Gas Powered Games - To Target Casual Gamers Next

Perhaps the adage 'simple to learn, difficult to master' can serve as a passable example for now. DS fails on that measure for me, but LSW passes. Supreme Commander almost passes for the single player game, but it has too much depth in multiplayer to be accessible for more players - it's competitive rather than co-operative as well.

In the interview (PC Gamer, UK, issue 182) he likens SupCom to a game that people expend energy on playing, but says that his ultimate aim is to make a game that cycles between expending energy and recharging it. He also says he's tired of recycling the same old core games.

Well, as I said, LSW works for me just fine. But it's not a game I would ever expect the kind of extensive feature set from that I'm talking about. It's a game that doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is, and which works because it focuses on that. Dungeon Siege was a deliberate attempt at dethroning Diablo (1+2) and Chris Taylor specifically "improved" features that he didn't care for in Diablo 2. I remember reading several things from him about why Dungeon Siege was the next step, but in my opinion he utterly failed to grasp what made Diablo 2 work so succesfully.

He totally ignored the pleasure people get from finding powerful combinations of skills, for example, and he chose to leave out character building almost entirely. The game had 4 skills which basically represented a class each. There was little or no point in developing more than one skill, because you would gimp yourself in another. Furthermore, he "forgot" that games typically become more intriguing by actually having a story or plot that you care about. Not that D2 was a great example of this, but it definitely served its purpose as a suitable background goal amidst the core gameplay.

Dungeon Siege was both simple to learn and simple to master, and perhaps that is really what I'm talking about. Not that it didn't have challenges, but once you had found a comfortable group setup, the game literally played itself. There was nothing more to it than that.

Diablo 2 was (and is) very hard to master once you go beyond the first difficulty level and the game is definitely simple to learn. That's the kind of depth and complexity I'm talking about.
 
Dungeon Siege was both simple to learn and simple to master, and perhaps that is really what I'm talking about. Not that it didn't have challenges, but once you had found a comfortable group setup, the game literally played itself. There was nothing more to it than that.

I think CT would agree - he claims at least to have recognised the failings and he's stated he's looking for more depth. Certainly seeing SupCom proves to me he knows how to make a game with depth as well. Problem with that game is that it's just too involving.
 
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I think CT would agree - he claims at least to have recognised the failings and he's stated he's looking for more depth. Certainly seeing SupCom proves to me he knows how to make a game with depth as well.

SupCom is basically just a clone of Total Annihilation.

I personally think both of them are relatively boring RTS games, but I wouldn't deny the strong influence of TA on the genre.

Anyway, I'm sure he's able to do games with depth, the trouble is that he doesn't seem to really care for them. Not that I really blame him, and this is merely about my own tastes and tastes as I perceive them in my fellow hardcore gamers.
 
Wow! And here I though that Dungeon Siege and Space Siege WERE targetted at casual gamers, seeing as how simplistic they were, and will be in the case of Space Siege...

Geez, even DS2 was no morass of complexity, but I guess that they'll be targetting an ever decreasing IQ level, and attention span...
 
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I have to say that I liked Dungeon Siege, but tended to be smoking loads of dope while I was playing it back then. Maybe the game wasnt so bad, or maybe I was just too numb to care.

In either case, I had fun w/ it!

I dont see where all the negativity is coming from out of this little paragraph of an article. From what I'm reading, the guy is just saying that he wants to bust out what most consider a "lunchtime game" that isnt necessarily just some simple match-3. Simplicity, as in something that you can burn a half hour or so on, but has more depth than a bejeweled type game. Love or hate DS, it still wasnt something to fire up for a half hour or so.

I'm all for that, give me something I can fit in on my lunch break that has a little more to it than the norm. Like Puzzle Quest I assume, or something of that nature (which incidentally I burn my entire lunch period on and have for the last 2 months!).
 
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I think that one day the video game business is going to severely regret abondoning its hardcore base like it's doing now. Dumping your alpha consumers is one of the stupidest things that you can do. These are the people who buy high-priced, buggy hardware when it comes out and they spend hundreds of dollars per year on games without being advertised to.

Good luck with your browser-based flash games that nobody pays for, Chris. Maybe you can Warren Spector in the loser club shortly.
 
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He's not saying that he's abandoning anyone, where are you people getting this information? He's talking about including people. Theyre working on a number of titles, including their first for consoles. Read the interview link in the article

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Taylor said, "Inside the company I believe we have a total of four, and one extra that we're working on - so that makes five."

He never said that theyre making 5 versions of Super Peggle.
 
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