Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The touch screen scheme seems really cool at a glance. But as a game designer,
one quickly realizes that we are now sharing screen real estate with the game graph-
ics and the game controls. In general, you don't want to use up the screen space
with virtual buttons. The controllers need to be integrated with the game graphics
and mobile phones have sensors (accelerometer above all). They can help in imple-
menting controls that don't affect the gameplay area.
Most of all, remember that mobile games shouldn't require complex controls, any-
way.
On the other hand, touch screens offer distinct ways to interact with games and per-
form game actions, such as tapping and dragging. As a smart mobile game designer,
you will exploit them to make the most out of your mobile user experience and user
interface!
Audio output
We know that most mobile devices can't feature stereo sound, as they are provided
with a single speaker. No need then to say that audio for mobile games should be
treated as a "secondary feature" and that it's better not to design games that strongly
rely on audio for the gameplay or for involving the player in the action.
Moreover, as mobile games are frequently played outdoors, if game audio is noisy
or annoying, it is quite likely to be rejected by the player himself, because he might
not want to bother others around him or let them know he's playing. We strongly re-
commend you to design game sounds that are appealing but can also be excluded
without affecting the general gameplay experience.
File size
Since mobile games are downloaded from sites, it is mandatory that all game con-
tents are included in a small sized file, for example, though the max size for an iOS
application is 2 GB, the limit for over the air downloads is only 50 MB! As you create
assets and contents for your game, you will find out how easily that threshold can be
overrun.
Optimization is the key word to deal with that. Have your programmers engineer your
project so that memory requirements are kept at minimum. Invest some time and re-
sources to find solutions to the technical issues posed by mobile devices memory
