Video games and online gaming are a huge part of today’s culture for children of all ages, as well as adults. The growing burden on the shoulders of video game developers and software professionals is to produce new products that will continue to challenge and interest gamers on a long term basis. With new games flooding the market month after month, fresh ideas and innovative products are becoming increasingly difficult to tap.
The temptation for a serious games developer is to turn to a shock factor to sell games. More violence, more blood, and more graphic scenes will, in fact, turn heads, but violence for the sake of violence will only take a game so far. Without a complex plot with continuity and a clear set of goals; characters who are relatable and who draw a reaction from the player; and rich, detailed scenery that plays an active part in game play, the game will be shelved quickly. There need to be other avenues to follow in order to develop and sell new games.
One excellent resource for a serious games developer is ever changing and offers new ideas and timely concerns. That resource is reality. While certain themes have been repeated and replicated throughout the timeline of video game development, current events are constantly changing and are forever original. Video games can be used to address gun violence in specific urban areas, an oil spill rescue, or a race to find a cure for a fast spreading disease. Plots taken straight from the headlines and enhanced to create exciting game play can give your audience a new challenge, while potentially addressing a current social or political issue.
A skilled serious games developer will not use a monumental issue to shirk his/her duty to pay close attention to the other important details needed to make a good video game, but he will use a timely theme to create a believable situation or plot that a broad range of gamers can appreciate and buy into. By carefully picking and choosing story lines from the head lines, a designer is guaranteed a string of original themes with potentially universal appeal.
Serious games are not always action/adventure oriented. Games may be designed to give the player a series of logic puzzles to solve, or to depict career opportunities to help young people plan their future. Even for games like these, the serious games developer must continue to work in rich colors and details, create characters and interesting situations, and give the players enough challenges and diverse themes to hold their interest and keep them playing. Some developers continue to work on a game even after its release, and offer potential add-ons and patches so players will have additional options and levels, and the game stays interesting to them.
Because video gaming is such an important part of today’s society’s entertainment structure, we remain hungry for more; we want more realistic computer graphics, more complex plots with more choices, and more and more interesting plots and situations. It is the responsibility of the serious games developer to meet and exceed these expectations to keep us coming back.
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