ihoby wog

With the plethora of games out there for smart phones and particularly iPhones, I used to think that there would be plenty of every genre for me to find and play at any time. The problem is though, most of the games out there are centered around mechanics that make them unplayable for the settings I’m able to play them.

What settings are those? Here’s a basic list:

• Waiting for a bus
• Riding on a bus
• Waiting in a place of business
• Holding my daughter so she’ll sleep

So with that set of contexts, a lot of common game elements don’t work for me, like:

• Sound Effects / Music / Dialogue (either can’t hear or can’t have enabled)
• Timed levels / Countdowns (if I focus that long I’ll miss my bus)
• Non-interruptible portions (all four situations are going to be interrupting me at least once)
• Two handed controls (holding my child or standing on a bus, can’t do it)
•  Motion / Orientation controls (I can’t be waving my arm around any of these places, and on a bus will constantly be registering the “shake” motion)
• Multiple continuity decisions (I’m not going to remember where I was before I paused.. that could be one or more days ago)
• Lots of intense action (raised heart rate and perspiration? not the best times for these. quick tapping/swiping will wake up my daughter)
• Intense action with lots of swiping (in warm weather my fingers will sweat, making me unable to swipe)

This list of elements probably describes most of the games currently out there. Not good. I look now at the games that have stayed on my phone, that I’ve been able to keep playing in my various settings, and I find less common elements that enable me to play them:

• Gameplay I can ignore when I look away from the screen
• Single finger/thumb operation
• Tapping vs swiping for difficult portions

I think this is where more games need to go in order to capture me as an audience—and likely others who are in similar circumstances.