Episodic Gaming For Girlies

Written by Joe Martin

May 31, 2007 | 12:37

Tags: #casual #episode #episodic #girl-gamers #hardcore

Companies: #ea #game #steam #ubisoft #valve

Episodic gaming may be going through the grinder lately, though we're still sure that the format can work well with the right games in place. It seems to be the thing to do recently, but it's a little odd that some companies are targeting such niche markets.

nDreams, founded by former Eidos creative director, has announced it's starting work on a new series of episodic casual games targeted only at female gamers aged 30 and upwards. We're betting the content gets a bit raunchy then.

Titled Venus Redemption, the game is being written by Kate Pullinger and BAFTA nominee Gordon Rennie, and will feature "powerful storylines, deep characters, emotion-based interactive conversations and exciting adventure gameplay." All sounds OK so far then, but with gameplay that is "extremely easy, requiring only the ability to move and left-click a mouse...playable in short bursts if you don’t have much time." we'll be careful not to get too excited just yet. (Ed - Do the quotes sound patronising to anyone else?)

No other details have been revealed about the game, but the speculation points towards it being a romantic adventure game. If true, it may be a bit of an obvious attempt to appeal to the girl gamer market, who in our experience don't differ greatly from the guys in that they yearn for more innovative gameplay on the whole, but it's got to be better than a pink DS lite.

"It will prove a breath of fresh air for the casual game sector, and in particular for female casual gamers. With the technology behind Venus Redemption, we can now rapidly develop immersive and visually impressive story-based casual games that will run on almost any PC.” nDreams CEO told Gamasutra.

On the one hand we think it's nice that somebody is trying to make a mature game for the female market, but on the other hand it could come across as patronising or just end up a bad game, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Episodic gaming got you down? Are casual games the death of gaming geekery? Why are girls a minority in the gaming community? Does the idea of your mum playing a romantic raunchy adventure game make you feel ill? Answer these questions, and other such exciting and emotionally tense issues, in the forums.
Discuss this in the forums
YouTube logo
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review

October 14 2021 | 15:04

TOP STORIES

SUGGESTED FOR YOU