In a world full of endless disruption, gaming companies are competing more than ever for the attention of their users. The rapid advancement of technology is giving game designers the potential to evolve game mechanics to deliver high quality experiences in order to keep users engaged and hungry for more.
Creating a Visual Illusion for the Gamer
So, what does this mean for game designers? We are now capable of more advanced on-screen experiences and greater opportunities to engage our audience. Game designers now have to think differently about the possibilities across devices, audiences and visual opportunities. The design spectrum has enhanced significantly in recent years, giving us a broader visual palette and a wealth of options and possibilities. Undoubtedly, this has made the decision process much harder, but also more exciting.
This new era of game design comes with fresh expectations and high demands from the consumer, which we have a responsibility to fulfill. Gamers want an experience like never before. They want something that looks great and creates an authentic illusion. As games designers, we need to reflect these demands within our high quality features and visuals, while making sure that we are catering towards the demand for short, snackable experiences, as well as the usability constraints that come with portable devices, such as screen size, battery life and touch interaction.
Community is Key
Gaming is now more social than ever. People are sharing experiences like never before. The rise of eSports demonstrates that people are not only playing the games themselves, but also playing vicariously through others. This has been a hugely exciting development, giving designers the opportunity to explore this trend with mobile devices.
What’s more, the element of community is a great driving force within the games industry. Pokemon, for example, is a universally loved brand, and Pokemon Go is breaking down the boundaries. It’s re-engaging people who may not have played games in years and introducing it to those completely new to gaming.
This is what we’ve done with our flagship game, Top Eleven. We have an engaged gaming community of football fans that we have built through providing users with a different experience and uniting them based on common interests. Top Eleven allows gamers to experience building and training their own team, as well as building a football stadium. Users have total control over their game, every experience is different, and that’s what’s so exciting.
Your Players are Your Strongest Marketers
The influence of an active community must not be ignored. When users want to play and talk about your game, they’ll do so via social media. This is a hugely powerful tool for gaming companies: we must take advantage of an engaged community to help strengthen our games and to also ensure that we are offering the best possible experience to our players.
Developers need to be tuned in, actively listening to players and continually updating the game in line with this. Developers should also maintain an open stream of communication with users, keeping them abreast of what is changing and, based on feedback received, use it to help evolve the game itself. There is no harm in over communicating these developments; players need and want to feel involved and that’s what will keep them coming back for more.
Embrace the Challenges
One of the toughest challenges in this day and age is vying for the attention of the player. There’s no shortage of games on the market, so games need to have a notable and exciting point of difference. Why would gamers play your game over the next one? You need to have a great game with a huge amount of content that constantly delivers new experiences.
Additionally, game designers need to be innovative, building experiences that are better than what has been done before. There is a huge demand for quality user experience and masses of content, and developers need to be able to cope with the scale of this demand. Players drive games, and not the other way round. They dictate the evolution depending on their needs.
We aren’t just competing with other games but also other devices and screens. In one sense, this creates an opportunity to give gamers an experience that they don’t dedicate all their time to as opposed to console gaming where users are often in front of their screen for long periods of time. It’s about the shift in how users think about their gaming experience.
There’s a saying we have here at Nordeus: “Play Anywhere”, and it’s absolutely true of mobile gaming — being able to sit anywhere and play a game, whether you’re at home, commuting or in a waiting room. We want to be able to cater to a short session or a long session. We need to be agile and adaptive to change, and react to the way our players’ lifestyles are changing.
That is the ultimate challenge, but also the ultimate secret to success.
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