Snood, the Simple Game 369
Greg Costikyan has penned a
Snood screed
that bears reading for anyone into game design. I gave Snood a try a couple of years ago when I read that
Woz was hooked
on it. Fun. I've played it on and off since then. But the ninth most popular game in 2001? That's nuts. Is Snood part of a series of tiny puzzley games, like Tetris and Bejeweled, that can still do well in a world of Counterstrikes and Unreal Tournaments? Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this (maybe for cell phones)? Or is the engagingly simple game doomed to extinction? M : The Snood-equivalent for Linux is Frozen Bubble.
Snood is a definite classic. (Score:5, Interesting)
My 64 year-old mother got hooked on Snood, and got a copy for everyone she knew. She doesn't know what kind of video card she has, she doesn't know the bus speed of her RAM, but she'd be up until 3 in the morning trying to beat her high scores.
Oh, it is already available on cell phones and PDAs [snood.com].
Zen and Snood (Score:3, Interesting)
Snood, like tetris, is a puzzle that is impossible (or at least improbable) to beat. But trying to do the improbable is one of the most endearing traits of the human species. (Think flying, scuba diving, landing on the moon, ending the cold war, etc.)
This speed induced logic could help to sharpen the minds of young scientists, and keep the minds of bored scientists busily doing nothing for the duration of their addiction. Crap. It's a double-edged sword.
God bless Snood.
Good insight (Score:0, Interesting)
With that said, you have some good insights there, but I disagree on one issue. I would argue that such single-player games as you name fall into two catagories. You have games (1) that require a lot of thinking to progress -- tetris, Freecell, etc; and (2) those games such as Snood, Tron, etc that do not. Games in catagory #2 cause people to faze out, and (IMHO) are the ones that are the most socially destructive.
Bust-a-move (Score:4, Interesting)
Snood (Score:0, Interesting)
http://www.snood.com/index.html [snood.com]
Which leaves one to wonder, if this were submited by a regular reader, would this have made it the front page? Especially as poorly constructed this rambling piece is?
Perhaps in the future, Jamie could submit [slashdot.org] his items for the front page and see if another Editor approves it? (Just like in grocery store doesn't allow a clerk to check out their own purchases, but has the clerk go through someone else, as a simple honesty check.)
Full marks if they submit anonymously to eliminate any bias due to an existing working/friendship relationship with the other editors.
-Bill
Re:whatever (Score:5, Interesting)
It was team based and you generally had to use your good blocks on an ally who's in trouble. We'd play it for hours at a time, and we were enjoying it and socializing, not too numbed to stop. Since we were all in the same room, it was like a LAN party. Occasionally, even the managers would play.
Games like quake3 where all you do is go around shooting things are boring. That's what's mind-numbing and crippling. Tetris makes you concentrate and think.
The best games are the simple ones with high playability, so to answer the question in the summary, there will always be a demand for this.
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Re:blatant plug (Score:3, Interesting)
I also like Tiny Windows Games [tinywindowsgames.com].
This makes me think that given half a chance humans will find a game in even the simplest activity.
You know why Snood gets no respect? (Score:2, Interesting)
It almost makes me sick that Snood has become so popular while nobody has even heard of Puzzle Bobble.
Some other puzzle games worth mentioning. (Score:2, Interesting)
Columns -- Sega's answer to Tetris. Fun and addictive.
Magical Drop -- Sorta like Puzzle Bobble but upside-down. Highly addictive.
Money Idol Exchanger -- A Magical Drop-like game but there's math involved. Many may be put off by the cutsey graphics but it's a great game.
Puyo Puyo -- Released in the states as Puyo Pop or Puzzlow Kids. Tetris-like.
Chu Chu Rocket! -- Extremely fun in multiplayer mode.
I know for a fact that most of these have open source clones available, it's just a matter of looking for them.
Re:Frozen bubble (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this (maybe for cell phones)?
Is there still a chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich by plagiarizing an obscure cult classic and pretending that it's a new idea? I fucking hope not.
video games (Score:2, Interesting)
secondly, going on with that whole debate that is going on about influencing children and Snood vs. UT. this is an insight i had a few days ago.
thirty years ago, children played board games. board games have rules, but you have to learn the rules and enforce them for yourself. you then have to be able to explain the rules to others when you want to play with them. you accept that you must play within the rules of the game and you're okay with that.
today, with computer games, the rules are enforced by the programming. children try to test the rules. they also try to find cheat codes and subconsciously, this gets them to feel that they don't have to adhere to the rules if they can just find the loophole.
that's why kids these days are bastards.
Weblog to be regular feature (Score:3, Interesting)
Greg is a fantastic designer, having worked both with paper and electronic-based gaming. Plan to visit often to get more insight in game design. It should be updated once a week.
Re:whatever (Score:3, Interesting)
Say what you will, but the fact is, Snood is mind numbing, and puzzlingly (pun intended) addictive. I won't say we should outlaw mind numbing games, but just realize what you may be getting yourself into before sharing this with a loved one.
Why Snood is more popular than Bust-a-Move (Score:5, Interesting)
Simple: Snood was (is?) available in the America Online games section.
Yep, we have another thing to curse the "drooling AOL hordes" for - popularizing an inferior puzzle rip-off. Oh, and for a good non-spyware-riddled version, try Popcap.com's Dynomite [popcap.com], or at least go out and one of the many versions of Bust-a-Move [yesterdayland.com] (not all versions listed).
Reminds me of one o' my customers... (Score:4, Interesting)
This kinda reminds me of one of my customers. I quite often talk to my game customers via email (Asking how to get past a level, needing a re-download after loosing the game, etc. Not all 'support' stuff really, but, kinda nice to talk to the people who enjoy the games, and find out what they want more of.) Anyway... one of my customers that contacted me had a serious problem. She was in her late 60's, I believe, and loved Tile Panic! [midnightryder.com], a fairly simple puzzle game that requires some quick thinking on higher levels.
Problem is, her daughter wouldn't let her play anymore. Apparently she had heart problems, and after a while, her blood pressure would go WAY up, and she'd have to quit playing.
Not wanting to be the death of nice little old ladies, I created a separate version for her that takes out the time-based element of the game. She's the only one I know who managed to actually play perfect games on more than one of the game difficulty levels! But the whole thought of someone refusing to give up playing the game dispite the health detrement because they like the game too much is both strange and encouraging ;-)
(Eh - since I'm here, I'll plug one o' my other puzzle games, since that's a bit o' the discussion on this thread - go check out Tile Panic!, as mentioned above, and Boulder Panic! 2 DX [midnightryder.com]. Or don't :-)
Simple is Good (Score:3, Interesting)
Sometimes the simple games are the best.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [gamers.com] for the original PlayStation is a great example of this. Everyone that I have showed this game to has become hopelessly addicted, yet it could easily be coded by a small team.
Even though it was released back in 1997, it consistently goes for good money on eBay [ebay.com], because it is so much fun and so hard to find.
Re:NOT just a bust-a-move clone (Score:1, Interesting)