Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

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connected easily via USB to the PC for online updates, and will broadcast simple game commands to “recognized” toy units. The possibilities are endless for action figures, vehicle armadas of many kinds, and so forth. Another offering in this area are dedicated wireless gaming units like the Cybiko Xtreme (www.cybikoxtreme.com/). These units deliver portable gaming and local networking capability for chatting with friends and playing games. Figure 9-7 shows the portable Cybiko Xtreme device. Common drawbacks to these devices are their retail cost after manufacture, their expandability and upgrade issues, and their inability to draw developers and compelling content due to a lack of a large, sustainable player base. Again, developers rarely want to develop for platforms that have not already reached a sizeable audience or shown every indication of reaching a mass audience rapidly. Many toy and game companies have explored portable gaming by offering various kinds of hardware. The results have varied widely. The reason Cybiko has lasted and has evolved its offerings is that it makes an attractive product. Other offerings, including the electronic Pikachu toys from the Pokemon games, are popular but remain fairly limited in game and wireless functionality. Toy manufacturers face significant risk in recovering research and manufacturing costs for elaborate wireless toys—despite the projected fun factor! Some developers are working on solutions to help minimize these costs while maximizing the potency of the offerings with simple yet fun interaction and game elements. FIGURE 9-7 Cybiko Xtreme C H A P T E R 9 227 Cell Phones and Wireless Gaming
Building Game Worlds 228 U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N Building the Cell Phone Gaming Market Just like in the console world, many popular licensed titles are being offered on a great number of cell phone handsets. Game publishers specializing in mobile game development have grown up with large-scale plans to deliver various kinds of content to wireless carriers around the world. These publishers include JAMDAT (www.jamdatgames.com), Digital Bridges (www.digitalbridges.com), and Unplugged, Inc. (www.unplugged-inc.com). High-profile licenses have appeared on cell phone handsets, including JAMDAT’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (see Figure 9-8), JAMDAT/Activision’s Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, and EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour Wireless Golf (see Figure 9-9). As millions of new subscribers sign up for wireless service packages, mobile game publishers hope their well-known licensed offerings will provide an incentive for players to purchase these titles and download them into their phones. The younger population of cell phone users and players, entirely unintimidated by wireless technology, is an attractive potential audience for each of these titles and many more. Yet, as I’ve previously mentioned, the economic model for determining pricing that affords the best possible results for all parties involved and provides this content to the greatest number of users possible remains an ongoing experiment. Just as other platforms are somewhat segmented by player preferences and age boundaries, look for a similar dynamic in the wireless world, where certain kinds of game and entertainment applications find their way to their natural audience. There is plenty of room for a wide array of content designed to satisfy a wide and growing player base. In the months and years to come, it will be very interesting to see how many people are enticed to become new game players through cell phone games, and where their content preferences will reside on the game genre spectrum. FIGURE 9-8 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
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A BOUT THE AUTHOR Tom Meigs is a ga
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Brandon A. Nordin Scott Rogers Wend
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Building Game Worlds x U L T I M A
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Building Game Worlds xiv U L T I M
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Building Game Worlds xviii U L T I
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2 THE game design process begins by
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Building Game Worlds 4 U L T I M A
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24 AFTER you’ve completed your pr
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54 FOR a game to be competitive the
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86 YOU now understand the developme
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Building Game Worlds 100 U L T I M
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108 UP to this point, we’ve cover
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130 Building Game Worlds 130 U L T
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136 SCRIPTING in games gives develo
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166 ONCE your game environment has
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Building Game Worlds 174 174 U L T
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Page 209 and 210: 188 A whole new avenue for games ha
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Page 237 and 238: 216 ANOTHER new content horizon for
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Page 259 and 260: 238 THERE is a wide and growing ran
Page 287 and 288: 266 AT some point in your skills gr
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Building Game Worlds 278 FIGURE 11-
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286 THIS appendix includes useful r
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296 MANY types of software tools we
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304 TO assist you to further define
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310 I’VE gathered together a few
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322 AS a point of reference and as
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Building Game Worlds 336 Baseball s
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Building Game Worlds 340 Geometry a
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Building Game Worlds 346 crowd, 146
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