Blog: "One Month after Amnesia's release"

[mattwestwick]

Yes, theres something that appeals to the hunter/gatherer aspect of people. Plus it has nice colours. And who doesn't like building blocks.

I don't mean "lowest common denominators" to be offensive. Maybe I should have said "the widest range of people" instead. Games need to have what the Max Payne guys called, a spin. A repetitive action or motif that identifies with the core of the game. In max payne it was the moments of bullet-time shooting sequences. In amnesia its the light/dark balance. In minecraft its the achievement of building structures. The amount to which the spin is refined, will attract different kinds of people. If you can appeal to the base desires of lots of people and allow them to refine it as much as they want: Result!

Performing more and more epic moves in max payne, being gradually more resourceful with the lamp and tinderboxes in amnesia ( surviving is a big one as well), and building grander structures in minecraft. All of these are the spin of games. Get that right and you have a hit.