Competition 21: Fix Mobile Gaming!

[dislekcia]

Comp 21: Fix Mobile Gaming!

We've all played games on our phones. Most of us have even bought a mobile game and invariably been disappointed. It usually feels like cellphone games are either cookie-cutter copy-paste licensed jobs or they're made by people who apparently don't play games at all... So, why not turn those "I could do better than this" thoughts into action?

Your challenge is to build a game (or games, seeing as we have more than a month this time) that you would enjoy on a phone. Use the phone's strengths: Quick play sessions, always connected and portability whilst being mindful of its shortcomings: Pushing multiple buttons at the same time is difficult, frame rates aren't super fast (set your room speed to 12 or 15 fps in GM) and remember that you only have a small screen to work with.

Gameplay mechanics are king, not graphics. What would you like to play on the move? A detailed management game? A dating simulation? Think you have a way to make an action game that works despite the controls? Want mobile strategy done right? Have a killer idea for a turn-based online game on your phone? Go for it!

Make a game that you would play on a cellphone.

Rules:

• Competition starts on November 2nd 2008, 02-11-2008.
• Deadline for entries is January 2nd 2009, 02-01-2009.
• The use of copyrighted material will not be tolerated. Do not steal!
• Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in. Downloading and using Game Maker is recommended for beginners and for prototyping. - It does not need to be a cellphone development system, you only have to emulate being on a phone!
• Ask for help when you get stuck.
• Your game must contain all files needed for it to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed, exceptions are browser plugins like Flash and self-contained dlls distributed with the game).
• Your final entry must NOT include a readme.txt that EXPLAINS THE CONTROLS, RULES and any other information you want to get across to your users. Cellphones don't do that!
• Competition is open to entry for South African citizens, current residents of South Africa and South African passport holders.
• The judges' decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, Game.Dev and NAG take no responsibility for entered games.

Entering:
To enter the competition, start a thread titled "21: NameOfYourGame" and post your design ideas and game releases there. As you release files, edit your first post to point to the most recent versions available.

Other people WILL reply to your post with their feedback and ideas, it's a fact that games that allow forumites to give their feedback do better in competitions. Please report any offensive comments to me for moderation. Consider releasing your source code, it helps us pinpoint problems that you might be having and benefits the community as a whole.

You may enter multiple games if you wish and can handle the workload.

Advice:
Remember that you don't need to actually develop on phones: We're only looking for good concepts and execution here, not instant phone support (although I will point people who want to have their games running on phone and PC at the same time towards Flash Lite). Emulate the phone experience on your PC, this means:
-Resolutions of 120x160, 240x240 or 240x360 (Yes, width is usually less than height).
-Only use the arrow keys, enter and shift + ctrl (mirrors the usual 4 directions + select and the two optional soft buttons) and the numeric keypad: 0-9 + * and #.
-Be aware that your players will want to play for short sessions, so allow for saving and think of other ways to accommodate them.

Interface design on phones can be tricky because you don't have tons of screen space to do it in. Try to use the affordances given by the phone - if you can, use the positions of keys on the keypad to mirror functionality as well as their numbers. Be aware that because we're targeting phones, your game can't come with a readme.txt, you need to get everything across in the game itself... Remember the lessons of Comp 20!

Try to provide extras for your players. Things like achievements are rarely done in the mobile space, let's change that. Focus on replayability and giving your players something beyond what they'd usually get on a phone, don't worry too much about compatibility or hardware restrictions though, we don't want to stifle creativity beyond the constraints already mentioned.

...

Good luck and enjoy the competition. There might be some very interesting things coming out of this competition! Expect relevant announcements soonish ;)

-D

[Kensei]

Ooooh, what a great idea, dislekcia :)

I might be able to find my game that I made using the Java MIDP for my Honours course - of course I will likely convert it to Game Maker as actually making it for a mobile phone is kinda resource limiting.

Will give it a think... there is quite a lot you can do with a cellphone game.

[Azimuth]

Chippit and I have Great Plans.

I suggest the rest of you abandon all hope.

[Kensei]

Originally Posted by Azimuth

Chippit and I have Great Plans. I suggest the rest of you abandon all hope.

Nevarrr!!!!

::chants:: We shall overcome, we shall overcoooommmeee

[SkinkLizzard]

Lol this is awesome I'd just come up with an idea for an adventure/action rpg (the word idea is used lightly, its more of a shiny little idea fragment that you find in the sands of sentience) game with
minimal control and the next comp is exactly that :)
woot :)

also who needs hope, hope's overrated I'll take sheer overwhelming power any day, failing that: determination, willpower and being on the good side, somehow that combo always wins. :)

[Gazza_N]

Hahaha! After our little "State of the community" meeting at rAge, I'm not surprised to see this theme popping up. ;)

Yeah. Tricksy. Limited input and an emphasis on slower-paced, non-twitch gameplay are going to make this one interesting. I already have some ideas for a TBS game rattling around - we'll see what happens.

Good luck, everyone! :D

[edg3]

Completely epic. This is going to be awesome.

Ive been overly addicted to cellphone gaming lately, so I have a vast number of ideas to make use of.

"and on the wings of a dream, so far beyond reality, all alone in desperation now the time has come"

Best of luck to all. If I get what I need to done I might even port it to MIDP at some stage.

[Squid]

I have this maths based cellphone game I made with a friend earlier this year, can I enter that?

On a more serious note, I may look into this once my exams are over.

[Cyberninja]

Sweet. I'll try entering too. :) Gogo mobile gadget!

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Squid

I have this maths based cellphone game I made with a friend earlier this year, can I enter that? On a more serious note, I may look into this once my exams are over.

I heard there were some ideas for a version two? Maybe you could do that ;)

[dammit]

This is so tempting! Will probably dive into the game maker tuts as soon as my exams are over...whether I get to create a reasonably entry but deadline is another story however.

[Tr00jg]

woot! want to try this. :)

[Kensei]

Originally Posted by Squid

I have this maths based cellphone game I made with a friend earlier this year, can I enter that?

Originally Posted by dislekcia

I heard there were some ideas for a version two? Maybe you could do that ;)

There is a possible version 2 OMG. You can improve on it? :p

Squid, I dare you to change the name, maybe the theme and enter it... I am sure that your friend won't mind.

[Higushi]

I'm totally gonna find the time to at least try do something for this comp!

I wanna make a comeback to game.dev! :P It's been a while :/

Still racking my brain for ideas, but there are a few floating around already.

[edg3]

I have way too many ideas, so when I have decided what I'll do I'll share the other ideas here for everyone that is looking for some ideas.

[01DT!m3r]

Awesome! I'm thinking of maybe learning flash for this and make an actual mobile game.But that is probably not a viable option during exams ,I will probably just stick to GM ,and maybe at a later stage convert it over to a mobile platform.:)

[Insomniac]

Neat idea! Unfortunately I'm in the middle of exam mode at the moment but once exams are over I can't wait to jump in and try this.

[Fengol]

yey! I'm on leave from the 22nd Dec so I have some time to work on a project :D

[Agrajag]

I'm also in exams right now but those will be at the end of this month. Hopefully I can think of something brilliant and simple enough that I can actually get it working.

I'm thinking of learning flash for this one. I've been doing Java for a while now for school so it shouldn't be too horribly difficult to pick up. I have the resource dvd from rage so I should have enough to at least get started there.

Good luck everyone. Let's make some awesome games!

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Agrajag

I'm also in exams right now but those will be at the end of this month. Hopefully I can think of something brilliant and simple enough that I can actually get it working. I'm thinking of learning flash for this one. I've been doing Java for a while now for school so it shouldn't be too horribly difficult to pick up. I have the resource dvd from rage so I should have enough to at least get started there. Good luck everyone. Let's make some awesome games!

Remember, prototyping in GM is easier and quicker. Squid and I prototyped MathsterMind in GM until we got something we liked enough to port to the phone.