Wiley.Games.on.Symbian.OS.A.Handbook.for.Mobile.Development.Apr.2008 (779888), страница 8
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The results found mobile phone gamersplayed mobile games for an average of 28 minutes per session – withsome variations – India (39 minutes), United States (31 minutes) andThailand (29 minutes). The respondents confirmed that they frequentlyplay mobile games; the vast majority (80 %) playing at least once a weekand 34 % playing every day.The sample of people questioned by Nielsen entertainment was takenequally from those that describe themselves as either:• mobile phone owners who play mobile games on their own, and withothers (multiplayer games over Bluetooth or online)• mobile phone owners who play solo mobile games, but rarely playwith others• mobile phone owners who do not play games on their phone, but donot reject the idea of doing so.At the time of writing, the largest mobile games market is Japan, closelyfollowed by South Korea, and then North America and Europe.
The NorthAmerican market is predicted to overtake that of Japan and South Koreain 200919 and it is predicted that the markets in China, South America,and India are where mobile games will take off rapidly (however, theprice point for games in these regions will be significantly lower than inother territories). The reason for the uptake in India and China is that, inthose regions, games consoles are relatively rare, while mobile phonesare increasingly common. If you don’t have a console on which to play,but want to play the latest game titles, it makes sense to go mobile.1.7 Who’s Who in Mobile Game Creation?Having described who’s playing mobile games, let’s take a more detailedlook at who is making them.
This section will discuss the roles of gamedevelopers and publishers. In the following section, we’ll then move onto discuss what happens when the game is ready to sell, and describethe roles of network operators, content aggregators, and independentchannels in mobile game distribution.1.7.1 Independent Game DevelopersHobbyist developers are people who write games for fun, perhaps tochallenge themselves or learn more about a system.
As Twm Davies,19Screen Digest report by David MacQueen, May 2007.18INTRODUCTIONcreator of Roids describes in a paper on the Symbian Developer Network‘‘The game was originally written in one day (downing tools at 6am) as achallenge after witnessing a colleague take weeks and weeks to write anover-designed object-oriented asteroids clone.’’You can find the paper Twm wrote about the experience at developer.symbian.com/roidsgame. Hobbyists tend to work on their own or insmall teams, and there is a strong culture of open source and ideas sharingthrough developer discussion forums. The resulting games are often madeavailable for free, although some hobbyists may sell their titles throughindependent distribution channels, or request a PayPal donation throughtheir website.From those writing mobile games for fun or a small profit, let’smove on to those making a living writing mobile games.
To coverall the aspects of professional game production, smaller independentgame studios frequently need to outsource parts of the development process. This allows the core development team to cut down on expensesat times when they are not required.
John Holloway from ZingMagicexplains, ‘‘We have a policy of outsourcing as much as possible onan ‘as needed’ basis. We use third party suppliers for many things likegraphics, translations and play testing, and use services for accountancy and our website. This ensures we have as small a fixed cost aspossible.’’Independent game developers publish their games themselves, anddistribute them through their own website, and through content aggregators, network operators and independent channels, each of which I willdiscuss in the next section.
Because of the distribution model, independent developers need to consider how to help their customers when theyhave problems with the game. Customer support can be time-consuming,and take resources from future game development projects. It is importantto anticipate the factors that may confuse an inexperienced user, such assecurity warning messages at installation time or complicated controls,and ensure they are either resolved or that help is provided in the gameitself, or on the company’s website.Steve Townsend of Great Ape Software suggests providing a set ofFAQs and a forum for players to discuss the game and any problemsamongst themselves, with moderation from the development team tosolve those issues that cannot be answered by the community. Great ApeSoftware is an example of a small independent developer team that usesits niche skills to create a compelling mobile game.
Steve Townsend hasover 15 years experience of kart racing, and has written a game usinghis knowledge that has received excellent reviews. More information isavailable at www.greatape.com.WHO’S WHO IN MOBILE GAME CREATION?191.7.2 Professional Game Development StudiosMost commonly, a professional mobile game developer works in a studio,which has a relationship with one or more game publishers. I’ll discusspublishers shortly, so I won’t describe that relationship here until each ofthe roles has been explained.A professional studio may be separate from the publisher companyor work in-house.
For example, Electronic Arts (EA) is both a publisherand has numerous in-house studios worldwide, creating games for different platforms: console, PC, handheld and mobile. In comparison,Ideaworks3D Studio is an independent studio that collaborates with leading publishers to make flagship franchise games mobile, as well as toinnovate original intellectual property (IP).Game developers who work with publishers take responsibility forcreating the initial game concept, technical design, implementing thecode and creating any artwork and other assets the game uses, such asmusic and effects. The publisher’s responsibilities are the subject of thenext section.1.7.3 Mobile Game PublishersGame publishers fund the development of games, handle marketing andsales, and manage the development project overall.
While the developercreates the game and does module testing and general testing as it iscreated, the publisher generally takes care of the game’s play testingand QA. Game publishers, in both mobile and console/PC industries,usually acquire the rights to different intellectual properties (such as thelicense to create a game based on an upcoming film or associated with aparticular sports star). They then set up a project to work with a developerteam – either in-house or working in an external company. The game isusually ported for a range of different target game platforms.
Examplesof large mobile game publishers include Glu Mobile, Gameloft, I-play,Digital Chocolate and EA Mobile.The publisher takes care of organizing the distribution of the gamewhen it is complete, and builds relationships with the major networkoperators and content aggregators. Much in the same way that somepublishers also have in-house developers, they may also be contentaggregators. I’ll discuss what services an aggregator provides later in thischapter.The relationship between game developers and publishers is a closeand symbiotic one. A failure to create a good game, or indeed any gamein the agreed schedules, can have devastating results for both parts ofthe equation. The publisher will have approached network operators20INTRODUCTIONto promote the game, and will have promised it for a particular date,to a given level of quality.
The network operators control distributionthrough their portals and only allow visibility to a certain number ofgames at a time, by allocating them slots on a ‘deck,’ which I’ll discussshortly. The games have to fit a particular genre, level of quality, andbe well-received by the audience. If a delivery date is missed, or theoperator receives complaints about the title, the operator will not paythe publisher.
Additionally, the publisher may lose the coveted slot, andpotential future slots, to a competitor, and may even lose credibility.One Big Game – Game Publishing With a DifferenceOneBigGame is a non-profit games publisher which aims to sell gamesto raise funds for children’s charities around the world. Launchingin Spring 2008, the types of games OneBigGame brings to marketwill be like any others out there, but they are created for publicationby OneBigGame through the goodwill of game developers, in anindustry-wide initiative.Developers interested in doing something for the greater good withtheir creative skills can contribute skills and resources to help thepublisher get games to market.
The games are expected to be thosethat can be easily put together in a relatively short amount of time.The publisher is looking for donations, for example, any side-projectthat developers have been running to test a theory, or as a side-storyto another game. The publisher takes the game, tests it and publishesit on the OneBigGame games portal, as well as through a variety ofother online distribution partners. Any game that is fun and addictive,and that will sell well (and therefore generate money for charity) iswelcome.Mobile games are part of the OneBigGame portfolio, so I’m mentioning this initiative here in case any readers are interesting in gettinginvolved. For more information, please see www.onebiggame.org.1.8 Mobile Game Distribution: Routes to Market1.8.1 Network OperatorsNetwork operators, or carriers as they are often known, are the largest vendors of mobile games; most mobile games are purchased and downloadedfrom their portals.
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