Game Design Secrets

What Doesn’t Work in Web Games

Now let’s turn to web games that don’t work as well.

Poorly Designed/Executed Games

Mochi Media’s Cupp says, “I don’t actually believe there is a genre that works least well; rather, there are games that don’t perform well—or at least not as well as expected. There are myriad reasons for this, including not understanding the audience—therefore no real connection with the player, poor game design, not enough polish, too many bugs, et cetera.”

Sports and (Most) Puzzle Games

Kongregate’s McClanahan, says “[A]ny genre can be made to work well, but there’s definitely a lack of successful sports games—aside from racing. I’m not entirely sure why, but if I had to guess I’d say that the complexity and depth required in the sports genre—both from the players understanding the rules/interface and the developer programming all the rules and the AI—is at odds with the nature of the Flash industry, where games that are simple, immediately fun, and have broad appeal are the most successful. There are also a lot of failed puzzle games released every day, but this is probably just due to how easy they are for new developers to program. There’s no shortage of great puzzle games among the cream of the crop.”