The hidden hardcoreness of casual games.
Farmville. Mafia Wars. Even if you've never played them, you've surely been annoyed by those incessant updates and notifications – it's like you're the only one among all your friends who isn't playing at least one of these games on facebook. They're taking the world by storm, and converting millions of people who don't normally play computer games into complete addicts.At first glance, you'd probably be quick to identify this as a 'casual game' revolution, and assume that these games are successful because they're very different from the more traditional 'hardcore' games that none of your Farmville-playing friends would ever play. There are hardcore game

Beating The Mythology Hangover : My talk at the NASSCOM Game Developer Summit
As promised - here are the slides I presented during my talk entitled 'Beating The Mythology Hangover' at the NASSCOM Indian Game developer Summit on November 7th at Hyderabad.Beating the Mythology Hangover - Anand Ramachandran For those of you interested in more details, Gaming Xpress has the full details here. The reporter has taken a few liberties with interpreting exactly what I said, but it's mo

Bossfight at NASSCOM Game Developer Summit !
I've been invited to speak at NASSCOM's Game Developer Summit, which is a part of NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Summit 2009. I've attended the event for the past three years, but this is the first time I'll be speaking. (the thought of me speaking at the same event as Ernest Adams is truly amusing, but hey, I'll take it ;)My talk will be on the creative aspects of game development - and will look at possible ways for Indian game developers to create cool, original game content that has the potential to find global success.Should be

A reckless disregard for gravity.
Among the many delightful independent games available on Steam, Valve's online game distribution service, comes one that is undoubtedly the most imaginatively named titles in recent memory. It's called AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, and , at less than eight hundred rupees, it's one of the best value for money games you can buy this year.Developed and published by Dejobaan Games (an impossibly serious voice announces “bringing you quality videogames for over seventy-five years” during the game's intro video), Aaaaa! is everything videogames should be – amusing, original, innovative and heaps of fun. To

A console-free gaming world? Just maybe.
by Anand Ramachandran. This article first appeared on my weekly Game Invader column for the New Indian ExpressPredicting future trends in gaming is every videogame boffin's favourite pastime. In the future, we shall have games so realistic, we won't be able to tell them from real life. We'll have AI so advanced, it will behave exactly like humans, making mistakes, acting unpredictable, and sowing emotion. We'll have chips and nanobots embedded in our bodies. Yeah, whatever. I'm more interested in a rather more believeable, and much more exciting trend. And it's not all that far away, either. When a li