Comments on: Tennis Mania Serves an Ace on Facebook http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2008/10/30/tennis-mania-serves-an-ace/ Tracking Innovation at the Convergence of Games and Social Platforms Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:25:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Tadhg http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2008/10/30/tennis-mania-serves-an-ace/comment-page-1/#comment-1843 Tadhg Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:53:04 +0000 http://www.insidesocialgames.com/?p=1425#comment-1843 Actually, hold on: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Toshinho/tennis-game Look familiar? Actually, hold on:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Toshinho/tennis-game

Look familiar?

]]> By: Tadhg http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2008/10/30/tennis-mania-serves-an-ace/comment-page-1/#comment-1842 Tadhg Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:44:17 +0000 http://www.insidesocialgames.com/?p=1425#comment-1842 Overall: Meh. The problem with Flash games in general is that the control code tends to be pretty sucky, and Tennis Mania is no exception. The keys feel halting and somewhat unresponsive, and the primary effects of all the rpg-ing seem to be evident in the speed at which your player runs rather than any real reflection of skill. At the moment the speed of the beginning player feels artificially slow, such that of course a top player will beat a beginning one, but not by virtue of any real skill on either part. Secondly, the game bounds itself with a time-waiting mechanic (Energy) which means that for much of the time you are simply told that you can't play any more, please come back later. This is a pretty weak way of ensuring that the player won't simply play the game one evening and then forget about it. No, they are obliged to come back just because some arbitrary internal clock says so. That is a sign of patching over an essentially poor game design. What I would do is three things: 1. Refocus the speed of the game so that even a beginning player finds it intuitive and comfortable to use. At the moment the bar is set too low. 2. Alter the control system to only use the left and right arrows for shot making. Virtua Tennis uses a system in which the player automatically moves and tries to make the shot count, and I would look at using a system like that. I would also look to using the up and down arrow keys in addition to the left and right, to facilitate better aiming. 3. Ditch Energy and instead refocus the RPG elements such that there is a lot more to aim for (um, trophies for example, or special moves/shots). Introduce leagues. Don't have players just playing any old random players from across the breadth, make them challenged at their own level. Like many so-called social games so far, Tennis Mania isn't really a social game. It's essentially a fairly limited casual game that's using some of the basic functions of a social network in order to pair players with each other and do some stats tracking and saving. But that's about it. Social games really need to get serious from this point, because there are frankly better games already out there on non-social sites (like Kongregate). If developers like Playfish and SGN really want to justify the investments that they've had pumped into them, they really need to be doing better than these very limited efforts. Tadhg http://particleblog.blogspot.com Overall: Meh.

The problem with Flash games in general is that the control code tends to be pretty sucky, and Tennis Mania is no exception. The keys feel halting and somewhat unresponsive, and the primary effects of all the rpg-ing seem to be evident in the speed at which your player runs rather than any real reflection of skill. At the moment the speed of the beginning player feels artificially slow, such that of course a top player will beat a beginning one, but not by virtue of any real skill on either part.

Secondly, the game bounds itself with a time-waiting mechanic (Energy) which means that for much of the time you are simply told that you can’t play any more, please come back later. This is a pretty weak way of ensuring that the player won’t simply play the game one evening and then forget about it. No, they are obliged to come back just because some arbitrary internal clock says so. That is a sign of patching over an essentially poor game design.

What I would do is three things:

1. Refocus the speed of the game so that even a beginning player finds it intuitive and comfortable to use. At the moment the bar is set too low.

2. Alter the control system to only use the left and right arrows for shot making. Virtua Tennis uses a system in which the player automatically moves and tries to make the shot count, and I would look at using a system like that. I would also look to using the up and down arrow keys in addition to the left and right, to facilitate better aiming.

3. Ditch Energy and instead refocus the RPG elements such that there is a lot more to aim for (um, trophies for example, or special moves/shots). Introduce leagues. Don’t have players just playing any old random players from across the breadth, make them challenged at their own level.

Like many so-called social games so far, Tennis Mania isn’t really a social game. It’s essentially a fairly limited casual game that’s using some of the basic functions of a social network in order to pair players with each other and do some stats tracking and saving. But that’s about it. Social games really need to get serious from this point, because there are frankly better games already out there on non-social sites (like Kongregate). If developers like Playfish and SGN really want to justify the investments that they’ve had pumped into them, they really need to be doing better than these very limited efforts.

Tadhg
http://particleblog.blogspot.com

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