1 / 26

SMS Game Development

SMS Game Development. Making the Most of a Sucky Technology. Greg Costikyan. www.ungames.com ... In most games, the result of interaction can be minor (turn left 30 ...

Kelvin_Ajay
Télécharger la présentation

SMS Game Development

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SMS Game Development Making the Most of a Sucky Technology Greg Costikyan www.ungames.comwww.costik.comcostik@costik.com

  2. What Is SMS? • Short Text Message Service Built into GSM from the startso everyone in Europe can “text” everyone else 20 b + messages exchanged every month Not yet successful in North Americacarrier walled gardens breaking down but lower prices for voice & pager/IM availability may continue to keep this smaller here

  3. Why Develop SMS Games? • Everyone in Europe texts • Comfortable with technology • Perceived as cool (while “WAP sucks”) • Potential large audience (and market) • Carriers & Aggregators eager for SMS titles • In North America, too, where they’re waking up to the missed opportunity

  4. How Does it Work? • Originator inputs phone number & message. • Sends message over air to SMSC. • SMSC forwards message over Internet to recipient’s SMSC. • SMSC sends message over air to recipient.

  5. SMSC Can Send & Receive with Game Server Server is assigned a “Phone Number” • User requests game by sending SMS to that number Header info identifies user’s phone number; server parses, processes, responds to user. SMSC must know that phone number = server’s IP address—game service must have a deal with the carrier!

  6. SMS Costs Money • Typically 10¢/message (7p in UK) Carrier can choose to charge more or less for a game’s messages, or to charge a flat fee for a game. Revenues shared with game service Marketing cost in making users aware of phone number to message

  7. Game Should be Playable in Just a Few Message Exchanges • Otherwise will be too costly for many players Try to keep it to <10 messages per game (or 1-3 per day for games played over a period of time)

  8. Each Message Must Advance the Game • In most games, the result of interaction can be minor (turn left 30 degrees; a card is played). With SMS, a handful of interactions must combine to a satisfying game. A non-trivial design challenge.

  9. Each Message <=160 Characters • That’s a =hard= limit. Can break into multiple messages, but each costs money… That’s basically 25 words or less. Localizing generally increases the number of characters in text.

  10. Tricks to Help • 2, not two. Abbrev. if can keep clear. Cn u use txting abbrevs? Edit ruthlessly. Put rules in separate “Help” message. Test all boundary conditions.

  11. No Graphics Means... • Hard to show physical layout with pure text. • Text adventures (N thru Door)—but a lot of text used for navigation. • Text representations (Ship 2 > 3,7)—but hard to visualize.

  12. Can’t Rely on a Monospace Font This: looks like this: CNRQKRNCPPPPPPPP........................PPPPPPPPCNRKQRNC CNRQKRNCPPPPPPPP........................PPPPPPPPCNRKQRNC

  13. Avoid Games that Depend on Locations • Most electronic games are an exploration of space But it’s not true of all game styles: • Word Games • “Choose a Maneuver” Fighting games • Tamagotchi • Hammurabi • #conquest

  14. A Player’s Orders Are Text • A command-line environment. • Syntax Must be Transparent • Syntax Must be Forgiving Demand the least text entry possible. Allow “stackable”orders.

  15. Latency is Off the Scale • Typically, a minute or more. Interaction at discrete, separated moments. Each message really must count

  16. Dealing with Latency • Turn-based games. • Round-robin • Simultaneous movement • “Act whenever” games. • Limited by real time “Slow update” games.

  17. Multiplayer or Die • Head-to-Head games Limited-interaction large-scale multiplayer games Handful of players In-game messaging

  18. “Smart Messaging” • Message concatenation (459 characters) B&W bitmapped images (72x28) Ring tones (single voice)

  19. EMS: Enhanced Message Service • Message concatenation (3-6 messages) B&W images, max 1k (32x32) Flip animations (32x32, 4-frame) Ringtones & sounds 10 pre-installed sounds

  20. MMS: Multimedia Message Service • GIF89a animations, PNGs, JPEGs • 640x480 in theory, in practice 174x133 Sound: AMR, WAV No limit to message length

  21. Punisher: The Mobile Game www.punisherthemobilegame.com www.riot-e.com

  22. Botfighters www.botfighters.com www.itsalive.com

  23. Fisu www.fisupeli.com www.smallplanet.fi

  24. Mobile Rome www.gripstudios.com

  25. Doing Better • Messaging & Challenges Persistence Algorithmic, not Instantial

  26. URLs • Nokia information & emulator for MMS: http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/1,35452,1_2_7,00.html(requires free registration) Ericsson info & emulator for MMS:http://www.ericsson.com/mobilityworld/sub/open/technologies/messaging/index.html?PU=messaging(requires free registration)

More Related