How to create a great mobile game.

1. HOW TO CREATE A GREAT MOBILE GAME
Understanding what mobile gamers want.
William Volk
CCO, PlayScreen, LLC
Email: bvolk@playscreen.com
Twitter: William_Volk
Sunday, October 13, 13

2. My background
Started out as a game designer and
programmer. Moved to
management, business
development and then marketing.
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3. My background
Have worked in mobile phone
games since 2001. Co-design of
several mobile games.
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4. Founded in 2010.
Has launched licensed Real Money
games in the UK currently in App
Store
Games are approved by the United
Kingdom Gambling Commission
and Apple.
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5. How we got here.
✤
Evolution of games (1982 vs 2012)
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6. How we got here.
✤
Computer Screens & Keyboards to Touch Interfaces
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7. Evolution of Mobile
Feature Phones to Smart Phones
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8. How we got here.
The App Store Changed
Everything.
No barrier to entry resulted
in millions of apps.
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9. The erosion of value
The game industry used to be a high value market.
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10. The erosion of value
Now we ship megabytes and hope 3% will pay us a few pennies a day.
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11. Evolution of Mobile
No barriers to entry create an extraordinary competitive market
785 Carts
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1,257,119 Apps

12. Seize The Minute
Play mobile games everywhere, may have a minute or less....
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13. Mobile is challenging
Connectivity is not guaranteed
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14. Design
A complete visualization and description of the product, Don’t
ASSUME anything.
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15. The Design Aesthetic
What are the elements that make a
game great?
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16. The Game Mechanic
A set of rules intended to produce
a game or gameplay
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17. The Game Mechanic
Golf: Hit a ball and reach a
designated spot
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18. The Game Mechanic
Poker: Produce certain numerical
or categorical card combinations
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19. The Game Mechanic
Game Mechanic is not theme
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20. Backstory and theme
Creates a context for the game
Examples:
Pigs steal eggs, Birds angry
Bird dreams of flying
Casino examples of themes: Slots
games, Scratchers, Video Poker.
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21. User Interface principles
Clear, consistent interfaces that are apparent and recognizable to users
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22. User Interface principles
Make simple, common tasks easy, communicating clearly to the user
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23. User Interface principles
All needed options and materials for a given task are visible
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24. User Interface principles
Users informed of actions, changes of state and condition
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25. User Interface principles
Flexible and tolerant, reducing pain of mistakes and misuse
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26. User Interface principles
Reuse components and behaviors, be consistent
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27. That Elusive ‘iPhone-ness’
More than just the touch
interface, a ‘look,’ ‘feel’ and
‘style.’
Hard to describe, but
players know it when they
see it.
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28. What Users Want
Simplicity Wins - Case Studies
Draw Something
Tiny Wings
Oregon Lottery
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29. Draw Something
Huge viral success. 5 weeks after its
launch, game was downloaded 20
million times. Company was sold to
Zynga for $180m
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30. Draw Something
OMGPOP out of cash = far less features
than competitive titles (Charadium,
Depict)
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not
when there is nothing left to add, but when there
is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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31. Draw Something
Players showed off their drawings on social networks, with NO
automatic feature for this functionality.
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32. Draw Something
Zynga acquired it and then ...
“Draw Something already smartly monetized beyond its $0.99 price by
letting players pay to replace words or make guessing easier. Forcing players
to also purchase colors feels excessive and engenders unnecessary negativity
towards the entire experience.”
“The never-ending structure that made Draw Something brilliant to begin
with also lead to the app's downfall. With no graceful end point, it is easy for
your piled-up drawings to begin to feel more like an obligation, rather than a
pile of fun to dig into. Especially if the pile is full of repeat words.”
Lesson: Engage Users, Learn and Act.
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33. Tiny Wings
A simple one button game, with a real iPhone ‘feel’. A delightful
theme and backstory. With no marketing spend, an instant hit ... 6.5m
paid sales.
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34. Oregon Lottery
A Lottery Game (machines) using Slots, Video Poker themes. Sadly, I
could not find a way of playing the slots game. Needs massive
improvement of user interface
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35. Decisions, decisions
Hardware Platform Choices
HTML or Native
It’s a WRAP, the hybrid approach to building apps
Gaming and Lottery App specific requirements
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36. Lottery and Real Money Games
Real Money transactions create specific requirements.
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37. Lottery and Real Money Games
Client/Server architecture, audit trails and other requirements
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38. in conclusion
Mobile Gamers have high expectations that must be addressed.
Lottery and Real Money Casino games have unique requirements.
Real innovation will create a boom in mobile lottery games.
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