Casual Game Publisher Treats Games Like Sitcoms

The best way to attract a loyal following to your games, says Playfirst VP and executive producer, Kenny Dinkin, is to think of the games like they were sitcoms.

The first ingredient is characters and situations to which the audience can relate. Take Flo, the star of Playfirst's first title, Diner Dash, who leaves her stuffy corporate job to chase her dream of owning her very own restaurant:

Flo was designed to be kind of someone you could know, someone you could identify with, someone you could even be. She wasn’t gorgeous...not a bimbo, not an action hero. We knew were weren’t going to be making games with spaceships and elves in bikinis.

Once you've got a cast of characters, explains Dinkin, the next step is to provide them with a narrative that will mean something to the player, giving them a more compelling reason to keep playing besides just a high score.

Don't connect too many narrative dots, however:

We try not to tell too much story in the game. A lot of what we think appeals to players in and around the story experience is the ability to fill in the gaps themselves. We don’t provide all the answers as to where Flo came from, but we try to let people fill in the gaps themselves.

If this sounds like a somewhat calculated approach to game design, that's because it is. Putting ordinary folks in extraordinary situations worked for Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier, and it works for* Diner Dash*, too. So far the gaming public has spent about $40 million on Diner Dash; its third sequel, Diner Dash: Hometown Heroes, is due out tomorrow. It's even spawned its own wildly successful spinoff, Wedding Dash, starring Flo's roommate Quinn.

"We're the Norman Lear of games," jokes Dinkin.

Dinkin goes on to explain that part of what made Wedding Dash so appealing to players was that it still took place in the Diner Dash universe, a place that was already familiar and comfortable to players. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, after all. Flo even makes a guest appearance, giving Quinn some girlfriend-to-girlfriend encouragement.

Players may never have to cater a wedding on a cruise ship while dealing with brawling bridesmaids, drunk uncles, and malfunctioning sound systems the way Quinn does, but they can certainly relate to feeling overwhelmed by a new job and needing a few kind words from a friend.

"People find escapism even in situations that are workaday," says Dinkin.