Paper Session 7: Beyond the Stereotypical CHI PLAY'19, October 22–25, 2019, Barcelona, Spain “It Started as a Joke”: On the Design of Idle Games Katta Spiel1;2, Sultan A. Alharthi3, Andrew Jian-Lan Cen2, Jessica Hammer4, Lennart E. Nacke2, Z O. Toups3 and Tess Tanenbaum5 1e-media Research Lab, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 2HCI Games Group, Games Institute, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CA 3Play & Interactive Experiences for Learning Lab, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA 4HCI Institute / Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 5Transformative Play Lab, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
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[email protected] ABSTRACT The design of these games appears to aim for alternative play With idle games, active withdrawal from the game comprises scenarios and reformulates the range of potential player experi- an essential part of gameplay as players wait for the game state ences. Instead of a singular grand and momentous experience to change over time. This mode of interaction is paradigmatic a traditional videogame is expected deliver in a specific set- for the change of roles technologies have in our lives. However, ting, these games merge with everyday life, offering brief the design elements of idle games are less well understood, and casual engagements [30]. Seeing as one of the early idle particularly from the perspectives of developers. We inter- games—Cow Clicker [G10]—was developed as part of an aca- viewed six designers of six different popular idle games and demic argument [7], researchers’ increased interest in defining inquired into their individual approaches.