nDreams reveals casual episodic game aimed at women

by John Bardinelli { May 31st 2007 at 2:27PM }

Casual game studio nDreams announced today that another announcement is on its way July 5 to reveal its new game, Venus Redemption. The casual adventure game aimed at women will have episodic content authored by Kate Pullinger to create "powerful storylines, deep characters, emotion-based interactive conversations and exciting adventure gameplay."

With the increase of female gamers in the casual games field, it's no surprise developers are attempting to tap the new market. But is gender targeting necessary? A good game is a good game and will be enjoyed by men and women alike. Hopefully nDreams won't drench this game in "female themes" and alienate countless potential players.

[Via GameDaily]

Tags: adventure, casual, independent, indie, ndreams, women

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

machrc @ May 31st 2007 2:35PM

the last game my significant other really sat down and enjoyed was Diner Dash.. Now maybe I have something to throw at her during halo 3 beta( the last dayz of) or when I play forza 2.

sheppy @ May 31st 2007 2:35PM

*sigh*

Mix one part Sims (because all girls love Sims), one part whorish girl power of Sex In The City and one part manhating themes of any daytime television programming and we have a AAA game for girl gamers, right?

Fucks sake. Make a good game that holds male and females in reasonably equal roles and the females will play it. Create a game directly targetted at the weakwilled masses searching for Dr. Phil solutions and Soap Opera romance and it's doomed to fail.

cc123 @ May 31st 2007 2:41PM

When is the Wii port coming out?

alienclay @ May 31st 2007 2:48PM

you would think that right? but i know people who deny the ratchet and clank series or the wii because it looks too kiddy to them.

that said there's nothing wrong to catering to undertapped and underserved genres. i doubt i'll ever play this game just as much as i doubt i'll ever play viva pinata but i think personnaly it shows maturity in the industry as it reaches out for even more broader aduences.

a game like this, full fledged with more meat than a casual game, may open more women to other gaming experances and pour over better storylines and interpersonal interactivity into other games.

just as long as i don't have to run a dating minigame in the next need for speed.

Scopique @ May 31st 2007 2:59PM

Targeting is one thing...pandering is another. Since alienclay mentioned Viva Pinata, despite it's lackluster sales performance, I can say that as someone who has played it and has introduced others (both male and female) to it, VP is the perfect example of a great game which has a broad target audience without having to stoop to the use of stereotyping.

Yeah, plenty of games can be considered "gender neutral", but with all the Halo 3 circle jerking going on around here, this is hardly the right site to start an objective discussion regarding the subject. Simply saying "make a good game that holds male and females in reasonably equal roles and the females will play it" is like saying "can't we all just get along". Frankly, we can't, unless we can agree on the common ground, which is what's been eluding the industry in most cases for so long.

Fraser @ May 31st 2007 3:35PM

Bullshit. Manhunt is a good game, but I don't see hordes of chicks flocking to that one. Ditto Diablo, Unreal Tournament, Mortal Kombat, most WW2 games, blah de blah blah.

Just because "girls for games" are often badly made doesn't mean girls and guys have a universal taste in games.

Fraser @ May 31st 2007 3:36PM

(That "bullshit" was to the article, not the comments, btw.)

Dan @ May 31st 2007 3:52PM

It doesn't matter who a game is targeted at if it sucks.

It's not as if aiming a product at someone makes them want it more... if someone came up to me with shit on a stick and said "this was designed for you", I wouldnt want it.

sheppy @ May 31st 2007 4:04PM

@Scopique

Let's take a look at the current games being flocked to by the opposite sex, shall we? There is The Sims, World Of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, DDR, and naturally WiiSports. Those are, as far as I know, the current champs running right now. Now, in that list, I don't see any that particularly pander to the fairer sex. Do you see the point?

Meanwhile, a vast majority of the "games for girls" initiatives launched by this industry have failed when they targeted anything Tween and up. And yes, that is a problem. Because each and every time they try to "aim" for women gamers, it always comes out more insulting than flattering. After all, remember Desperate Housewives, the game? And I don't seem know know of any place where there has been a positive response to putting Baby in a corner on PC pretty soon.

And this project? Even more of a joke and more importantly, even more insulting. Let's take a moment to analyze the project, k?

1. The game is called Venus Redemption. Venus is a name long associated with females and driven even moreso by the hit book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. So the title basically means the goal of the game is To Redeem Females. From what? Why do females need redemption? Does this create a powerful narative or merely pander to the concept that females are somehow repressed beyond repair and your goal is to push for a equal world?

2. The logo... look at the posture of the female. This is a combative posture, usually reserved for arguing. There is nothing soft or nuetral about that logo. In fact, we're looking at a "woman who's just had too damn much of this man driven world."

3. Look at the objective. "Persuade Christophe To Help." While I wish I knew what exactly we were trying to do in this game, what we have is the typical "Men are lazy and worthless" view. We do not know the story or plot in this game or even Christophe's role but by placing an objective like "make him help you" in a screenshot this early coupled with the two things above, this doesn't send a positive message about the game in question.

Chris @ May 31st 2007 5:43PM

See, what I got out of "Persuade Christophe to help" was the fact that names are limited to ten characters. A problem I suffered on many a standardized test...

But seriously, interesting observations. It seems like developers are trying TOO hard to reach the female audience, when they don't necessarily understand what could.

Almack64 @ May 31st 2007 4:35PM

I agree with Fraser. Different groups of people have different tastes. Everything that's marketed is marketed at somebody. My wife is always telling me how she wishes there were more games like this or more games like that. Most of these types of games she's talking about are games that I would never play but I bet some other women would.

The heart of the matter is regardless of who you're marketing to you need to know what that audiance really wants and you have to give it to them in a quality way. Unfortuantly most of the games targeted specificly at women have missed one of those two very important points.

Chris @ May 31st 2007 5:12PM

Three words:

Super Princess Peach

brink @ May 31st 2007 5:59PM

@9

It is what it is, if there weren't females like that (and there are thousands) then they wouldn't be able to market it. There are probably a few thousands on yahoo/aol chat right now (I know just one, but it's a freakin network of em) that would gobble this stuff up. They have nothing else to do but play slingo all day and pump out another baby.

Maybe too close to home for some.

And for better or for worse, games are based on CREATING a market, do you think RTS was on anyone's mind when Dune 2 came out, or that FPS was a genre when Wolfenstein 3D became popular? Most agree Half-Life is an original, innovative title. What does Half-Life do different than Doom? Adds a few puzzles in the mix for people who wouldn't normally play a shoot-anything FPS like Doom.

I don't know if my point is really coming across.