PopCap’s Kapalka On Why Hexes Are ‘Repellent’ To Casual Gamers

As part of a larger interview with Gamasutra on Bejeweled Twist, PopCap’s co-founder chief creative officer Jason Kapalka talks about how games with hexagonal grids, such as Microsoft’s Hexic, can drive casual gamers away — and how the studio worked around the issue with Bookworm.

Available online through MSN Games and pre-installed on all Xbox 360 hard drives, Hexic was designed by Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Though the puzzle game features rotating mechanics similar to Bejeweled Twist, many see it as too complicated.

Kapalka doesn’t feel Hexic is overcomplicated — but he’s got a different issue with it. “The only thing I might have questioned with Hexic is the same thing we had with Bookworm, and that is that I think the mechanic is fine, but there’s a little something about hexes that turns people off.”

“Hexes look like, I don’t know, I think they give off a vibe of science, of dirty stuff, of war games, and hex paper, something about them just turns people off.”

Kapalka notes that Bookworm, PopCap’s word/puzzle game series, originally featured a hexagonal grid that the studio felt played really well.

“But the problem was anybody who looked at a hex grid just was turned off right away,” he says. “So we ended up doing something where we kept the hex grid but faked it. So, the hexes got turned into squares, like little tiles, but they’re offset by 50 percent. And that’s just a cosmetic change, but it actually makes the game much more appealing to casual players.”

Kapalka continues, “So, I think that’s the issue with Hexic. It’s not necessarily the game is complex; [the issue is] that it looks repellent in some way because of that weird hex thing. There’s something about hexes that’s not comforting. I think [that's] the reason.”

“Imagine Scrabble if it was a hex board,” he adds. “In theory it could still be a good game, but it would turn off a lot of people.”

You can read the full PopCap interview with co-founder and chief creative officer Jason Kapalka, which talks more about game design, Bejeweled Twist, and the studio’s plans for DSiWare (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).

PopCap’s Kapalka On DSi Possibilities, Casual Clones

Nintendo’s upcoming DSi handheld adds the ability to download games online — a feature that seems like a golden opportunity for casual developers, given the DS’s current appeal to their audience and their history with digital distribution with PC.

So when Gamasutra sat down with PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka as part of an in-depth feature interview, we asked whether the company’s looking ahead to DSi strategy.

“The truth is, we’re just getting started on the DS right now,” Kapalka said. “We’re doing Peggle for DS first and after that, probably we’ll see what comes up.”

“But yeah, the idea of doing downloadable content always seems like a pretty cool thing,” he added. “It needs to be seen… like the Wii is cool, but WiiWare, I don’t know yet; I’m not clear that WiiWare has actually turned out to be as big of a success as they were hoping at this point.”

“Part of it is just that the Wii is not a great platform for downloadable,” Kapalka continues. “Maybe it’ll get better, but I’m not sure it will.”

Xbox Live, on the other hand, has turned out to be quite a strong platform for PopCap, proving that downloadable content outside of the PC space can carry some weight for the company.

“So the DSi — yeah, maybe, it’s hard to say,” he says. “And part of this stuff is, unfortunately you have to make some decisions about which platforms to pursue and which not to. But maybe. We’re definitely doing DS stuff.”

Kapalka also spoke about the cloning phenomenon in the casual space. “We’ve been accused of ripping off of some games,” he admits.

“At the same time, you don’t usually hear people saying that World of Warcraft ripped off EverQuest. Or that Half-Life ripped off Quake.”

“The similarities are pretty close; you can’t imagine how World of Warcraft could have existed without EverQuest. It’s not possible. Or any of games now, without World of Warcraft.”

You can now read the full feature, in which Kapalka discusses PopCap’s latest title Bejeweled Twist, the delicate balance inherent in complex games for casual audiences, and why hex squares in puzzlers are “repellent.”