mobile games
DESCRIPTION
Seminar for the Master on Social Media and Web Technologies, Linnaeus University, Sweden, 8 May 2012.TRANSCRIPT
Mobile Games
Seminar for the Master on Social Media and Web Technologies, Linnaeus University, Sweden, 8 May 2012
Nelson Zagalo, University of Minho, Portugal
Universidade do Minho
Video Games
Involves interaction with electronic device.
Requires receptor participation to become, the interactivity.
Genre defines the way player interact and make sense of games.
Games are made of mechanics and story, and some games only have mechanics.
Are “supposed” to be fun.
Mobile Games
Mobile games are defined by the platform. Platforms as phones, smart phones, and
tablets, which are defined by technologies and OS.
Technologies as Palm OS, Symbian, Adobe Flash Lite, Java ME, Apple iOS, Windows Phone 7 or Google Android.
Java is the most common programming language used for mobile games (for the iOS is objective-c).
Contents
1. Brief Story
2. Platforms / OS
3. Technologies
4. Usability
5. Game Design
6. Economy
Brief Story
Brief Story
NOKIA, the pioneer
Was not only part of the mobile phone rising success, but was also responsible for the introduction of games in Mobiles.
In 1997 launched Snake with Nokia 6110. Designed by Taneli Armanto, survied nine versions, and attained 400 million mobile phones.
The game design was not original, the very first Snake-type game was an arcade game called Blockade. It was created by Gremlin way back in 1976.
Snake has been adapted to almost any game platform.
Snake, 1997, Nokia
Blockade, 1976, Gremlin
Brief Story
NOKIA, the platform
In 2003 launched a platform N-Gage. A pocket-size handset, a cross between a Game Boy Advance and a Mobile Phone. Allowed single player, but also multiplayer and location-based playing via Bluetooth or via GPRS.
One of the biggest launches for N Gage was Tomb Raider (1996) port. It served to demonstrate the flop that N Gage would come to be. Game Boy Advance didn’t had yet any such fully 3D action adventure games.
Main reason to fail: trying to adapt console games to mobile platform.
Tomb Raider, 2003, Eidos
Brief Story
NOKIA, location-based
After the success of the urban chase Can You See Me Now? (2003) game developed by Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab at Ars Electronica 2003. They were using GPS and PDA.
Nokia invested in the launch of location-based games that would be using Bluetooth and Cell Network technologies.
Undercover by the portuguese Y-Dreams was one of the first Massively Multiplayer Mobile games in 2005.
Main reason to fail: the prohibitive costs of internet access.
Undercover 2, 2005, Y-Dreams
Can you see me now?, 2003, Blast Theory
Brief Story
Apple, the iRevolution
In June 2007 Apple unveiled the iPhone.
Launched as a revolutionary platform for Music, Phone and Internet. Started as a true revolutionary gaming platform with the launch of the App Store in 2008.
Brief Story
Google, response to Apple
In November 2007 Google plus 86 hardware/software/telecom companies launched the initiative Open Handset Alliance.
They launched the Open Source OS, Linux based, Android.
Brief Story
Nokia unites with Microsoft
Nokia didn’t integrate Google OHA, an so continued alone to support Symbian OS. However on February 11, 2011, Nokia announced that it would migrate from Symbian to Windows Phone 7.
Nokia on Symbian OS 3 Nokia on WP7
Platforms / OS
Platforms / OS
The Past
The Present
phonephoness
tablettabletss
calculatcalculatorsors
PDAsPDAs
Platforms / OS
The 3 survivors
Today the game mobile market is dominated by two types of mobile platforms – smartphones and tablets. These are driven by 3 OS.
Being Apple the most renowned because of the quality of the App Store. On the other side Android has the biggest market audience (40%). Microsoft is only now trying to catch with the Nokia Alliance.
Apple iOSGoogle Android Windows Phone
Technologies
Technologies
Xcode is an IDE (integrated development environment) for creating apps for iPhone, and iPad. The Xcode interface seamlessly integrates code editing, UI design with Interface Builder, testing, and debugging, all within a single window.
iOS -> Xcode 4
Angry Birds, (2009), Rovio
Fruit Ninja, (2010), Halfbrick Studios
Technologies
Android -> Eclipse
Android plug-in for Eclipse. Programming language is Java.
CheeseMan, (2011), Alphanoize
Hambo, (2012), Miniclip
Technologies
Microsoft -> XNA 4.0
XNA is a high level game creation framework for Microsoft devices including Windows PCs, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7 operating system.
Kill the Duck, (2010), Andreas Vilela
Scribble Defense+, (2012), Elbert Perez
Usability
Usability
Touch and Multitouch
Multitouch is the ability to recognize the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface. This multi-point awareness made possible complete new gestural interfaces as the Pinch to Zoom or touch keyboards.Using one finger to interact is highly limited for most functions, and so games.
Usability
Touch and Multitouch
Fingle (2011) was developed by Game Oven, two colleagues who graduated from Utrecht School of the Arts, Netherlands. Fingle was Finalist on the Nuovo Awards of IGF 2012. Made with Xcode and Photoshop in 8 months.
video
Watch - http://vimeo.com/30639604
Game Design
Game Design
Game design is the core of any game. It doesn’t matter if it is a console game, a park attraction, or a mobile tiny game. The only thing that really matter is your Design. However the design must always take into account the platform.
To do that we need to understand what Game Design is made of:
SpaceObjectsActionsRulesSkillsUncertainty
Game Design
Space - confined to one screenObjects - confined to one character at the timeActions - confined to mostly one action per timeRules - very short levelsSkills - visual cognition and hand-eye coordinationUncertainty – luck mixed with skill failure
Let’s pick 3 of the most successful Mobile Games.
Play www.cuttherope.ie
Summary: Short duration experiences in restricted space, with restricted number of characters and actions. Rewarding problem solving which are driven through physical coordination.
Economy
Economy
The Mobile Games market in 2012 is more important and powerful than ever.
Angry Birds is one of the most played Video Game in history with 700 million downloads this March 2012. Cut the Rope has made more then 100 Million, and Doodle Jump more than 15 million.
Mobile games is becoming more and more present in the video game triple A media, robbing attention from the handheld market (Nintendo 3DS, Sony PS Vita).
Economy
http://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/AdMob%20-%20Tablet%20Survey.pdf
Economy
The number of paying players has grown 35% to 37 million Americans.
American players spend in total five times more on iOS games than on Android games.
For both Android and iOS devices, the majority of money is not spent on downloading games but within the games through Microstransactions.
http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/News/2012/Mobile-Gaming-Grows-In-US.aspx
Economy
Apple (iPhone) is now the most valuable company in the world.
Rovio (Angry Birds) reports high profits from 2011.
Nintendo (3DS) reports the first annual loss in 30 years, in 2011.
Sony (PS Vita) reports losses of $3.2 billions in 2011.
Nelson Zagalo, [email protected]. http://nelsonzagalo.googlepages.com
Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/nelsonzagalo
Universidade do Minho