Ge#ng  Started  In  Mobile  Games  

Ali  Hamidi  (Co-­‐founder)  

Piranha  Byte  

•  Young  new  mobile  games  developer  •  Focus  on  iOS  (At  the  moment)  •  Plan  to  support  Android,  WP7,  Web  (FB,  Google+  etc…)  

•  Gamers  •  Diverse  team  •  Lots  of  different  games  in  the  pipeline  

Big  News!  

•  Publishing  contract  signed  for  our  first  game  

•  Chillingo  is  the  leading  independent  games  publisher  and  a  division  of  Electronic  Arts  

•  Sorry,  can’t  give  you  anymore  informaTon  

Who  Am  I?  

•  Ali  Hamidi  •  Co-­‐founder  •  CTO  •  Game  Designer  •  Gamer  

Two  Audiences  

New  to  games  development  •  No  games…yet!  

Already  developing  games  •  Developing  games  on  a  

different  plaWorm:  –  Flash  –  PC  (Mac???)  –  Console  

New  To  Games  Development  

•  The  Idea  •  Type  (Archetypes)  •  Mechanics  •  Control  Schemes  •  Style  •  PlaWorm  

The  Idea  

Come  up  with  it…  •  The  inspiraTon  •  Something  you  would  play?  •  Something  you  know/think  

there  is  demand  for?  •  I  could  do  it  be[er…  

Then  refine  it…  •  Talk  to  people  •  Try  to  find  similar  examples  

–  What  did  they  do  well?  –  What  did  they  do  badly?  –  Did  they  sell  well?  –  Did  they  get  good  reviews?  –  What  feedback  did  they  get?  

•  Research  is  good  •  Copying  is  bad!  

Archetypes  

Mechanics  

•  Game  Logic  •  The  rules  of  the  system  •  How  will  it  work  •  What  will  it  actually  do  

Control  Scheme  

•  How  will  players  interact  with  your  game?  •  Mobile  =  Touch  Screen  •  Don’t  map  PC  or  Console  controls!  •  Absolutely  criTcal!!!  •  On  screen  virtual  joypad  =  Fail!  (IMHO)  

Style  

•  Find  someone  good  and  then  hold  on  to  them  •  AestheTcs  are  crucial  •  Good  games  – Play  well  – Look  OK  

•  Great  games  – Play  well  – Look  amazing!  

PlaWorm  

•  Build  for  whatever  plaWorm  you  have?  •  Target  the  biggest  market?  •  Target  whatever  your  favorite  tool  supports?  

Some  Tools  

•  Game  Salad  –  www.gamesalad.com  •  Corona  –  www.anscamobile.com  •  Spaceport  –  www.spaceport.io  •  Unity  3D  –  www.unity3d.com  •  UDK  –  www.udk.com  •  NaTve  – Cocos2d  –  Available  on  many  plaWorms  

Tool  Comparison  Flexibility  

Complexity  

Some  Advice  

Do…  •  Start  with  a  simple  idea  

–  You’re  much  more  likely  to  be  able  to  do  it  

•  “Borrow”  ideas  when  learning  –  Working  with  some  kind  of  

reference  helps  

•  Something…Anything!  •  Learn  from  the  process  

Don’t…  •  Obsess  over  innovaTon  •  Obsess  over  “cool”  •  Reinvent  the  wheel  

–  If  there  is  a  good  way  of  doing  something,  use  it  

•  Make  excuses  •  Copy/Clone/Duplicate  

Already  Making  Games  

•  PorTng  •  Constraints  •  MulT-­‐plaWorm  ConsideraTons  

PorTng  From  Flash  

Social  Game  

•  Spaceport  –  Convert  SWF  assets  straight  

into  SVG  –  Convert  AS3  into  JavaScript  –  Not  automagical,  sTll  need  to  

do  some  work  

•  www.spaceport.io  

Casual/Arcade  Game  

•  Corona  +  Spriteloq  –  Lua  based  –  MulT-­‐plaWorm  –  Rich  API  –  Spriteloq  converts  SWFs  into  

Corona  friendly  spritesheets  –  Spriteloq  converts  layouts  and  

generates  Lua  for  you  •  www.anscamobile.com  

RIP  Flash  (on  Mobile)  …but  you  have  some  opTons  

PorTng  from  PC  

•  Much  harder  •  Lots  of  different  engines  •  Less  powerful,  less  RAM,  less  storage…less  everything  

•  Smaller  screen  •  Higher  pixel  density  •  …probably  lots  of  effort…unless…  

PorTng  from  PC  (cont.)  

•  Already  using  a  mobile  friendly  engine  – Unity  3D  

•  Supports  PC/Mac,  iOS,  Android…  •  Visual  IDE  •  Code  in  C#  or  JavaScript  •  Integrated  Asset  Store  •  Unity3d.com  

– UDK  (Unreal  Development  Kit)  •  Epic  is  here  •  Talk  to  them  J  •  Udk.com  

Constraints  and  ConsideraTons  •  Small  screen  – Not  necessarily  low  resoluTon…  

•  Much  less  memory  available  to  you  –  ~100Mb  not  Gbs  

•  Total  storage  –  <20Mb  to  be  delivered  over  3G  

•  Business  Model  –  Paid  download  –  Freemium  –  IAP  

MulTplaWorm  ConsideraTons  

•  Performance  •  Screens  –  Pixel  DensiTes?  Aspect  RaTos?  

•  Billing  –  IAP?  In-­‐App  Billing?  

•  Services  – Game  Center?  Xbox  Live?  –  Push  NoTficaTon  

•  Hardware  Features  

Do  Something!  

•  Make  something/anything!  – Doesn’t  ma[er  if  it’s  rubbish.  You’ll  learn  lots.  

•  Loads  of  people  willing  to  help  •  Insane  amount  of  resources  online  •  Lots  of  tools  •  No  excuses!  

Thank  You  

•  Website:  www.piranhabyte.com  •  Email:  ali@piranhabyte.com  •  Twi[er:  @ahamidi  •  Xbox  Live:  LiserAH  •  PlayStaTon  Network:  alihamidi  •  Game  Center:  ahamidi