GAMES FOR GROWNUPS
My book on gaming's older audience. Here is the blurb from the back cover.
"There are now more American gamers over the age of 50 than there are under 18. The first generations who grew up with games have kept playing, and they are now a cornerstone of the audience—yet games are often still made, sold, and studied as though the average player is half their age.
Games for Grownups is a guide to the older player: who they are, why they keep playing, what gets in their way, and how the industry can meet their needs. It argues against the common framing of games for older adults as a health product—brain training, decline management—and reads them instead as meaningful play that fits within a well-lived life.
The book moves from describing who these players are, through an alternate, age-friendly design approach built on their strengths, to a business case showing the 50-plus market was never unprofitable. Built on twenty years of research on older players and conversations with developers, it is for anyone over 50 with an interest in games, and for the designers, researchers, and students who will build what comes next."
For the graphic design, I went through a lot of ideas and interations. This was a really tough cover to design for three reasons:
- Broad audience — It is for academics, professionals and pretty much everyone over 50, anywhere in the world. So much for all the experimental graphic design ideas I had.
- Wide range of topics — The book has 13 chapters on pretty much anything related to aging players. The cover could not limit itself by focusing on design, business, health, etc.
- No imagery that evokes play as the domain of the "inner child", no instrumentalized play, no stereotypes, and nothing that would feel old.
I ended up going orthographic despite some 3-point perspective experiments. There was also a version with a shadow instead of an avatar but I couldn't get that idea to work and balance it well.
