Hi all, I've now started up a side project to my main RPG project (like I need more work!!). Anyhoo it had me thinking of a few aspects of mobile programming that I'd never considered until I gave it a go. I've realised after learning from a book (beginning mobile games programming) how to code a simple tribute to frogger game, that making games on a mobile is so incredibly simple compared to making games for a PC. Now I'm not saying that I shouldn't continue with my PC RPG project, as this is my real love and where I want to spend most of my time working on, but this led me to think of the benefits of programming for mobile devices. I figure that for one, I can get something coded a lot quicker because the language is almost exclusively designed with games in mind, so most of the functionality that you need to make a game exists already and is very simple to use (bearing in mind I'm using J2ME). With that in mind I figure that I could use this to my advantage. Because making a game in full 3d on the PC can take an incredibly long time, I figure that it would be really easy to prototype my design for my PC game, by making a more limited mobile version. This brings me onto my third point, that okay, we could prototype a design for a game using something simple on a PC like Visual Basic or one of the other similar languages out there, but then if we made a prototype on a mobile platform, we'd have to be a lot more intelligent with our design to get the most fun out of a limited platform which would probably translate to a very well designed actual game when you make the full version on a PC. The other benefit is that the game would have market appeal to a VERY large market of mobile users. You probably couldn't get away with making such a limited game and selling it as a PC game because people expect more, but on a mobile device, people will pay reasonable money for what is technically inferior, not only that but it also takes a lot less effort. I've made my first game within 2 days and already impressed my girlfriend with it, I'm pretty sure I could knock out an impressive prototype for my main game within a few months or so rather than a few years or so! Something that would probably be of a quality you could actually sell! So anyhoo I guess my point is that the mobile platform is actually becoming much more attractive to me than I ever realised, in terms of being able to prototype and test my designs in a very quick manner and actually have a finished product in a very short time. Anyhoo I hope this isn't intruding too much on the wrong forum, but it's the design aspect of mobile programming that is why the platform appeals to me, and why I felt it relevant to post here instead! I guess this is more of a statement from a convert, but I would be interested to hear others experiences and thoughts with mobile programming and the potential it has to help us with game design. Cheers, Steve

Thanks for that insight, Mephs! Its definitely going to help me to decide whether or not to break into mobile gaming. Im a spriter, and its not hard to see that making sprites for commerical PC games is a dead market. I had planned on starting 3D animation to compete. But now, with mobile gaming taking off, Ive wondered if I should just try j2me out and use my skills there. If its as easy as youre suggesting, Im definitely willing to give it a shot. :D

I mostly agree with your statement, but I wanted to give you a little "reality check" on one of the points you made.

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Original post by Mephs The other benefit is that the game would have market appeal to a VERY large market of mobile users. You probably couldn't get away with making such a limited game and selling it as a PC game because people expect more, but on a mobile device, people will pay reasonable money for what is technically inferior, not only that but it also takes a lot less effort.

Making a game that runs on one model is quite easy like you have seen. But for a successful commercial venture you're going to need to support a very wide variety of handsets, with very varied capabilities, proprietary APIs, wierd KVM bugs and limitations, etc. Not to mention that to test on all these phones you will need thousands of dollars worth of equipment (and you're going to have to test it on every model you plan on supporting). It's not as easy as it might initially appear (no, write once run everywhere doesn't work). Also, if you want to sell more than a dozen copies, then the marketing work would also be very very hard.
If you're just looking to make a few bucks by putting your game up on Handango or something, then that is quite easy.

shmoove

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Original post by Mephs if we made a prototype on a mobile platform, we'd have to be a lot more intelligent with our design to get the most fun out of a limited platform which would probably translate to a very well designed actual game when you make the full version on a PC.

I don't think so... When designing mobile game, the gameplay is SEVERLY restricted by the control interface of the phone (keypads) and the amount of graphics data you can display at a time on the screen (imagine a shop screen listing items). So, if you do manage to make a great mobile game prototype, when translating the final version to PC chances are you will have to spend extra time redesign the control interface and modify some of the gameplay flow because you got a bigger screen that could display everything at once now.

IMO, I would rather make the prototype in java applet than mobile J2ME. Coding wise they're both the same, and with applet I can easily distribute it to friends for game comment/suggestion. shrug

Okay, I take on board that it is going to be more difficult ensuring that the game works on a variety of platforms. I don't think this is too much of an issue though, as I'm really just after using it to show something to friends, have my own customised game I can carry around with me and the possibility of maybe being able to sell it... but yeah even if I did it would mor elikely be the "just for a quick couple of bucks" option, and also to demonstrate to potential employers that I'm not just a one trick pony!

As for the ability to use it for prototyping, I agree that graphically and input-wise you are severely constrained, but I don't see why you can't use such a system to test combat models, primitive AI, experience systems, skill systems, gameplay modes and all the other gameplay elements (rather than graphics/U.I. etc. It's not the perfect system and I'm not saying it will suit everyone, but I'm just trying to say that perhaps it is something people should give more consideration, because I know that until I gave it a shot I would probably have never considered it at all, and I now believe that while it wouldn't have made a huge difference, I'm glad I have looked at this element of game programming/designing. For one, it has forced me into being more intelligent with my scenario design in that I have now thought of a couple of extra game scenarios that I can carry across into my main game design, that had I not been constrained so much, I may have never been pressured into spending as much time on.