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San Francisco -- "Tetris" is the "Slim Jim" of mobile games.
At least that's what I learned at a panel I attended yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The first two days of the event are largely focused on satellite conferences, including one all about mobile games. I decided to check out a session called "TETRIS: Best/Worst Mobile Game Ever."
"First off, 'Tetris' is the best game ever. Not the best mobile game, but the best game ever," said speaker Rick Marazzani. He's worked in casual games for over 12 years at places like Broderbund, Maxis/EA/Pogo and Digital Chocolate and is now a co-founder of mobile/web/PC development studio iQ212. And the man loves his "Tetris." Or so I thought...
After a brief history of how "Tetris" came to be, including the rights debacle and commercialization of the game, he talked about its monumental success -- over 70 million units have been sold across different platforms. For mobile games, he estimates that it garnered about one-third of the $140 million revenue that rights-holder EA made on handheld games in Fiscal 2007. It is currently the best-selling mobile game, accounting for 8.5% of all mobile games sold in North America.
Thus, Marazzani called "Tetris" the "Slim Jim of mobile games" (and "not rib-eye or filet mignon"), I guess because of its universal accessibility, although I'm not really sure why meat products were the analogies of choice. So far everything he had said pretty much made sense and was nothing new... But then he pondered the idea of "Tetris" being made today instead of back in 1985. With that in mind, what's his advice to aspiring mobile game developers?
"If you want to make 'Tetris' for today, don't make 'Tetris,'" he said. ... Wait, what?
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According to Marazzani, if "Tetris" were made today, he thinks he'd be hard-pressed to find a carrier for it. One reason is because it lacks a story and a theme. Another is that he thinks the game isn't really playable for short periods of time, especially if you're a good player. He believes that carriers would be turned off by the game not suiting a mobile gamer's lifestyle and that it would need to be tweaked to allow for shorter gameplay sessions.
But the other thing that makes "Tetris" the "worst"?
"The most egregious thing that 'Tetris' is guilty of violating is the ability to win... Games need to be winnable," Marazzani said. "In 'Tetris' the worst player in the world and the best player in the world all end their game in the exact same way -- with a screen stacked full of bricks. They're both losers, and that's no fun."
Hmmm. But like many early video games ("Pac-Man," "Galaga" and "Space Invaders" to name a few) wasn't the fun not "winning" or "beating" the game, but playing it over and over again to try to get the highest score amongst your friends? Doesn't "Tetris"'s replay value add to its continued success? Does a game have to be winnable to be fun? (And isn't there a "pause" button?) What do you think?
