Posted on Monday 29th of January 2007 at 05:15 in Gaming

Innovative gaming takes the back seat (part 2)

Way back in May when Seopher.com was just weeks old, I wrote an article claiming that innovative gaming takes the back seat and I think I overlooked a major point far too much.

The original article
Stated that the rise and rise of blockbuster games with ever increasing graphical and physical realism has seen the market for innovative gaming ideas die out. The Tetris' of the world no longer get a look into the commercial market in favour of the Oblivion's and the Gears of War's of this world. Which I suppose is true; when was the last time a truly different game was released and received mainstream attention? Something that defied genre classification and maintained a high level of addictiveness? Exactly.

A forgotten market
The internet has become the innovative gaming market of yester-year. Technologies like Flash have pushed mini-game development into the hands of the majority.

Games like Stunt Hoff are developed in Flash and offer the simple ideas and addictiveness I'd been missing in the mainstream market. Lest we forget YetiSports which resulted in hundreds of lost work-hours - the Internet has become the nesting ground for experimental games. Simple interfaces and good ideas create fun.

Mobile gaming breeds new life

Java2ME (mobile edition) has spawned more development in this field - with a focus on small filesize yet high fun levels for mobile phones. This has helped a new generation of innovative mini-games be brought back into the mainstream, albeit on a different platform. The mobile gaming medias such as the PSP are too advanced for things like Tetris whereas the majority of mobile phones are perfect for simple games.

Although, if technology continues moving at this current rate, mobile devices will soon exceed this point and we'll be without a medium for innovative games once again.

 

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