[EDIT – the prototypes in question are no longer being distributed. You can still find some information, and a link to supplemental license information, at the link at the bottom of this article]

It’s fairly rare for game developers to show the world their early prototypes, but I’ve decided to take a chance and do so here.

I’d really like to get solid feedback from a variety of folks, so I’m going public with these prototypes very early. They are crude prototypes, but hopefully show either the germ of something fun, or reveal an idea that frankly just doesn’t work.

You can download the prototypes from here (5.1 MB) [EDIT – not anymore]. What I’d like you to do is send me your ratings, from 1 to 10, on the different game concepts. There are 10 main concepts that I’m mainly interested in feedback on, and 6 others (variants, mainly), that are prefixed ‘Weak’ that you can skip unless you’re really interested.

Check them out and send your feedback to me at psteinmeyer A T newcrayon.com.

If you don’t mind, please also tell me your age, gender, and a few casual games, if any, that you’ve played/particularly enjoyed in the last 3 months.

More details/description here.

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060217/tc_cmp/180203138

At the current fiscal year started last April, Nintendo projected that global sales of NintendoDS would be 12 million. But at the end of December, Nintendo had already sold 14.4 million units globally—5.7 million in Japan, 4.63 million in North America and 4.1 million in other areas.

14.4 million units sounds pretty good to me for a launch year.

The upcoming DS Lite has a much better form factor than the current DS, and should make the DS an even bigger hit. It’s 39% smaller and 21% lighter than the current DS.

According to this other article (which puts DS sales at 13 million through early January), Sony PSP sales are only 7 million. Most sources indicate that while the PSP launched strong, it’s sales soon lagged due to it’s high price and lack of games. If it’s losing the sales war now, even with hardware that is much sleeker than the current, clunky DS, then things will only get worse when the DS gets it’s new, iPod-esque form factor.

The PSP needs better software and a lower price fast, or Sony will be faced with it’s first ever loss in the video game wars. Foreshadowing of PS3 vs XBox 360? We’ll see…

John Dvorak discusses the possibility of Apple dumping OS-X and switching to Windows.

The idea that Apple would ditch its own OS for Microsoft Windows came to me from Yakov Epstein, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, who wrote to me convinced that the process had already begun. I was amused, but after mulling over various coincidences, I’m convinced he may be right. This would be the most phenomenal turnabout in the history of desktop computing.
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Epstein made four observations. The first was that the Apple Switch ad campaign was over, and nobody switched. The second was that the iPod lost its FireWire connector because the PC world was the new target audience. Also, although the iPod was designed to get people to move to the Mac, this didn’t happen. And, of course, that Apple had switched to the Intel microprocessor.

Bleh – where to begin…

First, I’m not a Mac fanboy. I have a couple here I use for porting purposes, but I find them less-than-ideal for development. If I was a college student just using a word processor, web browser, and iTunes, perhaps I’d be more enthusiastic. Still…

Ignoring the firewire on iPod thing (I don’t understand how this ties in at all), he really has two points:

1) People aren’t switching from Windows to Mac – the ad campaign and the success of the iPod both failed to sway users.
2) The Apple switch to Intel microprocessor will lead to an OS switch.

Re: 1) Apple doesn’t have to get people to switch from Windows to Mac to stick with Mac OS-X. All they have to do is
A) Make money off the mac.
B) Hold on to their market share, so it doesn’t go into long-term decline.

Apple is making a lot of money. While they don’t break out iPod profitibality from Mac profitability, overall, their revenues for their most recent quarter were $5.7 billion, a 65% jump from the same quarter, previous year. They earned $565 million – a very fat 10% net margin. They have net current assets (surplus of cash and receivables over payables) of $7 billion. They are financially stronger than they’ve ever been.

As for market share, while they still only have around 2% of the worldwide market, their Mac unit sales grew in 2005 by 34%, more than twice the growth rate of the overall industry. And that’s with the looming shadow of a processor switch, which normally would have held down sales as users wait for the new Intel models. I suspect that the latter half of 2006 and early 2007 will be banner times for Mac sales, as the Intel transition completes and software is fully ported to the Intel variant.

Re: 2) The Intel Switch. Mac switched to Intel to get a better lineup of processors, presumably at a better price. While it does leave the door open to two strategic options – Dvorak’s mused switch to Windows, and also an opposite tack – selling OS-X to run on conventional PCs, I see neither as likely barring a major shift in Apple’s fortunes. They’re doing very well with their current business plan. The could NOT maintain 10% net margins competing as a commodity player in the Windows marketplace (and they’d probably lose market share to boot). And there’s little reason for them to give up the halo effect of the all-in-one Mac experience to chase a trickle of sales to PC users who also want to run OS-X. Remember, Steve Jobs is the guy who pulled the plug on Mac clone sales about a decade ago.

I updated my other site www.casualgameblogs.com, with a few new feeds. Of particular note is www.gamezebo.com. The site is still in beta, but it looks promising. AFAIK, its the first commercial site to focus exclusively on writing about/reviewing casual games (i.e. GameSpot for casual games). They even have casual game previews there! Lets hope it survives and prospers.

So as I’ve been playing with game concepts for the last few weeks, I’ve largely ignored form and focused purely on function. i.e. I’ve mocked up my concepts with crude prototypes using flat-colored blocks on a flat blue background.

For many of the concepts, this abstract look was sufficient. But as my focus shifted from ‘progressive fill’ puzzle games (like Lumines/Tetris/Meteos) to ‘always full’ puzzle games (like Bejewelled/Jewel Quest), I found that:

A) It’s too hard to visualize how a game will feel with only colored blocks. Would even a game designer be able to recognize the potential of Chuzzle or Bejewelled if they were just colored blocks?

B) In many cases, there’s a feedback loop. Certain abstract game concepts will work with some themes but not others. Conversely, certain themes suggest gameplay styles. For instance, I thought a puzzle game about matching up shoes or socks would be sort of cute and colorful. But it’s a game about matching off pairs (just as the old game Noah’s Ark was), and trying to jam a match-3 concept into a match-2 theme doesn’t work.

So, I spent last night and today brainstorming on themes that sorta fit the game concept I have now, although I think for each theme, I would tailor the game concept to some extent.

I’m not ready to talk about the themes I like at the moment, but I will list the themes that made my brainstorm list at one point or another but got cut:

Monkeys
Stuffed animals
Easter Eggs
Christmas ornaments
Fall trees
Cooking instruments – pots, pans, spatulas
Shoes / socks
Books
Coffee cups
Train/Boxcars
Marbles
Sailboats
Hot air balloons
American outdoors (different parts of America)
American travel iconography
Guess who’s coming to dinner (royal ball) – Food, china, music, etc
Restaurant
Kites
Plates/China
Tulips/Holland
Birds
Donuts
Toys
Seashells
Hardware Tools
Gardening Tools
Hats – Mad hatter?
Paint factory
Fruit/Tropical setting
Hawaiian Shirts (You open a hawaiian store?)
Beads, which go onto a bracelet?
Candles
Old bottles
Pizza Parlor
Ice Cream (Cones?)
South of the border – Pinatas only, with Cariachi music?
Flags
Trail Ride (American West)
Shipwreck – bottles, coins, jewelry, china
Flowers/Hawaii
Birthday/Christmas Presents
Candy
Cars/Vehicles (Detroit/Motor City)
Butterflies
Caribbean Blooms (Flower Shop)
Desserts (A pastry chef’s career)
Cookbook (Recipe ingredients for real recipes)
Firecrackers

Most of these are fairly weak (again, they were quickie brainstorms).

One idea that I liked, but couldn’t figure out how to turn into a good Match-3 was a variation of “South of the Border” – a sort of tongue-in-cheek romance set in either Mexico or the Caribbean. My wife was initially enthusiastic about it (even though she doesn’t read romance novels), and I even had fairly lengthy conversations with two of my sisters-in-law (who do read romance novels), but eventually, the idea crashed because of three reasons:

1) Really needs a female protagonist to appeal to female romance afficianados. I did a female protagonist in Bonnie’s Bookstore, obviously, but whereas I think it’s fine for a guy to play Bonnie’s Bookstore, I can’t see myself or other guys playing a romanticly themed game in the character of a female.

2) Hard to tie a story that’s fundamentally about two characters to a game that’s fundamentally about manipulating objects.

3) Most romantic books/movies take themselves at least moderately seriously. I can’t see a game striking a serious (or semi-serious) tone about this and pulling it off, and I can’t see the theme having resonance if done tongue-in-cheek/snarky.