Hidden Object Games: Enough Already!
Remember Where's Waldo? I Spy? If you haven't heard about the "new" hidden object genre that is here, there, and everywhere on pretty much all gaming websites, you fall into one or more of the following categories:
1) have been living under a rock
2) only play games that involve shooting things
3) only play games where things die
4) are not a woman between the ages of 20 to 86.
There is — almost — a new hidden object game out everyday. They range from the lackluster thrown-together-with-free-clipart-collections to great production quality works of art. They all involve going through a grocery list and clicking around the screen looking for seemingly random stuff. They may add some "puzzles" (more like chores) and "story" in between scenes of more clicking and finding stuff, but that is the bread and butter of these games; repetitive clicking and finding stuff.
The first of the genre was Mystery Case Files: Huntsville. It came out in November 2005. Since then, I have lost count of how many of them have been made in the past five years. There are some genre crossovers, with games like Azada and Return to Ravenhearst borrowing so heavily from the point-and-click adventure genre that they can no longer be called "casual." However, the hidden object genre itself has became a bit of a juggernaut in the casual gaming market.
Big Fish Games has the numbers, or at least the flames, indicating how well a game is selling. Take any given month and count the number of flames and you'd realize that every four out of five hit games are hidden object games. So as an indie game developer you might have a really cool, out of this world idea for a game, but to make sure you'd have enough to cover your butt for the year (and therefore to eventually develop that cool game) you can make a hidden object game. If the art is good, it will PROBABLY become a hit.
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