There’s no doubting that Zynga’s games have been popular, but some people are critical that the game design lacks panache. Hello Games head Sean Murray thinks that creativity is as important as a good business model.
“Some game developers, they don’t play their own games, they don’t feel it’s an expression of themselves,” said Murray at Evolve In London. “I think that’s very sad. I think some of the gameplay mechanics that are in the social gaming space are more indicative of that, there are certain pyramid scheme elements to the game design that I don’t think anyone who just wanted to make a game that they themselves would play would ever put that in.”
“The social games of the future that are just built around rewards and pyramid schemes… maybe don’t have as much a place in that world,” he added.
Murray also noted that while motion control can be great, some games do it improperly or offer something like Kinect Joy Ride, which barely seems to react to player input. “It’s such as shame, it’s such a lost opportunity,” said Murray. “It is actually a good game, but there’s a danger of making games too casual and removing interactivity, and you see that sometimes. I think even the casual gamer doesn’t want to just have reward.”
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
