Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR WORKING
ON MOBILE GAME PLATFORMS
Space
Space is probably the biggest consideration for games developed for
mobile game platforms. Mobile devices are by design less powerful
and of er fewer capabilities than desktops and laptops. They
frequently have less RAM and smaller hard-disk space. Files need
to be small, and compression should be used whenever possible.
Mobile gamers rarely play games in situations in which high-quality
sound can be distinguished from medium-quality sound. Often
players on a phone or portable device are hearing sounds coming
from very small speakers or substandard headphones.
Speed Kills
Speed is next in line and has a huge ef ect on how you deal with
sound and the amount of available bandwidth. In some games,
audio content is actually streamed over a network connection
instead of being stored on the device. Internet connection
bandwidth af ects the speed at which all of the game data will travel,
and this can vary greatly. Currently the most popular explosion in
the market is with mobile devices rather than desktops and laptops.
These devices may run over WiFi networks, or they can use their own
dedicated network connections.
For bandwidth, 3G (third-generation) speeds, which are equivalent
to low- to mid-level DSL speeds (3-6Mbps (mega-bits per second)),
are considered low- to mid-speed connections, and companies are
now providing LTE (long-term evolution) and 4G (fourth-generation)
speeds nationwide. These speeds are usually in the range of
8-11Mbps, though theoretically, throughput of the specii cation
goes up to 100Mbps.
Prepare for a Variety of Possibilities
The big takeaway from of all of this is that you have to be
prepared for varying levels of performance when working with
mobile games. Nobody likes to wait for audio assets to load for
too long, even if they sound awesome. In some cases, producers
may remove sounds if they cause too much of a downgrade in
gameplay performance. Back in the days of dial-up modems (AKA
the stone age) media could be found in low (dial-up) and high (DSL)
bandwidth versions. In today's games, bandwidth is dynamic and
