Designing Match-3 Games

2. Designing Match-3 Games Jason Kapalka, Chief Creative Officer, PopCap Games

3. 1. How to stand out • There are hundreds and hundreds of match 3 games out now. • If you just want to pump out an unexceptional clone, probably a genre like Hidden Object offers a better chance of success. • A match-3 game needs to have some exceptional selling points to survive.

4. Innovate on mechanics • Do something different with the core gameplay. • Examples include Jewel Quest, Chuzzle, Bejeweled Twist.

5. Leverage a known brand • This is an option if you already have a well-known franchise like Bejeweled, Jewel Quest, Big Kahuna Reef, etc. • Alternately, if you have access to another brand, either from a successful game or an outside franchise, this can help get attention.

6. Find a new platform • Get out of the "red ocean" of downloadable PC games and find a platform with fewer match-3s. • Iphone? DS? PSP? Facebook or Myspace? Consoles? Flash? MMOs?

7. 2. Evolving Match-3 • The simplicity of Match 3 games pushes many developers towards ever more complex variants. • Sometimes this works, as with Puzzle Quest… • And sometimes it doesn’t.

8. Combine Genres • This is a popular technique right now, with games like 4 Elements, Saqqarah, Fishdom, etc, combining match-3 with hidden object and other game types. • Risky… they can be seen as greater than the sum of their parts, or as a disconnected set of game fragments.

9. Multiple modes of play • You can make up tons of variants easily enough… but which are actually fun? • Beware if you can't pick a single 'main' or primary gameplay style. It probably means that all the modes are weak. • Always have a main game mode, the one that new players always start with.

10. New platform limitations • New platforms will often require radical interface or control changes. • This can render a game unplayable… • OR it can be an opportunity to reshape a game so that it fits the new platform perfectly. For instance, Bejeweled worked very well on the iPhone.

11. 3. Devil in the details • Match-3 games, more so than any other casual genre, are all about the feedback… making every move feel fun and cool. • In the same way that an FPS game needs a good "feel" to its guns, a match-3 needs a good feel to its basic mechanic.

12. Fine-tune the interface • Is the board too big to easily select a piece? • Are the pieces hard to tell apart? • Do effects and graphics overwhelm the basic functionality?

13. Audio/visual Feedback • You must give satisfying feedback after each and every move!

14. Problems with genre mixups • Combining match-3 with another genre, say RPGs (Puzzle Quest) or simulation (Fishdom) is a tricky business, if they are closely integrated. • Both parts have to work well. If either is weak, the whole thing collapses. Anthology games, that collect many smaller games without a single main mode, are tough to pull off. • If you have many unintegrated genres in your game, be careful that there is still one main one. A Hidden Object game that has a bunch of post-level minigames is still a Hidden Object game.

15. Keep It Simple • Don't get carried away with powerups and upgrades… it’s easy to keep adding stuff. • Remember the core of a match-3 game is usually very simple. • Don't lose the basic charm with overcomplication!

16. Example: Bejeweled Blitz

17. Bejeweled Blitz lessons… • On Facebook, the Bejeweled brand was new and stood out. • Evolution: put a one-minute limit on the game, to suit facebook users limited attention. • Details: speed bonuses and multiplier gems kept the game feeling fresh and replayable.

18. The End! • Thanks and good luck!