Comments on: Casual Games on Facebook

by: Петр

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:52:25 +0000

здорово)

by: zZz

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:45:35 +0000

I like games on Facebook, But what about other platform. I think they should develop API that can port these game to other platform (standalone PC etc.).

by: Softolio » What games work best on Facebook?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:14:25 +0000

[…] What he is really saying though seems to be that good games are better than bad games. Matt Mihaly checks the list of Facebook games with most daily users and finds that the top ten are all casual games, and notes that: […]

by: tvckczyspg

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:47:00 +0000

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by: Sebastian

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:53:16 +0000

I think there are some games on Facebook that offer both a casual and more hard-core game play experience. “Who has the Biggest Brain” and “Tetris Friends” both offer a very casual initial experience, but the game play is such that there is depth for the more hard-core player. Tetris Friends (http://apps.facebook.com/fbtetris) actually has different game modes, some of which are geared more toward the hard core player…like Tetris Solo. I think this is an exciting time for Facebook games.

by: jennie

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:53:51 +0000

Have to add that six months later I am not only a Vampire Goddess (hard core biting machine - show some respect!) but also have a slayer, zombie and werewolf working their way up the ranks. With no armies, and thus doing it on fighting points alone. At not yet two months old they are bearing down on Level 8…

Oh yes, the game is still evolving; ranks have been extended from 1-7 to 1-10, with 11-15 on the way. The Covens enable interaction at God level (down to 7 in Vamps, only at 10 in the other apps) and a completely different way of playing the game based on personal interactions, online friendships and sharing strategies. The dread Chicken Suit is being used co-operatively to escalate junior creatures progression upwards. The top players in all the apps are probably now unbeatable by those who have not made the effort to join in and form friendships.
In some respects some tiny aspects of culthood are emerging. So far so benign…and anyway it is a massive amount of fun for all ages. At least five decades are represented so far in the higher echelon agegroups.

by: Kashif Shaikh

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:59:54 +0000

I have a couple of questions Matt,

Instead of focusing on hardcore v.s. casual online games, why not look at the popular online games that are _already_ being played out there for years?

A trip to Yahoo Games, shows the Top 20 games being played. Pool is #1. It’s funny that Pool was #1 5 years ago. Scrabble is at #7 — except that it is not an online game that runs from your browser.

So the question is, how can we take advantage of the Facebook platform’s social map, and apply that to already popular online games?

Whenever I play games online with someone I _know_ is just 10 times more fun, because when you win, you get bragging rights! Well, Facebook creates a social network of your friends so….

Kashif

by: rascunho » Blog Archive » links for 2008-01-17

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:34:46 +0000

[…] The Forge · Casual Games on Facebook No hardcore games in the top 10. The top hardcore game on Facebook is Warbook, with 104k daily active users. (tags: forge.ironrealms.com 2008 mes0 dia17 at_tecp social_software games social_games Facebook OpenSocial blog_post) […]

by: Matt

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:09:23 +0000

I don’t think you should even consider resisting the temptation to iterate based on user behavior and feedback. It’s flat-out a good thing!

–matt

by: kristian segerstrale

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:06:33 +0000

Really enjoyed the post - thanks Matt! My new startup Playfish released our first facebook game “Who Has The Biggest Brain?” on Facebook just before the holidays so have been spending time thinking about similar things.

What I find interesting about social networks as a games platform in addition to all the things talked about here is that the amount of play data you have and the willingness of people to provide feedback. With a large, vocal player community and the ability to make instant tweaks to your game based on feedback, social networks should in theory provide the ultimate platform for casual games - even standalone ones. We certainly haven’t been able to resist the temptation to provide little fixes, tweaks and optimisations based on behaviour and feedback.

It’ll be interesting to see how the medium will make games evolve and help us all become better game designers. Posted more on this at http://blog.playfish.com