Phygital Social Games vs Social Games

Is Social Games What We Develop?

Last week, we tried to determine which category the video games that we build belong to, and we realized that it was not easy to box them into any of the existing types.

That was until we came upon a very interesting article in the blog of Aleix Risco (the CEO of Demium Games). It was called “Types of video games based on the nature of interaction between players.”

In his article, Risco includes a matrix that categorizes video games in terms of interactions that take place among the players:

Let us recall the premise on which we base game design here at Muquo: “We translate the essence of table games to mobile devices because playing face to face with others is more fun.” At first glance, we should be placed into the Social Games category because our players need to interact with one another in order to cooperate and compete. Yet, this category does not take into account a fundamental element of our games. There is interaction between players, but it is always a physical, face to face interaction. As for technology, or the digital aspect, we use it to enhance the gaming experience. This is why the Social Games category defines us only in part.

In the end, we came to the conclusion that in order to better define the kind of games we develop, we need to add a new axis to the matrix. This is how we came to adopt the parameter “phygital“. This concept, which has been used a lot in the sector of marketing in recent years, refers to the amalgamation of the physical and the digital.

This parameter defines the type of interactions between players of Muquo games very well, and this is why we decided to modify the matrix by adding another axis:

This idea helped us define our own category of video games:

Phygital Social Games

Consumers begin to demand a different type of experience, which would facilitate physical interpersonal interactions. The increase in sales of board games in recent years and the boom of “escape rooms” are signs of this phenomenon. For this reason, we at Muquo Games would like to respond to this trend by creating group and face to face experiences through our video games.