The mobile marketplace is a new and evolving landscape. We need to understand it to design for it. Taking our old assumptions and placing them against this new model will inevitably generate unwieldy, clunky, and bad gameplay. We must know what makes mobile play different from other sorts of play, namely the console and PC.
Assumptions: Hardware
For years, decades even, the gaming experience has been designed around the gaming console. Games were designed for a specific piece of machinery that people must own in order to play. It sets an even bar for the developers when it comes to hardware expectations and limitations. There is always some wiggle room for code masters to eke out performance or designers to create interest while limiting performance needs. But the general assumption that everyone will have the same hardware, the same machine to run these products still remained a given.
The assumption of ubiquitous hardware is one of the greatest follies for mobile design. Not everyone can afford the latest and greatest IPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or Windows Phone. The difference in performance from the high end of phone to the low end is tremendous. If a developer were going to create a game and test it on his/her brand new Nokia 1520 it would look gorgeous. Say the playability was good, no real drop in frame rate or lag, so they ship it. But the most common Windows Phone is the 520. A game that runs fine on the high end model could be unplayable on the low end. In general all you hear about is the latest and greatest phones, when in reality the lower to midrange phone are the norm. So performance becomes a huge question. It is one of the greatest hurdles and limitations in the mobile market.
Assumptions: Experience
In the beginning of console gaming the user experience was generally one of a complete package, a single experience. There generally was no saving, if you could not beat the game in a sitting you would have to completely start over if you left the digital world. This was partially due to the limitations of technology but the idea of long sessions of gaming are still the general norm for games, particularly console games. It is true that in the modern gaming era there are so many checkpoints and save states that theoretically you could pick up and put down a game after 5 minutes and still make progress. But the designers do this mainly for ease of playability. If you were to die, they don’t want you to have to slog through waves of enemies or perilous terrain just to get where you already were. It creates a faster paced game and an easier experience. But the games are still designed as a single, long experience.
When designing a game for a phone or tablet the user is generally going to play the game for very brief periods of time. Mobile apps are used in the time between other events; when a person is in line at the store, waiting for a friend while they take a shower, or even on the can killing time at work. These mere moments are when mobile apps spring to action. A game must be designed to be taken in very short pieces. By creating levels that are short and can be completed in a few minutes or even seconds the experience is broken up into sessions that are manageable but still entertaining. This concept has lead to the common design of many puzzle and social games. But it can be taken and applied to any style of game.
The Change
The mobile market is a totally new landscape from the console and PC worlds. Games should be modeled around the most common of phones to reach a broader audience, not just catering to the elite level phones. This potentially puts a limitation the graphics, as well as the size and scope of the world or story. But by carefully working the gameplay, story, and level designs everything can be made to work within the constraints. By tweaking the games level design the world can be compartmentalized into smaller, more manageable pieces. Even seemingly large worlds or vast expanses can be broken down with occlusion, well placed doors or walls, even the classic Silent Hill fog can all give the illusion of world while only rendering part of it. Not only from a processing perspective must the world be broken up, the actual play must be compartmentalized to fit into the lives of the player. Someone should be able to pick up and put down the game in just a few minutes. This can lead to a whole host of new game concepts and even mechanics. Perhaps it’s a game full of mini-games, a classic RPG were the battles are the “levels,” or even using real time events and clocks to naturally break the game up over the course of a day.
We at ObscuredEdge are excited to create within the bounds of the mobile market. Creating levels, worlds, and stories that fit in the moments between life.