Facebook Games Perspective

After having tried a bunch of facebook games for interviews that went less than stellar. But I think these are my perspectives on what makes a successful game on facebook.

Viral Hooks! The in-game gameplay elements that tie in with getting more people so that both players get rewards. Mafia wars does a really good job with getting multiple viral hooks in its game. Examples:

- Vault Collections: A whole collection gives you stat bonuses and other players gets to get rid of their excess items. And it's cyclical, people give and you give back.
- Help Bonus: When you help other players, you get a little bit of XP. And the bonus XP incentive applies for the player posting on their wall as well.

The best way to get new people (your friends) to play is definitely a wallpost. That's how I get hooked on Bejeweled. But that's just more from brand recognition. To make a good wallpost ad for your game it really has to appeal to the player's interest and the strong points of the game. That's one thing Farmville does really well. It appeals to the playful childlike nature of lost cows and ducks. It also showcases the eccentric nature of the game.

However, other types of games such as puzzle games suffer from this. Bejeweled only has its competitive nature. There is no progression of small achievable goals. It's all about skill in what you have. Puzzle games and quiz games have it tough in that there is no natural, organic viral hook besides its competitive nature. Quiz games could be more viral with UGC quizzes but that's really specific.

When these facebook games company make new games, I wish they'd look to cult classics that were really fun on console but weren't that commercially successful.

Harvest Moon - I think all the farm games pull some inspiration from 'Harvest Moon'. Although, I definitely think they could do a full on 'Harvest Moon' with house, dog, and town. Namco should do it I think.

Cooking Mama - There should be one where it focuses on cooking mini games and not leveling. Restaurant City and Cafe World pull some inspiration but it's not nearly enough. The minigames were the fun part and collecting all the recipes was fun too.

Pokemon - I really can't believe there is no pokemon type game yet. It could play like the text RPGs but you can have different pokemon do different mission chains. And it instead of a linear progression like chapters in Mafia Wars. It'll be more like a branching mission tree. And collecting pokemon will give different boosts and mastering will give boosts too.

Big Brain Academy - There are two games one with a game like this. One from Playfish and one from Wooga. The Playfish game is actually really similar to BBA. The other game too. How they make this super viral, I don't really know. That's probably why I did so bad in the interview. The suggestions I made weren't organic and I was racking my brain trying to put together any semblance of a usable viral hook.

Puzzle Fighter - This game would lend itself to a RPG/Puzzle mix. It could be a puzzle experience with leveling and stat progression. Kind of like Puzzle Quest for XBLA and PSN. Puzzle Fighter could be a good inspiration too.

Sims and Simcity - Although it would have to be stylistically similar because that's what made it successful IMO. It's realistic yet playfully cartoonish. The Farmville, Country Story, Restaurant City is too cartoonish. The semi-realism added to the appeal.

Out of all the facebook games company I like Playfish the best. Their games are original and there is some thought put to the gameplay. It definitely helps that their CEO is a gamer. Well, app notifications are annoying but I definitely get used to them after playing. But I do remove all the unnecessary posts. I don't need all my FB friends knowing that I'm playing Bejeweled Blitz at odd hours of the day.