Big Games have the social networks going on.
It’s understandable why. When you’re dealing with a games on the scale of person-to-person relationships, the social networks created are some of the most concrete and compelling outputs of gameplay. As such, there’s a desire to utilize them in new and creative ways. Plus, there seems to be a rising cultural interest in the digitization of the social network. Communities like Facebook and MySpace illustrate this quite plainly, and area/code’s SuperStar shows how this cultural interest translates seamlessly into a successful gameplay concept. It’s 2:15am on a Sunday, and I wish I could start playing SuperStar right now. The only thing stopping me is my lack of a cameraphone.
Why do I feel this tug to throw myself so quickly into social networks? More importantly, how can I take advantage of this energy? Not in big games, but in their tiny, digital brethren: video games.
James and I have now thrice reimagined the gameplay mechanics of Scratch, and this time I think we’re on to something. Previously, the most complex element of gameplay was that of movement, which worked through an ‘orbit’ concept. We’ve put the orbit concept aside, simplified movement mechanics back to where they originally started, and are now considering the potency of data visualization in gameplay.
If I’m being cryptic, it’s because I’m about as paranoid as a Poe character when it comes to game design. Call me crazy, but I have a need to talk about these ideas, while at the same time keeping them all to myself. Is this a problem, or something everyone goes through? Should I just keep my mouth shut and wait until the game’s completed to give a post-mortem? If so, what’s the fun in that?