An example of such genre smashers could be found in much of the Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash music. When such a song 'crossed over', it made buckets full of money.
Today's IOS games appear to be much the same. A good many of us tend to play a single genre, with the occasional foray into something that has a segment that appeals to us. For instance, I play shooting games, action games and racing games, mostly. But sometimes I enjoy some of the better puzzle games and word games. I play a very few RPG's as well.
Plants vs. Zombies is a Tower Defense game. I almost never play that style of game, because I hate them, but Plants vs. Zombies is so darn cute, and fun, and so lovingly written and rendered, that I played it all the way through.
Another of my favorite puzzle games is Globs. I like Book Worm, also, and a few others. To make one of these genre busters probably doesn't have a real 'formula' that guarantees results, but you have to think about appealing to a different core with a facet of the gaming. With Bookworm, I like the flaming letters that have to be used before they go nuclear on your butt. With other puzzle games, I like it when they have power-ups that explode, or that blast things with missiles or that bring down a spaceship to clear the board with a laser weapon. Obviously, I lack maturity. I love Shellrazor because the idea of having a turtle with super powers really appeals to me. When I feed him jumping beans and he stomps a mudhole in the rear end of my enemies, I laugh like a mad scientist, much to the amusement of my spouse. Then I feed him a watermelon and he spits seeds and mows down those who seek my doom. He is my friend.
Another subject on my mind today is the 'Endless Runner' games. I went for years, hating these games. Here lately, I have started playing several of them and enjoy a few of them quite a bit. The main gripe I have about these things is this: Put some #@**** save points in the **** things! I hate starting over every time. It makes the game so tedious that I just delete it.
Lately, because of my frustration with companies like Gameloft, who have a tradition of Half Gaming, (Games that casual gamers can only reach the mid point, or less, of) I have several cool endless runners. The Last Driver, Blood Roofs and the older game called Jetpack Joyride to name a few. But they need save points!
Let's consider a truly novel approach by gaming developers, shall we? It probably won't happen, but just in case someone cares about pleasing a large segment of your market...
1) Installing save points on all games, especially endless runners.
2) Better yet, install the ability to play any level, any time. After all, we bought the game, we should be able to play the darn thing. Take your 'locks' and place them where the sun don't shine.
3) Install a truly 'easy' difficulty selection button. If you must, hire a somewhat sluggish, 60 year old guy and see if he can play the game all the way through in less than a week, while holding down a regular job.
Gee, I guess that this was my weekly rant. I hope you have a few save points in your life today.
I'm CE Wills.
P.S. What's the picture have to do with all this? Well, nothing. Or, think about the two diverging roads as being different types of gaming. The more traveled one is your favorite type of games, the other is for those occasions when you want to walk on the wild side and play a puzzle game or whatever. It is little more than a cow-path, perhaps even a trifle intimidating, but it is a change of pace.
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