I’ve been focus testing some new games for Merscom in Chapel Hill… I was a bit nervous going in, but they didn’t seem to hold my recent Create-a-Mall review against me. Merscom is a casual games publisher, I’ve played mostly hidden objects, casual puzzles and, sadly, another Build-a-lot game.

I expected focus testing to be just like reviewing games, I’ve written game reviews on this blog, over on Thumbgods, and for Indie Game Mag, but it’s much harder to actually look at someone and tell them you don’t like their project.

I’ve complained a few (dozen) times about overusing pink in casual games targeted to girls, how it feels too girly, too generic and even condescending sometimes, like the choice of games are either childish for girls, or bloody for boys. But when I’m actually in the room with a developer? Who’s asking me for my opinion on the game?

“The pink titles are terrible! I mean, uh, some people really like it, and um, I’m sure it’s very pretty, but… um… I don’t think it’s really quite as good as it could be, you know? But that’s just what I think, so… you picked a very nice shade of pink… um… and if I liked pink and didn’t think it was an awful choice, I’d like that shade a lot… um…”

Yeah. I’m smooth.

But focus testing is actually a dream assignment — I’m supposed to play games and be critical.  And playing in-development games and talking about them is always interesting, even if it’s a game I wouldn’t ordinarily pick up. And I’m sure all my negativity about the Build-a-lot style games is offset by the bazillion awards the games have won.

The Mersom office has an idea whiteboard, full of suggestions for new games. Every time I see it, I’m tempted to write in “No more Build-a-Lot clones. Create new game about Julio-Claudians.” Think anyone would know that was me?

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

In Development

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I don’t think I’m quite the target audience for the new Create-A-Mall, since I don’t really like malls and shopping, but games often take a surprising premise to create a great game. A Nintendo game where you played a paperboy was really popular, DQ Tycoon isn’t like actually working at Dairy Queen, and playing Kudos as an underskilled twenty-year-old waitress was way more fun than actually being one.

Unfortunately, Create-a-Mall took mindless consumerism and crossed it with repetitive, challengeless gameplay. You play as Kelly, a corporate drone tasked with leasing stores to create a mall.

Time and resource management games all have some similarities. No matter what the game theme is, players will need to manage resources and time to complete goals. But Create-a-Mall felt like a clone of the repetitive playstyle and unrewarding rewards of Build-A-Lot 2, reskinned as a mall instead of a neighborhood.

In both games, players need the building plans, resources, and workers to create buildings, but all of those things are purchased, so there’s really only one resource, money, which makes it more of an earn-and-spend cycle and not actually a game.

Both Create-a-Mall and Build-a-Lot give you the option to upgrade your existing houses or shops to make more money from them. Sadly these upgrades don’t add colored awnings or sandwich boards, they just add flying gold stars. Exactly like upgrading in Build-a-Lot!

One of my problems with the last game I bashed, the disastrous Tropical Dream, was that the reward system was an image of an empty room, to which you could add images of reward items. Ok, so Kelly’s office in Create-a-Mall didn’t make me want to cry, the way the bazillion spots for diving trip best shots did, but having a limited selection of bland reward items to decorate my office didn’t exactly motivate me.

If you do well, you receive “store credits” at the end of each level, which can be redeemed for items to put in Kelly’s office or for clothes for Kelly. This part was quite a lot like a real mall. Sometimes I have to make a return with no receipt, and I end up searching for something to use up my store credit.

This could just be my deep dislike of corporate life coming through into this game. Maybe there are hordes of players just dying to decorate their virtual cubicles. Right.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Create-a-Mall

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