Devices will allow gamers more control over their games

Mar 27, 2012 01:01 GMT  ·  By

Brian Reynolds, who is currently the Chief Game Designer working at social game developer Zynga, has stated that the next generation of home consoles can benefit from the addition of real or virtual keyboards.

Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz the veteran developer stated, “I’m sure they’re not going to suddenly decide that they should suddenly put keyboards on consoles. Maybe they’ll put touchscreens or something; I can totally imagine that, because smartphones and iPads make fantastic social devices.”

Reynolds says that initially video game developers were afraid of adding keyboards to their devices because they create a geeky appearance that was not suited to the image of cool gaming that they were aiming to create.

Reynolds also believes that, no matter the kind of hardware or touch capabilities included in the coming generation of hardware, the main component of a successful video game experience will continue to be an element of fun.

The Zynga developer added, “The core activity of how you make a game, how you make things fun, have remained largely the same. The kinds of candidates I look for in game design jobs are the same as I used to look for in previous decades.”

Brian Reynolds then name checked Sid Meier, the current leader of Firaxis, with which he collaborated to create such classic gaming experiences as Civilization and Alpha Centauri.

Since 2009 Reynolds has been working with Zynga, trying to add more core gaming elements to their social game titles, and has previous experience creating his own titles as CEO of Big Huge Games since 2000.

Zynga has recently announced plans to separate some of its gaming infrastructure from social network Facebook and the company is apparently also looking for ways to bring some of its titles to core gaming platforms like the consoles from Microsoft and Sony.