Over the past couple of years, gaming in America has reached a pivotal point in its life cycle. The gaming industry is currently caught between the new gaming adopters and those that have played for years, not quite mainstream, but no longer something to be shy about. Though it gives developers access to a much larger audience, it makes for an interesting catch-22: how do you create games that are easy enough for the newest (or casual) gamers, but hard enough to challenge the core gamers?

Game developers have approached this problem in a number of different ways to date. With difficulty settings, a game’s “Easy” mode can be adjusted – for example, in Street Fighter IV you can beat the game on easy mode by solely using high kicks. Though it might be a good stop-gap measure, it’s also an approach best paired with other techniques.

So what’s the best way to appeal to both core and casual gamers? I’ve come up with 3 broad-stroke solutions that have had success so far this console generation:

1- Even the playing field. Using a new control scheme or gameplay mechanism (see: Guitar Hero, Wii controls). By creating an entirely new control scheme, it evens the playing field for all gamers (at least at the beginning). It also adds the factor of newness and new game formats and styles (if publicized well) have had great success. It should be noted that of late, titles that have tried to capitalize on the success of music titles have flopped (see: Lips), but that may be based on quality more than the mechanism.

2- Simplify gameplay. Make the actual gameplay (and controls) simpler, while keeping a premium on intellectual puzzle solving (ex: Braid, Lego Indiana Jones). When you simplify a game to only a few buttons, it can either make the game far too easy, or it forces you to challenge your user intellectually. Using logic as opposed to reflexes or button control allows users of all kinds the ability to compete at the hardest difficulty.

3- Keep it old school. Continue to use and abuse tried-and-true intellectual properties like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario (ex: Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros). It helps that both games simplify gameplay and use the Wii control scheme, but a big reason for the Wii’s success have been due to the success of big IP games such as Mario. There have been very few exclusive titles for the Wii that didn’t involve a very popular long-standing IP (though one of those titles is Wii Fit).

These are just three techniques that seem to work well in the current market, but when you think about it, even the most popular game on any platform is only purchased by ~25% of the gaming population (except for Halo 3). It shows that there is tremendous room for expansion for games if they are truly able to hit a large demographic.