peggle posts

Somewhere between Popcap's rise to power and Spore's retail release I've found myself both enjoying and being annoyed by the rise of casual gaming. The word "casual" is at best prescribed to games like Peggle or flash-based web games of higher quality. At worst, it's a buzzword, a fallacy and often a crutch. It's because of this that whenever a developer says their game is targeted at more casual audiences, my internal alarms go off in a big way.

If you are a fan of casual PC games then you know Peggle, the addictive action-puzzle game from Popcap Games. The title combines a colorful art style with gameplay that has you trying to get rid of pegs in each level via firing balls and hoping your shot combined with gravity and bounce-backs from other special ricochet pegs. The game was released in early 2007 and has since been downloaded 20 million times. Peggle got an extra boost thanks to Valve, who included a special version of the game, Peggle Extreme, with every version of their game collection The Orange Box in the fall of 2007, complete with art and sounds from the games in the collection.

Now Popcap has finally released the long awaited next game in the series, Peggle Nights. This new game contains, among other things, 60 new Adventure levels and 60 new Challenge mode levels along with new power-ups, trophies and more. The full version of the game costs $19.99 but a free demo is available. The game will be available for sale on other sites, including Valve's Steam, next month. There's no word on if there will be a special Left 4 Dead version of Peggle Nights released.

Download the Peggle Nights demo from Big Download right now

In an age where PC gaming is shifting away from the hardcore to the casual, PopCap finds itself perched at the peak of a very high mountain. Easily accessible titles such as Bejeweled, Peggle, and Heavy Weapons have made the company synonymous with simplistic-yet-addictive casual experiences -- but why? Why PopCap as opposed to the seemingly infinite number of other casual games developers?

Co-founder John Vechey, CEO David Roberts and PR director Garth Chouteau sit down with Gamasutra to discuss a number of interesting topics, spanning the console downloadable market versus that of the PC, the company's structure, and its thoughts behind its many successful business strategies.

As gamers, unless you're a Minesweeper junkie with an epic Peggle jones and no further aspirations, you're going to have to have a dedicated video card in your rig to get any kind of decent graphic performance.

Wait, what?

The short answer for why that's the case is: "Math is hard; let's go shopping." However, it's not us saying that, it's the CPU.

I know what you're thinking. "BI, the central processing unit... all it does is math!" Or perhaps, "You cheap bastard, you still owe me five bucks for your share of the beer last week." You're right, of course (about the CPU, anyway...). In terms of raw computational horsepower, a modern processor is a potent customer. However, of necessity, it's also a generalist.

In order to obtain truly prodigious performance, we need to bring in a specialist. That specialist is your video card. Think of it like this -- an Olympic decathlon competitor is in phenomenally good shape, and a world-class performer in ten different events, but in any single one of those, their lunch will be summarily eaten by someone who makes that their sole pursuit.

The term "casual" has been coined to define a genre of game that so-called "non-gamers" can play. These games typically have a number of elements in common:

1. Simple rules -- the object of the game should be clear, with an easily-understood control scheme
2. Minimal time investment -- levels should be short enough to be completed in one sitting, say, between 3 - 5 minutes
3. Minimal system requirements -- the game shouldn't require the latest video card or esoteric browser plug-ins

If we examine one of the reigning kings of the casual game genre, PopCap Games' Bejeweled, we find all three of these elements. It's easy to understand, progress can be made quickly (even though there is no goal other than the accrual of points), and it's Flash-based, which most web browsers already support out of the gate. So on the surface, it's fairly easy to determine, at a glance, if a game fits within the casual template. However, while games like Bejeweled still abound, the genre as a whole has begun to mutate, requiring a redefinition of the label. We'll explore how and why after the jump.

A new study by Carmen Russoniello of East Carolina University, which will be debuting at the Games for Health Conference in Baltimore, looks at how casual games impact the moods and stress levels of people playing them. The study looks at players playing one of three games: Bookworm Adventures, Peggle, and Bejeweled 2 (all by PopCap, who commissioned the study).

The most interesting part is that each game affected the players in a different way. Bookworm made people much more relaxed, Peggle reduced mental tension, and Bejeweled increased "mental vigor" the most. They all, however, caused at least short-term relaxation and stress reduction. The study did not, however, measure long-term effects of playing these games.

[Via Newsweek]