I’m playing more games these days, but I’m spending less time doing it. How? I am playing smaller games. Games on flash portals, iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Indie Games, Wii Ware and finding short PC demos / experiments. There are some absolutely fantastic games out there and they have quickly become my favourite style of game! Generally they are short experiences that focus on “hooking” you quickly with a strong core mechanic, without much distraction.

Conversely I am some way through Fallout 3, however it’s such a mammoth task requiring a large investment of time that I don’t end up visiting it very often. Unfortunately I am often disappointed when I play it because I don’t get such a short and sweet kick from groking a new concept and completing a whole game in under an hour!

So I want to look at the flash games and analyse their core motivational hooks – from a game design perspective. Its not a game review. When I enjoy a flash game, I will cut it apart and look at what it did well from a game design perspective. I am exposing their innards to find out what made me stay there for the experience in the hope that better understanding them will help me to make more focused short game experiences myself.

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