(Since the thread this question was asked in, seems about to go south REAL quick, I'll start a new one as I think it might be interesting to bat it around a little.)

Why is Bejewled (aka Diamond Mind) so popular?

My ideas:

1) Its pretty to look at (very colorful).
2) Its VERY easy to play (absolute minimal effort/skill required).
3) Can play with brain in neutral.

I think these things make it a great, relaxing game to play, in the same way staring at a lava lamp or a 2d-animated-"plasma" effect is relaxing.

Any other thought?

David

It's an alpha-wave stimulator.

Cas :)

You pretty much covered the main aspects, sans one:

4) 100% full mouse-driven control (move mouse, click button, most basic possible input system).

I have a long-winded idea as to why this type of game excels but I'll spare you that bit of speculation (it relates to stress in the workplace / day-jobs). Suffice to say that it clearly works, as one of the other more popular games on Yahoo, Collapse, meets the same criteria as Bejeweled in almost every aspect-- but appeals a little more to people who like a faster paced action-style game.

- Air

I think it succeeds because it has the same look and fill of the slot machine games you see in Vegas now. Very cartooney, bright colors, sound effects and very entertaining. I think they are using the same formula as "Texas Tea" and "Little Green Men". People love these games.

Basically I think it comes down to this:

1)Its fun and addictive
2)You can learn it in 1 min
3)It has attractive graphics and sound

in order of importance.

Thats the magic formula, its step #1 thats the hard part ;)

-Bruno

What makes it fun and addictive? Fun and addictive to whom?

I think the phrase "fun and addictive" is used too often (escpecially in game design books and articles) and far too generalized to be of any use. In a way it's a cop-out to keep from having to explain what good game design is. Fun and addictive in my opinion is actually the result of other elements being in place:

1) Bright, colourful, attractive graphics
2) Simple, easy to learn in 1 minute gameplay
3) Streamlined controls, mouse only or 5 keys
4) Streamlined GUI, fewer things to keep track of
5) Engaging and professional sound and music
(not necessarily in order of importance, this list should certainly be longer, too)

These are all measureable and duplicable, certainly more useful for a game designer to take into consideration. The trouble with claiming a game *has* to be "fun and addictive" is that they are completely subjective elements. It's funny how difficult it is to be exact in classifying gameplay elements but eventually you have to discard generalities in favor of what is real and measureable.

At the same time, Bejeweled reached it's target audience effectively. Not too many hardcore strategy gamers or FPS addicts would give Bejeweled a second glance. Maybe a better question is, how did Bejeweled hit it's target so effectively?

Don't forget another important aspect of the game's success:

Small download.

-Scorpio

Here are my thoughts on BeJeweled

1. It is noncommittal - You can start and end it whenever you want or need to.

2. "Just Play" - You don't have to remember what you were doing the last time you played. You don't have complicated equipment to change and inventory and/or goals to keep track of. You can wait 3 months between the first time you played and the next time you play and you still know how to play and what your "goal" is.

3. It's addictive because it draws you back to play again game so that you can beat your last score.

4. It's in a way a mind-less game. It doesn't take a lot of your brain to play the game and therefore it allows a people to relax and almost go numb. I've had a lot of my players say they like some of *my* games for that reason and I think it fits with BeJeweled as well.

5. It has a happy appearance. You aren't killing, you aren't seeing scary faces, there is nothing to feel guilty about, etc etc. You can go play and feel uplifted in spirit because the overall feel of the game is happy.

6. It's repetitive - There are no rule changes. You play the same way on the 10th level as you did on the first.

Good graphics and good sound and small downloads are, I think, main factors in getting people to download the game. But I don't think they will keep a player playing. Those things are eye-candy. But we all know that a person isn't going to eat at the candy store three times a day. You have to serve a meal!

Originally posted by DGuy
Why is Bejeweled (aka Diamond Mine) so popular?


Bejeweled is popular because it is simply a classic game. The game itself (never mind the computer implementation of it) is brilliantly structured.

I asked my wife (the casual gaming queen) why Bejeweled is a good game and she said it was because it gives you lots of small achievements. Each time you create a sequence you get an achievement and a small satisfaction. These build up as you play.

The game is very easy to learn, the concept is extremely simple. You can learn the rules in a minute. When playing you can go into a mindless state if you like, but the game is *not* mindless as there is room to use skill to add to your score. You can attempt to improve your score by looking ahead and trying to make moves that create multiple sequences of gems. It's up to the player how much thought he wants to put into it. The more effort, the higher the reward. But it can be played to pass the time for its own sake. The game itself (again ignoring the computer implementation of it) is brilliantly designed and my hats off to whoever designed it.

Good graphics, good controls, sound, music, and many of the other things previously mentioned here are of absolutely no importance as to why the game is good. Bejeweled would have been a massive hit if it had been implemented in 1980 on a TRS-80 with a black and white screen and character graphics. It is the properties of the game itself that makes it good.

That said, PopCap's implementation of the game is excellent. The graphics, sound, and user interface *are* good. But what makes it really good is how the game aids the player. It's the little touches that separate the true professionals from the amateurs. The way that the game shows you a hint if it has been a long time since you have moved is truly masterful. It's subdued but noticable, elegant but unobtrusive.

Many game developers and hard core gamers, it seems, simply don't appreciate the elements of design that go into games like this, which is why they are mystified by why these games are popular. Complexity is the enemy of good game design, unless that complexity arises naturally out of small elements of simplicity. High end graphics can be the enemy of simple elegance, which will beat the high end graphics every time. A fun game gives the player simple objectives which result in simple rewards, and it game allows the player to get back more if they put in more.

People will be playing Bejeweled (or games like it) 20 years from now, just like they are playing Tetris nearly 20 years later, because it is such a well designed game.

I am a little behind based on when some of these replies are dated but better late than never, right? I played this game quite a bit and just stuck with the free versions. Downloaded it from a couple different places so I could get my fill. I must say that although a very clever way to market it by just giving you a taste, it was enough of a taste for me to know I won't buy it. Although it was fun, music and all that was good, I found the game to be something you will tire over rather quickly. So the clever marketing did not work with me at least. The simple play does make this a game that you can enjoy rather quickly however, based on this simple play I believe is where the game fails for the long haul. A game to spend a little time with for a day or two and that is it. I am done. Not worth the 20 bucks to waste anymore time with. Thanks for listening....

I am currently hooked on PopCaps game Zuma. It's really addictive and fun, for the reasons stated above. But in the line of the previous post, I think they give too much in the free version. I can play the online version, and so far I haven't discovered any limitations with. So I simply haven't bothered to download the demo and see what's better, cause I'm happy with the free online version.. feels like Popcap could have done a better job drawing me to a deal.

They made an online version of Zuma? When it first came out ISTR it was download-only. (And a one hour trial!)

I've never understood how they manage when the free versions of the games are always perfectly acceptable... except for people who don't have broadband and aren't willing to wait through the load, I suppose... or aren't always online.

In terms of what makes a game addictive, I think I'll just relay a quote from a Sid Meier interview in a book I was recently reading called Game Design: Theory and Practice by Richard Rouse. Afterall, he explains it so much more eloquently than I could.

So you don't have any advice for how other designers can try to achieve that addictiveness in their own games?

I think in hindsight we know, or we think we know, why the game is addictive, or have our theories. One thing is what we call 'interesting decisions.' To us that means you are presented with a stream of decision points where the decisions are not so complex that you are basically randomly choosing from a list of options. A too-complex decision is one where you say, 'Oh, I've got these three options. Yeah, I could spend five minutes analyzing the situation, but I really want to get on with the game so I'm going to pick B because it looks good.' And on the other extreme there's the too-simple decisions: 'It's obvious that I must choose A, because it is clearly better than all of the other options.' In Civ. we try to present you choices where they are easy enough to understand, but in a certain situation you might choose A, in a slightly different situation B is a good choice, in another situation C is a good choice. So you're really saying, 'Here are the three technologies that I can go for next.' And you say to yourself, 'Well, right now I'm about to get into a conflict with those no-good Romans. So I really need that technology that gives me the next cool military unit. But, well, that map-making looks kind of interesting. Next time I might take that because I want to do some exploring.' So if you can create decisions where the player is always saying, 'Next time, I'm going to try that one, because that looks interesting too,' that creates this whole idea that there's this richness there that you're only scratching the surface of this time.

The addictive quality, I think, also falls out of the fact that you've got multiple things happening or in process at the same time. On the one hand you've got your next technology churning away over there. Your scientists are working on that. And this city is making that first tank that you're looking forward to. Over here is a unit wandering around to the next continent, and pretty soon he'll find something interesting. You've got different things that you are looking forward to in the game, and there's never a time when those are all done. There's never a reset state. There's always two or three things happening in the game that you are looking forward to when they finish. So there's never actually a good time to stop playing. I think that really helps the 'you can never stop playing the game' phenomenon.

A question I spent a while trying to figure out..

decided with my first recently released indie game , Panic, to try to create a game in the vein of Bejewelled , Diamond Mine etc., following what I assumed to be the basic rules of its success..

Small
Clean and simple
Easy to understand
Addictive
Non-offensive imagery
Completely mouse driven
Game modes that allow for non-pressured gaming.

And although I've had a lot of good feedback, especially from the market I aimed it at, the mature female audience, its hardly had a sweeping affect on the world.

Even though its had 400+ site rollout, press releases etc and awards I think its biggest drawback is that I didn't (and really still don't) understand what made Bejewelled,Diamond Mine what they are, and I essentially simply tried to copy the mechanics of its success without creating the 'soul' so to speak.

So now I'm sticking to creating something that I love the idea of and truly believe in, Apartments, unfortunately it has a little competition (the sims)

Hey, whats a battle without a challenge !! :D


Marcus Lynn
www.ItsAllAGame.com

This is the first ever time I've responded to a "Why are games additictive and how can I do it?" question.

Why?

There is no answer.

A few people above have listed a load of points that all sound good to me, but there are lots of games out there that fulfil them all and are still poo, or maybe just a let down.

I liken this to the question of "Do we have a soul, and if so, what is it ?. If we clone ourself, do we have to share one?" etc.

There are things you can do to make the game playable. True addictiveness is something you can only hope for. IMO. Or maybe that's just why I have no job.

Interesting point I heard once, it goes on forever. Some publishers didn't like my game BLOX because it has levels that once beat it's all over, thus little replay value. Guess customers see more value if think the game will give them pleasure for a very long time and thus more sales.

Whereas personally, I prefer games that DON'T go on forever. I much prefer to have an ultimate goal to shoot for. Otherwise the game generates existential angst, and we get enough of that around here as it is.

I agree. If I see one more combine randomly placed colored objects together games ala Diamond Mine I'm going too.... nuts sell it because that's what the customers want :(