Less is more in 2014 and beyond

2014 is almost here. And it will be sooner than we think the day that there are hundreds of millions of mobile game apps screaming for our attention and grinding away at our available time and attention. New methods of app discovery will come and go as so many waves at the seashore. So what makes for a mobile game app that has enduring quality and lasting value? It seems to me that mobile game apps should have a simple and clear goal. Impactfulness should be evident in a matter of seconds. How to do that? It is high time to abandon the SEOization of mobile game app design and get back to making games that we ourselves would like to play. That our brains can processfully experience. What kind of a game is that? It is a game that expands our sense of being rather than diminishing it, it is a game that embraces a new thought rather than trivializing it, it is a game that respects human intelligence rather than disgracing it, it is, in the last analysis, a game that we should feel comfortable offering to the watchers at the very gates of Heaven who have seen more than everything and are far beyond too busy for inanity. Think more like Rubik and less like one of the forty three quintillion possible positions of his cube. Treat players like Pajitnov and less like one of his tetrominoes. I went last week to a seminar at UCLA where a venture capitalist revealed to us the secret of a great mobile game app. A great mobile game app is one that he would most definitely not invest in, that was his wisdom. So here we are, on our own in our own brains, where, yes, less is more. But that is where and how it happens. Good gamemaking to all in 2014.