[IGDA Mobile-SIG List] Future of mobile games

[William Volk]

In 1981 I had to port my game (Avalon Hill, Voyager 1) to five different
computers:

TRS-80, Tandy CoCo, Apple II, Atari 800, and Commodore PET.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/bikingbill/voyager_one_k7_2.jpg

That was easy compared to moving a J2ME title around.

William Volk
CEO, MyNuMo
858 692 1124
Create It, Show It, SELL IT!
http://www.mynumo.com

From: DrDon <don at sonaural.com>
Don't get me wrong. I would not blanketly say that licenses don't make
sense. There are so many examples of cases that do. But there are also a lot
that don't. We've worked on a number of Movie-licensed games that aren't in
that top 50 list even though they have the name recognition. I don't know if
they made money for the publishers or not. I think some of them did make it
onto the decks though.

You're right about supporting a variety of hardwares being a significant
design constraint. That's a problem we've never really had before - at least
not to this degree. I think it requires a re-thinking of what game
entertainment is to begin with. A great challenge.



dd

William Volk wrote:

>  Re: [IGDA Mobile-SIG List] Future of mobile games The reason that licenses

> MAKE SENSE for mobile games is because the majority of mobile game sales are

> from carrier ‘decks’.

>  

> Therefore what the consumer sees is about 20 – 40 characters of text.

>  

> So for publishers, it’s worth spending $$$ to make that text stand out.

>  

> One thing that is holding up game design is that a requirement of getting

> on-deck is to support a very wide range of handsets.  If you have to support a

> “Series-40” handset it may not be worth your while to build a fancy version

> for a smartphone.

>  

> William Volk

> MyNuMo

>  

>  

>  

> 

> From: DrDon <don at sonaural.com> <mailto:don at sonaural.com>

>  

> I think part (but not all by any means) of it is that the evolution of phone

> game design is not progressing as fast as the evolution of hardware

> capabilities. This being due to the incredibly rapid rate at which hardware

> capabilities increase. In the past, game hardwares have been relatively stable

> and largely driven by capabilities developers wanted. With phones, it's the

> other way around. Definitely a unique problem.

>  

> Licensing (with the possible exception of sports games) have always been a

> "iffy" prospect where you have to weigh the cost of the license with the cost

> of development, and hopefully some mitigation of risk when compared against

> original ip. Some have succeeded, many have failed regardless of platform. You

> still have to have a decent game. Presumably, the cost of a license will be

> offset by the increased sales right? Easier said than done! Especially on

> phones where the value of a movie or TV license isn't the same as on other

> game platforms. 

>  

> dd

>  

> Jorge Gonzalez Sanchez wrote:

>   

>> Yeah, as DrDon said, mobile industry, as chaotic as it is (no more than the

>> PC), has yet to find its Command n Conquers, its WoWs or whatever, a game

>> which represents the mobile industrys finest.

>>  

>> Licensed games dont always sell that well. I remember reading something on

>> Gamasutra a while ago saying the LOTR mobile game(s?) bombed in the face of

>> simpler, classinc titles like Tetris or Parcheese. Licenses are good. Taking

>> inspiration from classics also is, but mobile games are a kind of it own

>> (mainly because of the horrible, inconsistent human interfaces), and should

>> be treated as such.

>>  

>> A couple of years ago nobody gave a dime for Touch-screen games, and now the

>> DS prints money. GPS, SMS, the microphone and the Camera are great interfaces

>> which offer great possibilities, but are still pretty much unexplored.

>>  

>>  

>>  

>>  

>> On 3/7/07, DrDon <don at sonaural.com> <mailto:don at sonaural.com>  wrote:

>>   

>>>  

>>> IMHO - the killer-app game for mobile has yet to be made (as many point

>>> out). 

>>>  

>>> dd

>>>  

>>> � wrote: 

>>>   

>>>>  

>>>> Hi all,

>>>>  

>>>> I saw last year's TOP 50 games (according ELSPA) and the speech of Trip

>>>> Hawkins in GDC, and I went to sleep with a question biting my head last

>>>> night: Is there a future for original mobile games?

>>>>  

>>>>  

>>>> As we can see, most of downloaded games are adaptations from Console/PC

>>>> games or those using TV show brands. As Hawkins said, only 5% of mobile

>>>> customer download a game and, coincidentally, 5% of mobile customers are

>>>>  

>>>> console/PC gamers (or ex-gamers). Maybe that would explain why the most

>>>> downloaded games are remakes of console/PC ones.

>>>>  

>>>> We know that it is too expensive to keep getting brands to create a new

>>>> game. Only big companies, like EA, Ubisoft and others, that already got

>>>>  

>>>> their own big brands, do not have big costs to worry with.

>>>>  

>>>> So, I would like to listen to some opinions about this.

>>>>  

>>>> PS: The article can be found at:

>>>>  

>>>>  http://www.mobileindustry.biz/article.php?article_id=2327

>>>> <http://www.mobileindustry.biz/article.php?article_id=2327>

>>>>  

>>>> PS2: The ELSPA article can be found at:

>>>>  

>>>> http://mobilegames.blogs.com/mobile_games_blog/2007/01/elspas_2006_lis.html

>>>>  <http://mobilegames.blogs.com/mobile_games_blog/2007/01/elspas_2006_lis.ht

>>>> ml> 

>>>>  

>>>> Thanks and best regards,

>>>>  

>>>>   

>>>>  

>>>>  

>>>   

>>>  

>>>   

>>> -- 

>>>  

>>>  

>>>  

>>>  Don Diekneite

>>>   

>>>  

>>>  Sonaural Audio Studios

>>>   

>>>  

>>>  (408)799-6123

>>>   

>>>  

>>>  Hear us online: www.Sonaural.com <http://www.Sonaural.com>

>>> <http://www.sonaural.com/>

>>>   

>>>  

>>>  

>>>  

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> Mobile_Games mailing list

>>>  Mobile_Games at igda.org

>>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mobile_games

>>>  

>>>  

>>>  

>>   

>>  

>>  

>>  

>> -- 

>> Jorge Gonzalez Sanchez

>> Blue River S.A.

>>  

>> TEL. +54 (11) 4777-9431

>> MOV. +54 (911) 6167-5412

>>  

>>  

>> 

>> 

>> _______________________________________________

>> Mobile_Games mailing list

>> Mobile_Games at igda.org

>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mobile_games

>>   

>>  

>  

>  

> -- 

> Don Diekneite 

>  Don Diekneite

>  Sonaural Audio Studios

>  (408)799-6123

> Hear us online: www.Sonaural.com <http://www.Sonaural.com>

> <http://www.sonaural.com/>

>  

>  

> 

> _______________________________________________

> Mobile_Games mailing list

> Mobile_Games at igda.org

>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mobile_games

>   

> 

> 

> 

> _______________________________________________

> Mobile_Games mailing list

> Mobile_Games at igda.org

> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mobile_games

>   



-- 
Don Diekneite 
Don Diekneite
Sonaural Audio Studios
(408)799-6123
Hear us online: www.Sonaural.com <http://www.sonaural.com/>


_______________________________________________
Mobile_Games mailing list
Mobile_Games at igda.org
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mobile_games

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/mobile_games/attachments/20070307/a3b03ca9/attachment.htm