We’ve heard of Steam, Valve’s content-delivering HUD for PC gaming. We’ve also just been treated to the impending arrival of OnLive. But let it be known that there are other methods of download-to-play and free-to-play gaming networks popping up on the web all the time. Spell of Play Studios is one such network, delivering original gaming to a built-in social network.
This week, we take a look at what they have to offer.
Spell of Play’s “About” page sums up the site as a social network that not only delivers games to its members, but also encourages their input and help on development of the games. The site also serves as the developer’s home site, complete with blogs and pertinent information.
How it works
SoP’s gaming network is set up much like Steam. A desktop client is downloaded. From this client individual games are played, downloaded, and updated. Playing these games opens achievements, which add up and are visible on the site’s rankings. Also available are forums, allowing community members to interact with each other in-between gaming sessions. The rest – profiles, messaging, etc – are also there.
As stated earlier, what really sets SoP’s network apart is the encouragement of the members to help develop the games along with the programmers and designers. This isn’t a YouTube of games, this is a website community dedicated to gaming co-existence. A comparison would be the film industry. If film viewers could tell Steven Spielberg that they do or don’t like a scene, he would act on it… tweaking until he got it right. As you can imagine though, this can lead to some wear-out of the game before its even released. SOME things need to be left unknown for the fans to want to play a game. Aiming to please everyone will ultimately beget a very vanilla experience.
SoP utilizes their forums and feedback to improve their games iteratively. After a game is released and the players want changes or additions, the team sifts through the suggestions and modifies the game. Then, the game is placed back into their system for play. Patches and updates are self-automated, meaning that the end user never needs to initiate an update. It is always “pick up and play”. The advantages include the games always changing, updating, expanding. Even including graphical changes. What appears to be a very simple game at first might possibly grow over time to become very intense as updates are created. This allows the games to constantly evolve and get better or become different experiences all together.
I can image a simple graphic shmup eventually becoming an intense multiplayer firefight across galaxies, and then perhaps becoming more passive as more casual players play the game.
The games
Overall, the idea is novel. The games, however, are currently very basic. I will warn you: these are not Unreal engine games. They are not meant to be. Some of the games are nothing more than glorified Flash games, while others remind me of early 90s PC gaming. The experience is meant as an entire package of deliverables. While the developers include only a handful of game-loving folks, they are not going to compete with advanced studios. Most importantly, the developers are creating the games not because they are professional designers, but because they love the concept and love each gaming experience.
The graphics of some of the games are very crude. For first time developers, I am not expceting much. However to be taken more seriously, I would advise hiring a graphic artist. Or, at least involve the community more for graphic assets. There are some very talented gamers that would be willing to help put together images & graphics for next to nothing.
There is a standard fare of shmups, minigolf, and platformers to play… none of which are anything very special or new. To this point, the studio has focused on creating content quickly. Now, they should begin to refine the games considerably.
As stated above, I think that SoP has a neat little concept here. The system reminds me of a desktop version of the App-store service through iTunes. Initially the game were passable, but now the iPhone can be considered a gaming heavyweight. Perhaps this is the approach that Spell of Play should take: Open up the hUb to other developers to help deliver low-cost gaming to the masses.
Until then, the site is still up-and-coming and can be a nice lunch-time diversion.
For more information, visit Spell of Play
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