Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Building Game Worlds
226
U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N
Which games don’t work well on cell phone handsets? Well, just about everything
else most gamers are used to playing on one portable platform or another. Again, 3-D
development is very early, and current physical screen size issues offer some large
hurdles. These hurdles will be overcome in time, but for now most developers concentrate
on providing content that will perform well and provide for some satisfying
play. The goal is to build game content that finds its way to people on their handsets
while standing in line at the DMV or sitting in an airport terminal waiting for a flight.
Any experience building small games for modest hardware will come in handy in
developing these games. I’m even seeing a resurgence of veteran game programmers
from the early Atari days coming out of hiding to build cell phone games or update
some of their classic libraries for a new era.
Multiplay Cell Phone Gaming
Several wireless carriers, having experienced some success with single-player standalone
games, are pushing developers toward building multiplay cell phone gaming titles.
Currently, these are turn-based games that allow players to be matched up to compete.
Most turn-based games work well as test subjects in order to start creating this kind
of content. Most of these game titles are very early in execution, so there is no way to
determine how popular this form of gaming might be, but it seems like the right kind
of game could capture a sizeable audience.
Mobiles are starting to use Bluetooth (www.bluetooth.com) to enable players to discover
other players. For instance, if a player is on a train and wants to play a game, but isn’t
close to other players or doesn’t know who or where they are, the player’s phone can
broadcast an “Anyone want to play Mortal Kombat?” message to potential players.
You can bet that multiple carriers will be looking for the right kind of content to
keep their subscribers happy in game offerings. Plenty of content will be focused on
capturing and entertaining teenage wireless subscribers.
Having a large audience already extremely familiar with gaming is fortunate for
game developers, since part of adding value to a wireless subscription service will depend
on game content, among other content offerings, to keep subscribers satisfied
with the value of their services.
Wireless Toy Networks
This is an expansion area for some game developers, especially for those that have built
game content based on toy licenses. Toy manufacturers appear to be collaborating more
frequently with game developers to provide local wireless toy and game entertainment.
Some toys feature specific game elements built into the toys in a number of ways, and
others offer game interaction among toys as part of a local wireless toy network.
Think for a moment about the variety of game experiences available to nextgeneration
toys with local wireless command centers. These command centers can be