It's not all doom and gloom, you know – there's a lot to love and be proud of within our favoured pastime. As something of a counterpoint to our '10 Stale Ideas Holding Back Gaming' feature, we're taking a look at 10 concepts and techniques that are pushing the industry forward – both from a creative standpoint and an economic one. Hopefully, when viewed in tandem, these features will help paint a fuller picture of the wider industry and your place as a gamer within it.
Cloud Computing
If there's a certain old-thinking, dusty approach to game design that has seemingly taken root in the games development sphere – and believe us, there is to a large extent, then here before you is an answer of sorts. It's an approach to games design that not only fixes artificial intelligence by giving that design element to players, but it also takes a leap off the back of user-generated content. We're talking about cloud computing; a method of networking gaming systems and PCs to a central database, continuously expanding and collating data – and then feeding that data back into the game world, improving and building on the experience. It's a nebulous term that could have a massive and rock-solid impact on how games are designed and, importantly, grow with the player.
Social Integration
At first glance, the uptake of social networking might seem perfunctory – I mean, you can't toss a stone without hitting reference to Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. But the real beauty of this trend actually rests in new ways of experiencing and sharing games. Titles like Farmville actually bred a thoughtful approach to mainstream-oriented multiplayer games. It also spreads gaming as a pastime beyond living rooms and into the public psyche in ways that not even Nintendo has quite managed to do. If developers can continue to leverage social gaming elements into software in interesting and (critically) unobtrusive or invasive ways, it'll ultimately bring a fresh audience to gaming –and fresh ideas to boot.
The shift towards large-scale gaming productions on handhelds will dramatically increase in line with hardware power and market penetration. (Hehe. Penetration.)
Handhelds as Lead Platforms
Here's a novel trend - and one that points towards gaming's increasingly mobile and flexible future. As hardware is prepped for the next round of handheld consoles from Nintendo and Sony (and Apple continue to ride the successes of iPhone/Pod/Pad), we're starting to see major franchises opting for a handheld environment as lead, rather than main-line consoles. Dragon Quest IX is a great case-in-point of Square Enix reading the market penetration of the DS – and crafting an excellent adventure to suit the hardware. Expect more games developers to look to handhelds first; the development costs are lower and the install base for these platforms make them very viable for generating major sales.
Graphic Minimalism
It's no accident that we're seeing a resurgence in 2D and highly stylized games engines starting to emerge. While there will always be a large portion of the market that appreciates the latest graphical advances and incremental physics improvements, there's a class of player out there who simply doesn't give a hoot. The reasoning is simple enough to understand; games are the culmination of gameplay, objectives and a presentation to support that core gameplay. Everything else is just a spit-polish over the top. Expect to see a gradual increase in pixel-art, chip-tunes and minimalism. Plus – it's less resource-hungry at the development end and it emphasises the importance of overall art direction – not just texture resolution and hardware grunt.
Investing in Your Wii Development Team
Now that PlayStation Move is in the market and developers are used to dealing in the motion-control space, we're expecting a return to higher-quality motion control games on Wii. This might seem obvious, but if your development team's skills aren't up to scratch, chances are the final game won't be all that crash-hot either. These days, however, we're starting to see major investment in Wii titles from major developers – and the results speak for themselves. Metroid: Other M, the Wii iteration of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and a number of upcoming titles from Square Enix and Capcom show what the system is capable of in the right hands. Unfortunately, with the exception of Nintendo's core franchises, even the first-party developer itself rarely pushes its own hardware in interesting ways. Here's hoping for change.
Pushing Boundaries
Take a risk. Just because your title doesn't immediately scream 'commercial hit' doesn't damn it, either. There are numerous cases every year of independent developers and small team creations breaking through to serious commercial successes off the back of a great idea and air-tight gameplay. It happens. It's no accident. While a large marketing budget can sometimes (often, in fact) smooth over critical gameplay flaws at the cash register, a truly great game with broad appeal can ultimately score true critical and commercial success.
Focusing in on What Works
We're seeing games starting re-emerge that are slightly more focussed – or even single-minded about their approach to gameplay. By keeping a concept simple – and getting the core gameplay right, games tend to excel within its genre. That leads to better reception by fans of the genre and, in turn, grassroots praise and – in theory – better sales. Games like Limbo, Flower and even more complex commercial efforts like Left 4 Dead tend towards greater successes by nailing its core gameplay concepts rather than watering the experience down with too many extraneous ideas.
Story? Who needs it! (Answer: Square Enix, Bethesda, Bioware and developers of that ilk.)
Telling a Good Story (But Only When It's Needed)
Storytelling is an art form –and games, too, are artful in their own right. However, just because your game aims to convey a story doesn't necessarily mean you're going to tell it well. Games, by their length and structure, rarely cater to a Hollywood-standard narrative arc. Therefore, it's all the more critical that developers continue to take care when crafting a storyline; opting for quality writing and ensuring that the game actually calls for a story in the first place. Case in point? The storytelling process in Mario Galaxy 2 versus the arbitrary one in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Nintendo knows the focus in NSMB Wii is the purity of gameplay, while reserving Galaxy for more cinematic storytelling.
Evolving Worlds
Looking at a game like LittleBigPlanet, which so slickly combines deep customization functionality with an online infrastructure that gives players access to a multitude of unique player-created gaming experiences, we see the earliest footsteps towards cloud game expansion. What we hope is, as players use the tools in front of them, the game itself begins to compile data on how players are using items and, in turn, what is being built. That data could be used in a massive variety of ways - including evolving and highly customisable game worlds.
The Rise of Digital Distribution
As a counterpoint to the broken retail model that currently plagues games developers and publishers alike (whereby retailers encourage used games sales over new purchases in order to up the profit margin), self-publishing and digital distribution platforms have been increasing in prevalence and relevance over the last year or so. As the market has cottoned onto the value and viability of inexpensive 'app store' apps and a mainstream pricing model, we think this is pointing the way forward for games distribution and sales in the future.
Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3DS
