I realize that the lack of physical buttons on smartphones is a big problem for game developers, but even so - they should be able to give us something *far* better than "Angry Birds", "Candy Crush" and the thousands of "Tower Defense" clones that blight the stores - let alone utter crap like "Flappy Bird".
Even technically impressive games such as "Real Racing 3" are completely ruined by the ridiculous "freemium" pricing model.
And if there *are* better games than these out there (I assume there must be), why are these dreadful games so popular?
Ive read several times about the games industry being cyclical.
If you look back to the very start, say, Pong and Space invaders. Almost everything else released was also Pong or Space invaders. The technology of the day could have done something else but people rip each other off.
I think that's happening again with mobile gaming, super cheap gaming a few distinct genres, an over saturated market with games that clone each other over and over. The thing is, we will remember the good games that are different, that innovate.
A big part of it is that they are mobile games and we use them when we don't have access to our preferred gaming machine. We don't need, or want, a super immersive, thought provoking game when we're outside; we can't even risk using up the battery on them if we did have such games! The majority of people just need something simple to kill a few minutes before a movie starts, or the bus arrives.
On a side note, I think Angry Birds was a lot of fun. However, like almost everything else, it is inspired by simpler games. The game that I'm thinking of was called Scorched Earth, which later evolved into Worms.
I also find it amusing that I'm making a game for the iPhone that has roots in Space Invaders and Galaxians. Very little comes from a vacuum, but I think we owe it to ourselves to be as innovative as possible.
Send me feedback on my latest game, It Never Ends.
Angry birds is a pretty good game, and I played a few fun puzzle games like Apparatus. I don't have a problem freemium if you do it right, Temple Run 2 comes to mind. As for flappy bird? Random stuff gets popular, and once it gets popular, it gets more popular. I think a Pokemon like game would do great on the mobile interface, and if nintendo is going to step up to the plate, I might take matters into my own hands
I think the "freemium" pricing model has yet to prove it's self as a health business model, that one could start a company with. It's still a vary young concept and i think most of the companies using it will die out.
Mobile game markets like google play and the i store need higher standards in my opinion. I download and uninstall half the games i find. because they run like crap and are full of bugs.
I heard the owner of flappy bird has deleted the game from the Appstore and people are going mad about it. Because now, once you uninstall it you can't get it back.
Kind of makes me sad that we have been making better games all along in our secret geeky community for years. Anyone could play for free! Now you can potentially make a fortune with an app it takes 15 minutes to make in MMF2 :S
Originally Posted by Pan-tosser I think the "freemium" pricing model has yet to prove it's self as a health business model, that one could start a company with. It's still a vary young concept and i think most of the companies using it will die out.
I've been playing and buying video games since they were first created. I hate advertising and hidden fees in games. I will gladly pay a fair price for a game if it looks interesting, and it is well reviewed. I always feel like I'm being exploited with any other pricing model.
If I ever get my app to market, it may be initially free, and then $1, or just start at a dollar. I'm not sure yet.
Send me feedback on my latest game, It Never Ends.
i don't know if you can start a game as free then change it to a dollar at a later date. Maybe their some places that allow that but a lot of them don't. I think you have to make two games and name one as the lite version and the other as the normal one.
I hear you though I hate advertising in games two. I can only hope one day somebody makes a game search engine. That becomes the google of the game market. Which would kill adds. Just because it would be a Superior advertising method.
Who knows what will happen with the mobile market. It is still vary new. The worse case is everything ends up going to a month to month subscription. but that's doubtful. Still i don't put many things past mankind's greed.
1) Low barrier for entry by developers
2) Cheap end-user price tag, accessible by nearly everyone
3) Short attention spans
4) Focus on making a quick buck instead of a good game
5) Stupid novelty (Flappy Bird's difficulty) which is risky in the established AAA market, hand in hand with viral sharing. It's easier to go viral when something is free or extremely cheap, even if it's crap.
Since the markets and purposes are so different, I'd look at them like the reality TV of games. Cheap and vapid and not even pretending to replace better TV, but still hypnotizing to the gaze of the masses.
As already mentioned: the lack of physical buttons.
However that restriction gives rise to all type of other games on the mobile devices.
Some which are just adjusted versions from regular games, some which actually have a working control scheme and a game tailored around those controls.
And some are just some casual games which you wouldn't play on your 'heavy game setup' (be it console, pc or portable) but which are just fine to play on the go.
Before flappy bird there was some kind of helicopter game which basically is the same game, just with lesser graphics. However that game is perfectly suited for mobile devices.
The game needs to be simple to play to attract a large audience, but it also has to have some kind of difficulty so it will become harder to set better high scores. Which allows for a competition event.
And after that the hype will fly over ... and there will be a new popular game.
I've been doing mobile for almost 2 years now. It's not as easy as it first sounds. Most of the games here wouldn't succeed on touchphones. There were plenty of good games on smartphones, but a touchscreen changes the controls completely.
For one thing, a platformer wouldn't work on mobile. How do you move your guy around? If you press a location to move, your guy will move under your finger and be impossible to see. You can't really port a game like asteroids either.
Controls mean everything in an action/arcade game. And most styles of games are poorly controlled on touchphones.
Flappy Bird is definitely not a coincidence. It's been finely polished. Unlike many other ports and clones, it runs really smoothly and doesn't lag. It relies on only one input but can be fun nonetheless. It's a Susan Boyle syndrome - something you expected to be bad but turned out good.
It's something like the games back in the 70s, or computer games back when everyone was playing arcade games. People just haven't designed a game genre suitable for touchphones. You have games like Temple Run and Angry Birds redesigning their controls around touching, and they're hits for a good reason. You can't really replicate the Temple Run or Angry Birds experience on a PC.
They're popular because there's no choice. I've been trying to look for a good Android game. Pixel Dungeon is probably the best IMO, but nobody's created a really good one yet. So until then, we make do with flappy birds.
Edited by Muz
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Originally Posted by Muz For one thing, a platformer wouldn't work on mobile. How do you move your guy around? If you press a location to move, your guy will move under your finger and be impossible to see.
I'll have to disagree with this. Download "Bloo Kid 2" for iPhone (maybe android). It's a really decent platformer, and the controls are easy to use.
Also "Bean's Quest" which has even better plaformer controls for a touch screen game. Plus it has an awesome soundtrack.
And a more recent example: "Devious Dungeon" which works well with touch screen controls also.
Originally Posted by Muz Unlike many other ports and clones, it runs really smoothly and doesn't lag.
It runs at 30 fps. That's terrible for a 2D side scroller/avoider.
Anyway there are plenty of good games for touch phones. At least iPhone. I have 100s of games on mine, and they all control great and are deeper than flappy.
In order to find the good games you'll have to search for yourself. Unfortunately the majority of consumers simply download the top games from the app store, and it's suspected that many of those games gained their rank by gaming the system (I don't feel like searching for the source for that claim though.)
To be fair the Google Play store is full of a ton of crap. Likely more than the Apple app store since there is no approval process and no fee to keep your app on the store. When I launch a game on Android it's approved right away.
Plus a lot of developers port to Android as an after thought.
And for those too lazy to click the links here's the trailer for Lili:
Personally, I think controls on a touchscreen are a big problem - at least when it comes to action games.
However, there's no reason why we couldn't have all sorts of slower paced games, or games that would typically have mouse control anyway - eg. point & click adventure, realtime strategy, turn-based tactics (smartphones would be perfect for an Advance Wars / Fire Emblem / X-Com type game), etc.
I'd love to see Google specify a standardized set of Android gaming controls (similar to what you see on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play - http://cdn1.dottech.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Root-Xperia-Play-ICS.jpg ), so that all different phone manufacturers would include the same ones, and then developers would be more likely to take advantage of them - and then manufacturers would be more likely to include them on their phones, and so on...
Originally Posted by Muz I've been doing mobile for almost 2 years now. It's not as easy as it first sounds. Most of the games here wouldn't succeed on touchphones. There were plenty of good games on smartphones, but a touchscreen changes the controls completely.
I don't know if that was a sort of response to what I said but I'd like to clarify my point.
The overall quality of the vast majority of games on mobile platforms and not just the controls are worse than what we were making back in 2001. Although given the price of these games (because some are free too) I can understand they need to be cheap and cheerful.
Maybe I should just release some stuff for mobiles devices lol.
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Edited by Sketchy
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