Good article over on Gamedev.net about game design. The author, Stuart Walpole, is speaking about video games targeted at the “slave wage” demo(graphic). I like the term: the 20-30 year old group that has migrated from the carefree days of college towards middle age, working 9-5 in a cubicle and having to deal with the responsibilities of adult life — kids, house, etc. His basic point is that this group, which is an ideal demo in any industry due to their generally high education and large disposable incomes, has little time, so make a good game count. Here’s some points he makes in his article:

• Make every moment the player spends in your game time well spent.
• Spend that time entertaining and rewarding the player for choosing your product.
• Challenge without frustrating, and guide while still keeping the player in control.
• Your world, your choice. If something isn’t fun, don’t put it in the game.
  Keep the player in the game as often as possible.
• But let him leave whenever he wants.
• And remove any barriers that stop him from picking up where he left off..
  Keep it simple, keep it accessible, and keep it fun.
• Don’t demand a huge time commitment from the player or dictate the length of his sessions; let him take it at his own pace.
• Don’t fix things that aren’t broken.
• Test with a wide spectrum of players and non-players to find out what’s intuitive and well-received.

These points apply well to any type of game, for any demo.

That’s it. I just have to get into the field of game interface design. It combines two things I love: games (and game theory), and interface design (primarily CHI - computer human interface studies, but it’ll do).