrowed from the Bust-A-Move arcade game from the mid 1990s as a "success" for the little developer? Surely there is a way to stay outside the "world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments" without resorting to writing rehashes of the same diddly batch of puzzle games.
I'm not sure if this was intended to be funny, or if it was misconstrued by the mods (wow, that'd be a first!), but I'll respond as if it were in a serious tone.
Most people I see playing online shoot-em-ups are too busy fragging their opponents to bother taking their hands from the cursor keys (or whatever they use for direction and fire) to use the keyboard; that would reduce their kill rate.
Are the games at fault, or the people? My grandmother used to (and probably still does) play Solitaire. Alone. She had a board she'd put on her lap and a deck of cards that's probably been dealt more times than I've worn socks. She'd play until she was bored, then quit.
I used to read quite seriously, and would often plow through 200-300 pages in a single night. (I read the American BiCentennial Series in a single school year = 10 months; grade 6). Would that be considered 'obsessive' behaviour, or is that healthy? I couldn't do it now, because performing in public school is much less demanding than performing at work (and heaven knows what would've happened if I pulled a few all-nighters like that and tried to drive before the sun came up!).
Anything to excess is a bad thing. Be it Quake, Snood, Solitaire, reading, chocolate, sex, anything. Rather than regulating everything that COULD cause us harm - why don't we teach our children and students moderation and self discipline?
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Perhaps Snood's popularity is due to the type of audience it's reaching. Much like Solitaire, Freecell, Tetris, etc, I've found it's more of an "office game." It appeals to a wide audience who likes to dabble in occasional mindless monotony to escape from...well, their daily dribble. These individuals, although not gamers in the _truest_ sense, still play video games and certainly account for at least a good portion of Snood's popularity.
I love those simple games... the ones that make me focus and think for about a half hour or less. Tetris, Bust A Move (and other Snood-type variants), Tetris Attack (and other variants), Bejeweled, Nisqually, Glines, any of those Yahoo Games word games... all of those get some significant playing time during a standard week from me.
:)
But that's not to say that the more complex games don't get playing time from me. The Civilization series, the Final Fantasy series, Imperialism, the Diablo series... all of those also get played regularly on my computer/console.
The big point, though, is that each game fills a different type of gaming and entertainment niche for me. Both will have markets in the world of gaming.
But, I contend that making those "simple" games, is, as the author pointed out, probably harder than making the more "complex" games. Kind of an oxymoron at first glance, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
A "simple" game must have few controls and those that it does have should be almost immediately obvious in nature. This severe limitation in design isn't overly restrictive, since a simple game will have simple rules, by definition.
But where a simple game is difficult is in the rules of the game. A simple game's rules must be flexible enough that there is no trivial strategy for putting up good scores or winning. The rules must, however, be simple enough that, in reality, they should be able to fit on a simple splash screen. The gameplay should be fluid and usually ever-changing, allowing for natural planning ahead and strategy building. Lastly, skill, not luck, should dominate the gameplay.
Taking these all into account, I can see why there aren't all that many of these simple games. That's not an easy design paradigm, in the least. But, simple games will never really get too much recognition, since they don't really need to. I think the authors of such games often realize that quite quickly. The market is there, but it remains quiet since it doesn't take much time or money to make such a game. So, the ideas can be coded up by an amateur or a professional or two, tested by a few of their friends, and put out for the world to enjoy. Not much infrastructure or capital or time needed for that, is there?
So, keep giving me both types of games. I'll gladly take both.
-Jellisky
Games like this (and Tetris, and Solitaire, and so many others) are simply antisocial and psychologically crippling. You play for hours, not because you're "enjoying" it, but because your brain is too numbed to stop.
I think it depends on the environment. Where I work, a student development office at a university, the student assistants got hooked on Snood. They engaged in friendly competition and shared strategies for beating the different levels. True, some did spend hours at home to get better, but they most enjoyed having the high score on the computer where their friends would be playing next.
Say what you will about Quake 3 and its tendency to provoke violence in children, but at least people who obsess over it are communicating with other people, albeit over the Internet.
As far as communication and fantasy violence in online games is concerned, I prefer direct communication by the very real violence of throwing a pillow at a friend during a Mario Kart 64 marathon! Take that bastard!
It doesn't really surprise me to see such games as this take such a high position in a most popular games list. To be perfectly honest, I think the ring of the gaming industry that has produced such titles as Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament has begun to lose site of the most important aspect of gaming: the gameplay; and i'm really surprised to have seen the likes of Counter-Strike and such cling to their elevated status for so long. When I look back to the dawn of video and computer gaming - well, the dawn to someone born in 1980. (the advent of the NES) - there is something that I recall being there that I just can't seem to find today: fun. You could possibly say this is attributed to general childhood nostalgia, and this definitely does play a part, but I think not as big a part as most people would believe. I think today's high-tech games are turning into overgrown graphical demos. What is the single most important thing that is needed in order to market any game on the internet today? Screenshots. Why are these things so important to people? What I'd like to see once in a while is a written document authored by the game's designer detailing his vision and intention behind the game's design and what innovations he hopes to incorporate or perhaps even discover in developing the game. Perhaps what I envision is some sort of publicly available, abridged version of the design doc for the game or something along those lines. Something to assure the fans that the team behind the game has aim and creativity. However, I don't see this kind of thing coming into common practice anytime soon, mainly because I think most of today's development teams lack all of what was mentioned above.
-Zeecog
Wow, talk about someone who lacks a sense of humor!
You have games (1) that require a lot of thinking to progress -- tetris
Ha! Nice troll! Wait... you're not serious? "A lot of thinking"? Tetris? Are you retarded? Well, I suppose that has to be a rhetorical question...
How is blowing a representation of a real person away with a railgun NOT antisocial!?
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
There is one other single design difference that made Snood accessible to the masses: Turn based. That simple choice opens the game up to people who would ordinarily fear it. In the original Busta Move and Puzzle Bobble, you only had like 5 seconds to shoot your bubble before it was force-fired automatically. But only "hardened gamers" have the reflex skillsets to enjoy this kind of time pressure. My friends and I have long enjoyed Puzzle Bobble and Bustamove. The multiplayer in these games can have the intensity and shots per second of a Quake 3 match.
My friend's mom saw us playing those games and didn't join in. But when we later got her Snood, she was sorely addicted. Her reasoning? "It doesn't go too fast." While it's tempting to look down on the masses and gloat about our superior gamer skills, it's these downright simple games that drive games forward towards recognition amongst the non-gamer masses.