Asynchronous Games: Future of Casual Gaming?
Apologies for the lack of posts recently - it's been a rather busy time at work as I caught up from my Peru trip, and I've been traveling all over the place for a variety of work reasons. I'm actually returning from San Francisco even as we speak, and writing thanks to a recent beta of Microsoft's Live Writer offline blogging tool. Although not the subject of this post, I did want to mention it as it's a fantastic tool. Check it out if you do any blogging. It appears to work with most sites, and it's definitely made my blogging "job" a whole lot easier!
Anyway, while I was in San Francisco I was able to meet up with Mark Deloura (ex Sony developer relations manager, now with Ubisoft) and Jane Pinckard (she of Gamegirladvance.com) for a couple of drinks. Was great catching up with them of course, but during the course of the conversation we started talking about an interesting area that's not currently being covered by casual games - namely, asynchronous games.
So what are async games? Simply put, imagine a game where you don't have to have a person (or a group of people) playing with you at the same time - you basically take turns. Checkers or Chess is one simple example, and the old play-by-mail wargames are another (albeit with significantly greater delay between turns). Today you see a few games that fall into this mold. Civilization has had a play-by-email mode for a few versions now, and there are X-Com-like clones like Laser Squad Nemesis that also enable it. Although I don't know for sure, I suspect some of the upcoming Live Arcade board games such as Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan will have turn-based play which lend themselves to asynchronous play should the game designers desire, and I'm sure there are plenty of others as well. What's interesting is that we don't see is a lot of these asynchronous games in the casual space yet... and I suspect we'll start seeing more in the future.
Why? Simply put, we're moving into a world of connected gaming devices. Microsoft has announced the Live Anywhere initiative, where we're looking to take the Xbox Live service and enable it on multiple devices such as consoles, the PC, and mobile devices such as phones. Sony has announced connectivity between their (sadly doomed, at least for v1) PSP and the PS3, and Nintendo has enabled wireless connectivity between the Nintendo DS and hinted at wireless connectivity between the DS and the Wii. These platforms are now technically enabling wireless connections between devices and people; what's missing are the games that allow people to play on these platforms at the times and places that best suit them.
Think about it - today when we sit down to play a game we pretty much do exactly that: sit. We have to choose a time and place and tether ourself to the experience on a single device, even if that experience is being played on a portable gaming device. What's missing is the ability to start a game and continue it in some meaningful way. Why can't I start up an Advance Wars game with three other friends, and set the rules such that we each agree to do two moves a day (with automatic moves applied if you don't check in)? Why can't I then continue that game on the bus with my handheld phone? Why can't I review the overall tactical map when I'm at work on my PC?
There's no technical reason blocking this. The platforms I described above allow you to connect and communicate, so that's reasonably easy (although it's obviously my hope that we make Live Anywhere the absolute easiest way to enable this). There is a cost inhibitor, however, in that there's design time needed to take a game and make it best-suited to work on a platform's capabilities. And depending on the platform(s) you're developing for, you may well have to budget 2-3x the development cost of the game to create the different versions (ie, one for console, one for handheld, one for phone, etc.) As a quick aside, it's worth noting that XNA Studio is one attempt to solve this issue, as it comes with the XNA Framework that enables developers to basically "write once, publish many."
My guess is that as these connected platforms take off and gamers demand to be able to stay connected with their friends wherever and whenever they play, we'll see a greater investment into asynchronous games. Just off the top of our heads, Mark, Jane, and I came up with a bunch of great old games we'd love to see redone in this manner. Imagine a new version of The Incredible Machine, but with full 3D and physics, and turn-based gameplay where each player has a bucket of items they can place to either help or hinder the current objective. Or an Advance Wars meets Risk sort of game, with many people battling it out over a world map over the period of a week, with a tactical overview map you can always check in on. Toss in a basic map editor so you can create next week's battlefield while waiting at the doctor's office and you really start seeing the potential.
It may take a while, but I sincerely believe the concept of asynchronous gaming will become just as embedded into the gaming consciousness as a desired feature as co-op has become. It'll be interesting to see which casual games start the trend.
That leads to an interesting question... what casual games would you like to see developed that have asynchronous-friendly designs? Could be old classics that you miss that just need an updated twist, or entirely new game ideas. Maybe it's a classic boardgame that's just begging to be released as a casual game. Would love to hear them, and who knows, it's quite possible some of the casual game developers out there or people exploring XNA Game Studio can take the idea and run with it.
That said, it is very important to state that this is a public blog and I have no control over who might read and use your idea. If you want to share an idea in the hope that someone might comment on it or help make it better, feel free. But if you think you might want to develop it yourself, you should not publish it here as there's nothing keeping anyone from taking it and running with it. Just don't want anyone to get bitten accidentally. 
Look forward to the discussion!