Most tweeple know how challenging it can be to say what you want in 140 characters or less, but these kinds of constraints are exactly what give Twitter a unique advantage in the gaming industry. In the Playing with 140 Characters: Designing Games for Twitter Games panel today at SXSW 2010, game designers Eric Zimmerman, Colleen Macklin, John Sharp, and Michael Edwards talked about some amazing developments in what might soon be called “microgaming.” Beginning with an actual interactive game with colored note cards in the audience, the panelists talked about basic game principles such as rules and structure, limitations, and systems. And while these principles are common in any game, they can easily apply to Twitter’s platform. For example, Twitter already employs “rules” and “limitations” like being able to DM only those people who are mutually following one another, and it is a system with many moving “parts” like @replies or links.
With its unique structure, some pretty interesting games are already being formed for Twitter. Here’s a video of Colleen talking about the two categories of Twitter games and some examples:
Simpler, more casual minigames like Twivial and Twitbrain allow users to participate at their leisure, while other MMOs (massive multiplayer games) like King of Pop, 140 Blood, Spymaster, and Twirdie (Twitter golf!) might require more participation and interactivity, as well as more incentives to play.
Are Foursquare and Gowalla Really Games?
This new platform is opening up the idea of what a game really is. Even applications like Foursquare and Gowalla are considered “games” because they create challenge, game incentives, and interaction. Here, Colleen talks about Foursquare and compares it to Gowalla:
Currently, these panelists and other game designers are trying to incorporate multimedia into Twitter gaming, and there still are many directions to go. RPGs, more data-based games, and Twitter-native games are just a few of the ideas that were discussed today. Do you play Twitter games? If so, which ones? If not, do you think you would ever play one? What are some potential concerns that might arise?
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I totally think Twitter lends itself nicely to Microgaming. More and more, people are spending real time on their smartphones. It allows us to do just about everything and competition between our networking selves seems like a natural progression.
Do you think future popularity for microgaming will act as a catalyst for a platform enhancement by Twitter? If Twitter wanted to blow this up and get people away from BrickBreaker, I would bet it would be a smart move.