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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 ...

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SMS Game Development

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  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)

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