Games

Games are magical. I have recently started playing alot of flash games which i had always thought would be complete rubbish. However, alot of the simple flash games are infact some of the most enjoyable games available. Examples of this are alot of the Playfish games available to play on Facebook, twitter, myspace etc. The game play itself is generally similar in most of these games (Restaurant City, Country Story) in that the general premise is to continue to frequently return to the game inorder to reach goals, complete quests, gain more experience and continue to develop throughout the game. This is where the real gold mine is for these 'basic' games.

Restaurant City is a fantastic example of a fairly straightforward game which has become extremely popular with some 12 million active players monthly. The game itself revolves around a player setting up his or her own restaurant with basic options to begin with, from window and door layout, to outdoor decoration and signage. As the player develops their restaurant more options become available such as more tables meaning more potential diners.
As added incentive for a player to frequently return to play, each day they return to play a new ingredient will be added to their kitchen for free. This may enable new menu options to be selected by the player, creating new dishes worth more money and experience, thus enabling even more options for renovation and upgrading of their restaurant.

Such a simple concept clearly works well in this instance as the game is free to play and has continued to steadily grow in popularity worldwide. 12 million regular players and climbing indicates that a game developer need not necessarily require a vast budget such a Blizzard have for such games as WOW and Diablo inorder to make a successful game. There is much truth in the 'KISS' concept of 'KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID'.....The future holds great things for the gaming world.