Games for couples

Since writing about Mario and gaming with my girlfriend it got me thinking. Is there a market in couples?

The Nintendo adverts really stick out to me as showing their target market. Most of these consist of friends and family gaming together. The old couple playing brain age together in bed or a family playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympics are good examples of this.

And while some of these games have been loosely marketed to couples there is no game I can think of that has actually been designed with that in mind. Females are gaming more than ever, practically every girl I know likes the odd game of Wii Sports or owns a DS. But while this casual market is open to all genders the “hardcore” market still remains male dominated. Now I know there are couples out there playing Gears of War co-op but they are largely in the minority.

Mario Galaxy is the first game I have really been able to find that has a really fulfilling couples’ experience. Can this magic be transferred elsewhere? What about allowing my girlfriend to control Clank? She could join in the shooting and running about but could jump onto Ratchets back to avoid difficult platforming. The Lego games are also a great place to go for a casual co op experience. While these are enjoyable experiences though, they don’t really fulfil my “hardcore” needs.

I think trying to come up with a couple’s game could require more than simply tacking an optional simplified game for player 2. Perhaps there is a whole genre that could be made from this? How about a 2 player RPG, one male and one female character. Each character can interact differently with the environment. There are plenty of different things you could do with this, here are a couple I thought of:

The male and female characters each have their own unique abilities that must be used together to succeed. So while the male can fight, only the female can heal (I hope that isn’t too stereotypical)

In battle the right hand side of the screen is a sudoku or picross puzzle that must be solved by the female character. While the male fights on the left hand side of the screen. Successful blows by him add hints to the right side and correct puzzle entries result in damage to the enemy.

I would even suggest a way for the two players to play apart, a mobile/web app half of the game. Every sudoku puzzle my girlfriend completes away from me on her phone levels up her character and gives her prizes for when we come back to play together. My character can raid dungeons on a web app to level up and also find treasures. The twist is that the treasures are useless to whoever earns them, the female games earn weapons and armour while the male character earns new puzzles and modes for the female. Or perhaps her own game is more akin to Animal Crossing while mine is Oblivion but when we play together we get a merged experience.

I’m sure there are plenty of smarter designers and developers out there that could come up with better ideas than me. Some of you may even baulk at the idea of your other half interrupting your gaming time. But maybe, just maybe, there is an untapped market in this.

PS. I don’t like the terms Hardcore and Casual but they are the quickest way to get my message across.