The Sandbox

According to GameDaily Biz, one of the biggest game hits of the 21st Century is coming to the iPhone. That's right, bored secretaries everywhere can now bring their favorite time-killer with them on their lunch break, into the bathroom, into the movie-theater, etc.... Bejeweled is coming to the iPhone.

I pause a moment so you can catch your breath.

And it's free.

These "casual hits" are really the unsung heroes of the gaming world -- what with wider circulation and immense fan bases. Now circulating on the iPhone with its extraordinary interface, their populism might just form a new avante garde in the lives of the gameless on the go.

So you think Halo 3 fans are the most hard-core gamers around? Think again. Casual titles such as online puzzle, word, card, and board games are a big - and booming - culture and industry. According to a new report, the market is expected to nearly double next year - rising from $375 million this year to $725 million in 2008.

Of course the public's love of these sorts of games is nothing new. Solitaire is probably the most played computer game ever. It's just that the people who play these kinds of titles don't self-identify as gamers. And, despite the occasional crossover hits like Tetris, casual games have rarely been taken seriously by the core gamers and developers.

It's a nice idea, episodic games: developers love the notion of low-investment, fast-turnaround, high-upside games. Crank something small and polished out every 3-4 months, and it will eventually be an unstoppable juggernaut of cash that keeps building, as you keep churning out small highly-polished little gems, without killing yourselves with crunch-schedules and Mountain Dew.

Why doesn't it work out that way?

I bow before our new End of Year Best-of list overlords. Here's my short list of my favorites of 2007:

1. Lord of the Rings Online. Because I worked on it for four and a half years to ship it, and have worked on it since then, and it's clearly the best MMO of 2007. No personal prejudice here, no sir. But I'm playing it, which says a lot about a game that I've worked on (which I seldom play post-launch).

2. Rock Band. My childhood dreams of drumming, stifled by my parents who desired peace and quiet in their house, are now finding outlet, and obliterating my wife's goodwill towards me.

3. Portal. Great little game. Suffers from the "giant thick client to play a teeny-tiny game" problem, but who cares when it's this fun? You want thin client, play Flash Portal.

4. Super Mario Galaxy. I used to disdain Nintendo, early in my gaming career, as nothing but Cute. Jeebus, was I an idiot.

5. God of War 2 / Heavenly Sword. They're the same game, with different avatars of destruction. But they're both onslaughts of epic annihilation that appeals to the little kid in me that still writhes with excitement when I see shiny things.

6. Bioshock. Great art direction. Gameplay and story were sort of meh, but they tried.

7. Team Fortress 2. TF is back, and it's still fun. I miss EMPs, though.

8. Phase. Addictive little iPod game. Five bucks well spent.

Not on the list, but still decent: Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect. They're really good, but I was not inspired to finish any of them, so I can't feel good about giving them a final score.

Didn't play: Call of Duty 4, Crysis, lots of other things. I only have so much time.

It was a good year for games. 2008 will have some work cut out for it: Metal Gear Solid 4 doesn't look so "ZOMG" these days, now that we've seen other games that look just as good.

More categories for this article than I thought possible... it's about everything.

Leigh Alexander is very much worth reading, when you're in search of thoughts on the game industry. Two recent articles are the case For and the case Against this new world of entertainment media convergence. Is this intertwining of games, web, movies, television, cell phones, GPS, fresh baked bread, and the fat pipe connecting your checking account to media producers' coffers, is this good for games?

Leigh gives the definitive maybe. I mostly agree.