Wireless Game Design

1
Wireless Game Design

• Games Anywhere, Anytime

Greg Costikyan www.ungames.comwww.costik.comcost
ik_at_costik.com
2
Who Am I?

• 30 Commercially Published Games

• Online Games Since 1989
• First online game with 1m users

• Journalist, Analyst Consultant

• Founder Chief Design Officer, Unplugged Games

• Consultant Advisory Board Member, The Themis
  Group

• SF Writer

3
What Were Going to Do Today

• 10-11 Wireless Game Design

• 1115-1230 Game Design Theory

• 2-3 SMS MMS Game Design

• 3-4 WAP Game Design

• 415-6 J2ME BREW Game Design

4
Other Stuff

• Mainly Phones, Will Touch on PDAs

• Should Have Time for Discussion

• Presentations at www.costik.com/presentations/

• I talk too fast, and too softly
• Stop me before I sin again.

5
What is a Mobile Phone?

• Device for Sending Receiving Data

• Primarily Geared for Voice

• Can Send Receive Other Data Types

• A Small Computer some processing power local
  RAM typically 128-500k

• Limited Media small form factor screen, often
  bw input geared to voice calls with some
  additions sound handling limited

6
A Different Game Platform

• Like Developing for 8-bit consoles or early micros

• ...with tiny screens

• Networked from the start!

• Its a Social Device

• A New Style of Game Media Poor, Communication
  Rich

7
Design to the Mediums Strengths

• ...instead of struggling with its limits

• Network Access the Primary Strength

• Gameplay is not a function of whizz-bang graphics

• Its a function of quality of interaction.

• Nothing is as satisfying as interaction with
  other people

8
Other Strengths

• Portability
• why was a primitive platform like Gameboy so
  successful?

• Ubiquity
• you take your cellphone everywhere

• Its Always There
• play anytime you have a moment free

9
Aphorisms to Design By

• Nobody on their deathbed ever said I wish I had
  spent more time alone with my computer.
• --Dani Bunten Berry

• Its not the motion, its the meat.
• --Greg Costikyan

• Its the people, stupid.
• --Dani Bunten Berry

• Its a service, not a product.
• --Gordon Walton

10
What do the Strengths Imply?

• Short Play Times
• its a spare moment platform
• persistent, short session games as well as
  short complete
• games.

• Play on Their Schedule, Not Yours
• Majestic is an example of what not to do

• Persistence a Key Component for Networked Play

• Use the Network
• ...even for soloplay games

11
Community is Vital for Networked Play

• True Online Since the Earliest Games
• MUD in 1979
• the COLS in the mid-80s
• both light hard-core games today

• Current Technology Makes it Hard
• no simultaneous voice-and-data
• neither WAP nor J2ME provides intrinsic
  messaging
• latency makes multiplayer beyond head-to-head a
  problem

12
How You CAN Support Community

• Challenges

• Leaderboards

• In-Game Messaging

• Diplomacy/Trading

• Web Site

• Buddy Lists/Presence

• Clan Messaging (UPOC)

13
Design for the Hard Core

• On the wired Internet, two successful styles
• Hardcore games
• Free light games

• When people paid by the hour, hardcore ruled (and
  even today, bring in more money)

• This is an early-adopter market

• Fighting, combat, sf/fantasyand sports

• Stay away from gameshows and classic games

14
The Metagame

• The Things Around a Game that Affect it
• Community part of that...
• Deck building card trading in CCGs
• The baseball season

• Metagames lead to obsessive, repeat play
• ...and your income derives from continued play,
  not a one-time sale

• Leaderboards are a start...

15
Ways to Create a Metagame

• Persistence

• Tournaments

• Trading

• Ways for Players to Reward Each Other

• Offline Activities (deck construction)

• Stable Strategies (Chess, Diplomacy)

16
Obvious Weaknesses

• Graphics sound will always lag other platforms

• Small (and variable) form factor

• Many manufacturers carriers
• ...and inconsistent implementation of standards

• Inputs designed for non-game use
• ...of course, thats true of PCs, too...

17
Less Obvious Weaknesses

• Latency is High (1 sec)
• ...and likely to remain so

• Games were a second thought when standards were
  established
• ...but no longer are
• ...but they still dont understand networked
  games

• No support for simultaneous voice-and-data
• ...but has to happen ultimately

18
Avoid Games that Depend on Low Latency

• Soloplay games (never hit the air network)

• Turn-based games.
• Round-robin
• Simultaneous movement

• Act whenever games.
• Limited by real time

• Slow update games.

• Giants maneuvering in the mist.

19
Dealing with the Form Factor

• One, small window on world
• No StarCrafts or Civilizations
• Small board layouts fine (e.g, Chess, card games)
• One actor works (e.g., RPGs, side-scrollers)

• Games that dont require a layout at all
• Mainly text, graphics dress up rather than are
  core to gameplay

• Zoom levels

20
Coping with UI

• Avoid Text Entry when feasible

• Use Menus

• Arrows plus select

• Nethack/Ultima III keypresses

21
Design to the Business Model

• Is it a service or a product?

• What drives your revenue?

• How can you maximize player satisfaction and
  minimize support cost?

• Does play style dovetail with business demands?

22
Design to the Technology

• Exploit its strengths

• Design around its weaknesses

• Demonstrate whats compelling

• Dont get stuck with the preconceived

23
What Makes this Fun?

• Nobody Knows what WorksYoure free to innovate!

• Dev cycle (and costs) are lowYoull see your
  work live within months

• Someday, soon, a wireless game will blow us
  away...
• Show us something weve never seen before
• Demonstrate how this medium enables game styles
  we havent seen on consoles, PCs, or in the arcade

24
Innovate or Die

• 99 of wireless games arent designed in any
  meaningful sense
• load of imitative crap
• rock-paper-scissors, text adventures, fucking
  HUNT THE WUMPUS, for gods sake.

• Innovation is what blows markets open

25
Dont be a Vidiot

• Dont Be Constrained by video and PC games of the
  last 5 years

• The game is an amazingly plastic medium
  software is infinitely plastic

26
Look to...

• Non-digital games
• wargames, RPGs, CCGs, party games, trivia, German
  boardgames, LARPs, miniatures, PBM,
  improvisational drama

• The history of videogames
• puzzle games, sidescrollers, maze games,
  Robotron

• The history of computer games
• academic games, Balance of Power, M.U.L.E.

• The history of online
• MUD, multiplayer air sims, game shows, Bingo

• Wonky little areas of innnovation today
• RealArcade, the indy game movement, Sissyfight,
  Cheapass

27

• Im interested in all sorts of games.
• --Richard Garfield
• designer of Magic The Gathering

28
Innovation Doesnt Mean Originality ab initio

• If I see farther, it is because I stand on the
  shoulders of giants who have come before me.
• --Robert Burton

• Steal a la carte, not whole cloth

• If you cant make yourself a Parker, Roberts,
  Gygax Arneson, Garfield, Baer, Bartle,
  Miyamoto, Yeo, or Wright
• --at least innovate at the margins

29
You Have the Opportunity to Reinvent The Game

• for this new medium.

• Dont blow it.

• Beer or die.

30
URLS

• Me
• www.costik.com
• www.ungames.com
• www.themis-group.com

• Wireless Gaming Review
• www.wirelessgamingreview.com