In the marketing area, generally people are focusing on pre-adoption phase of games. With games, I mean mobile games. Mobile games are gaming applications that are played on small handheld computing devices (e.g., smart phones and tablets) that have wireless communication functionality. Even though some mobile games appear sophisticated and complicated to play, mobile games are generally categorized as “casual games”, referring to genres such as puzzle and simple arcade games. As compared to more complex “hardcore” games more often found on other gaming platforms (e.g., consoles and PCs) that can be time-consuming and might require more gaming skills from the player, mobile games are typically designed for momentary entertainment and playing them do not require any special skills .
(Visit: http://research.nokia.com/sites/default/files/ tr/NRC-TR-2007-011.pdf )
The time users spend playing them has now plateaued. While mobile games is currently a $25.8 billion industry, with sales increased from 10 percent from 2014.
(Visit For Full Report: https://www. superdataresearch.com/blog/us-digital-games-market/. )
If you are planning to create a game with advert model, I am telling you, it not the best idea. This industry is so competitive and you need something else monetize your App. But this time, discussion is not business model. Why are we playing some games everyday and not others? Are we addict? If we are, what is driving us to do more?
One of the answers is enjoyment of course. We are playing everyday, spending couple of hours because we love to do that. It's just so fun! According to a widely accepted definition in technology adop- tion research, enjoyment refers to “the extent to which the activity of using the computer is perceived to be enjoyable in its own right, apart from any performance consequences that may be anticipated.” (see the article of Davis, 1992)
This definition draws on hedonism, which holds that enjoyable experience is good for its own sake and, hence, provides technology users with direction and meaning to their actions. The ensuing direct relation to behavioral intention is rooted in the hedonistic premise that the activity is performed for no external motive except the enjoyment that is experienced in the activity . Also we want autonomy. We love to control every action in our life and games are providing that to us. Also playing games with our friends bring us closer and it's create a new area to spend time, not looking to social networks.
- Oh baby, did you see it? Let's create our farm together!
That is a common situation however a recent study on mobile game adoption in China demonstrated that perceived enjoyment does not directly affect adoption intentions. More about China and Mobile Gaming: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563210003596?via%3Dihub
In my day job, I am working at gaming company which is creating mobile games. I am looking to AppStore and GooglePlay comments and in-game comments to our apps, if someone complaint about something generally they want more challenging puzzles. Also generally when they are compliment to our games, they are talking about how their brain works during the gaming experience. So, they want challenges and also they want to feel smart.
GeoDefense is a pretty good example for that. geoDefense follows the gameplay structure of typical tower defense games. Enemies (called Creeps) move towards the player's lives and towers must be placed around the map to appropriately prevent and destroy their progress. Gameplay takes place on a vector display-like field with a preset path leading from where the Creeps enter the field to the player's lives. Levels are in the form of these paths with varying limits on tower prices, enemy occurrences and lives.
Or attention?
WordSearch App needs attention, it's a simple game that you should find the words in the table. Many people are playing this game and generally proud about how their mind is working during their game experience.
Last example from mind games is SpaceChem. From independent game studio Zachtronics Industries, SpaceChem is a game that engrosses you so fully while you play, you might actually feel physically tired when you're done. Although it's technically a puzzle game, a lot of what you, as the player, have to do in this game is design. You have to create circuits and place upon the circuit certain commands to achieve a desired outcome—typically, you have to get a "waldo" to reach a particular destination. Without getting too deep into the storyline, SpaceChem is a smart game because you have to use sequential logic to solve the highly interactive puzzles.
Another common task is design aesthetics. Design aesthetics has been reported to have a strong impact on enjoyment. Nearly half of the mobile gamers cited improved game graphics to influence their game play experience. There is a great post here about design in mobile gaming.
https://designmodo.com/mobile-games-ux/
Using gestures is very important. Because we love them. Driving a car or flying with a BOEING with our fingers. It's an important design aspect. Another thing is ergonomics. I think one of the best example is Piano Tiles for ergonomics aspect.
Piano Tiles have a great design aspect about ergonomics. You can freely use your fingers and enjoy the all the songs during your experience. Because it's easy to use your hands and fingers, many people are addict to this game.
When playing a game, a user becomes more familiar with its stimulating content. In time, this decreases the stimulation level, suggesting that in the absence of varying content the user will gradually lose her interest in the game. To avoid this, mobile games should provide variety in tasks and characters, landscapes, themes and other audiovisual features. For this, best example is Angry Birds.
They are always adding new chars and new templates to improve your experience and avoiding stimulation. Think about the Pokemon Go? Do you think is there a decrease of daily usage? Why?
If you will compete with your friends, it may help your game. What if you will compete with all of your friends like in the OSM Manager? Bringing challenge to your neighborhood is a good idea and OSM is making it beautifully. Many of manager games are failing but this one is not.
Wha is your fav mobile game? Why do you think you like it?
ENJOY!