Feature: 'GDC: Success Factors of One-Button Casual Mobile Games'

In another of the main Gamasutra features for the day, Kyu C. Lee, president of Gamevil, delivered a talk discussing the success of their own one-button games, and hinting at how developers could use this model to their own advantage. He was a bit nervous, and overly humble, but the message still came across – one-button games are big business. In this extract, Lee talks about some of the simple, often addictive titles that the developer creates: "All of their one-button games are timing-based, and very simple, so it's important to vary the gameplay a bit. “Gamevil has promoted one-button games as ‘games that your grandmother can play,'” as Lee put it. He then gave three examples of their games that use only one-button. Skipping Stone is just based on timing - you're skipping a stone, and press the button when the stone hits the water, to keep it going. Items and perspective vary the gameplay a bit from time to time. In Coinstack, coins are on a moving platform, and you have to drop them at just the right point so that the stack will stay straight. Again, items vary the gameplay. Nom is a very unique one button action game. Nom was a much more interesting title, in which you play as a runner, jumping over obstacles, catching girls to kiss, and, apparently, making dogs follow you around. The gameplay is varied enough as it is, but the game also requires you to rotate the screen as you play on occasion, in a throwback to the Wonderswan. This game was actually a million-seller in Korea (not released in the US yet), and was released in 2003." You can now read the full Gamasutra coverage on the matter, including detailed information on one-button game nirvana (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).