Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Mobile Gaming Is Different
Gaming was a huge market segment long before the likes of iPhone and Android appeared
on the scene. However, with these new forms of hybrid devices, the landscape has started
to change. Gaming is no longer something just for nerdy kids. Serious business people have
been seen playing the latest trendy game on their mobile phones in public, newspapers pick
up stories of successful small game developers making a fortune on mobile phone application
markets, and established game publishers have a hard time keeping up with the developments
in the mobile space. Game developers must recognize this change and adjust accordingly. Let's
see what this new ecosystem has to offer.
A Gaming Machine in Every Pocket
Mobile devices are everywhere. That's probably the key statement to take away from this
section. From this, you can easily derive all the other facts about mobile gaming.
As hardware prices are constantly dropping and new devices have ever-increasing
computational power, they also become ideal for gaming. Mobile phones are a must-have
nowadays, so market penetration is huge. Many people are exchanging their old, classic mobile
phones for newer-generation smartphones and discovering the new options available to them in
the form of an incredibly wide range of applications.
Previously, if you wanted to play video games, you had to make the conscious decision to buy
a video game system or a gaming PC. Now you get that functionality for free on mobile phones,
tablets, and other devices. There's no additional cost involved (at least if you don't count
the data plan you'll likely need), and your new gaming device is available to you at any time.
Just grab it from your pocket or purse and you are ready to go—no need to carry a separate,
dedicated system with you, because everything's integrated in one package.
Apart from the benefit of only having to carry a single device for your telephone, Internet, and
gaming needs, another factor makes gaming on mobile phones easily accessible to a much
larger audience: you can fire up a dedicated market application on your device, pick a game that
looks interesting, and immediately start to play. There's no need to go to a store or download
something via your PC, only to find out, for example, that you don't have the USB cable you
need to transfer that game to your phone.
The increased processing power of current-generation devices also has an impact on what's
possible for you as a game developer. Even the middle class of devices is capable of generating
gaming experiences similar to titles found on the older Xbox and PlayStation 2 systems. Given
these capable hardware platforms, you can also start to explore elaborate games with physics
simulations, an area offering great potential for innovation.
With new devices come new input methods, which have already been touched upon. A couple
of games already take advantage of the GPS and/or compass available in most Android devices.
The use of the accelerometer is already a mandatory feature of many games, and multitouch
screens offer new ways for the user to interact with the game world. A lot of ground has been
covered already, but there are still new ways to use all of this functionality in an innovative way.
