Game Endings

Many of the casual games come with disappointing or anticlimatic endings. A player that goes that far in a game will have already bought the game, so developers don’t worry as much about the ending as they do about the play as Mark and I discussed this. But, a person who finishes the game can tell others (before buying) that the game has a lousy ending and they won’t bother buying.

Wouldn’t the ending the easiest part of programming and design? After all, they don’t have to require player input. Show images along with content to tie up the story and provide a satisfactory ending. I would think pulling the story together and having a good ending would lead to more sales as word-of-mouth / word-of-mouse marketing could help or hurt a game.

Reviewers don’t always have the luxury of completing a game before doing the write up. For instance, Virtual Villagers 2 (VV2) takes time to play as the game relies on real-time. A player could spend all day on the game and not finish it. However, VV2 has intriguing story happening as you try to learn about the past, but the game never ties up the story.

[tags]casual game, casual gaming, storyline[/tags]