Goodsol Solitaire Blog

History of a Game

Here's an interesting article:  Behind the Game: Bejeweled

Some points to take away from this:

1) Fancy graphics are not necessary.

"The original graphics were done by me," Kapalka said with a laugh. "That's why they're pretty ugly."

2) Untimed games tend to be more popular than timed ones.

Of course the untimed version was included in the final product; something that Kapalka suggests might have been integral to its success.

3)

They decided to take a risk, one from which the repercussions are still being felt to this day. They created a deluxe version of their already popular Web game with better graphics, better sound and more modes that they would sell.

Creating a shareware version was considered "taking a risk" rather than just applying a time tested business model (which it was).

4) "E-commerce was in its infancy" in 2001.  Who knew?  I wonder what it was in 1996?

5) Price is an important factor in quality.

"He said that the cheaper a game is, the less people think its worth," Kapalka said.

Growth Despite Non-Paying Customers

There's an interesting interview with PopCap founder Jason Kapalka.

Casual Game Biz Poised for Growth Despite Non-Paying Customers

It's got a business model that's drastically in need of repair, which may be one reason why the casual games audience is spreading like wildfire. Indeed, because the typical casual game comes with a "try before you buy" offer, fewer than 2% of those played are actually purchased. Conversely, that means that 98% of casual gamers are playing for free without a cent going to the games' developers or publishers.

Comments:

He implies that casual games were not previously available by retail, but of course they were.  There have been casual games available in retail since the PC began.

I can't think of another industry where it would be acceptable to give away 98% of the product it makes.

Actually, of course, that's a very typical conversion rate for a direct marketing industry.  Casual games should be compared to mail order type conversion rates.

As far as advertising in games, that's been tried before and apparently it will be tried again.  It will run into exactly the same problems as before - essentially there's an unlimited supply of in game advertising impressions and only so many advertisers willing to pay.  And they'll be less willing to pay as soon as they've tried it and discovered how little return they get.

He's right about clones - they are inevitable.

Casual Game Survey Results

Here is an interesting article about the results of a survey done by PopCap:

Casual Games Survey Results Surprise Publisher

Among the most interesting findings of the survey were responses to questions regarding the location, duration and reasons for playing casual computer games, defined for survey purposes as "puzzle, word, simple action/arcade and other family-friendly, non-violent games which can be played on computers and mobile devices." Survey findings included: motives For Playing: 88% of players indicated they experienced stress relief from playing casual games and 74% cited mental exercise as a benefit; when asked to choose the most important reasons for playing, 41% picked "stress relief/relaxation," more than twice the number (19%) who chose "entertainment"; 27% said the games provided distraction from chronic pain and/or fatigue, and fully 8% said they derived actual relief from chronic pain and/or fatigue.

How Bored Do You Have to Be...

...to tape bacon to your cat and then blog about it?

New Version 11 of Pretty Good Solitaire

Today we have released a new version of Pretty Good Solitaire.

The new version 11 contains 660 solitaire games.  There are 20 new games in this version:
Alliance, Bunker, Calculation FreeCell, Double Storehouse, Double Trigon, Forty Bandits, Heracles, Kiev, Linus, Neptune, Nine to Five, Panther Creek, Quadruple Trigon, Rouen, Selective FreeCell, Suit Triangle, Suits Up, Trigon, Wading Pool, and Wildflower.

The new version can be downloaded from our download page.