Mobile Game development principles (pART 1)

In this part, we will first compare mobile games with some games of other platforms, e.g. desktop and we and list out some key features in game development.

You can kick start with the slides or read more details afterwards.

The powerpoint slides

Mobile Games VS. Mobile Apps

It is so obvious to some people to point out the differences between games and apps, but it is not always the case if you try to ask someone to compare games and apps. One of the answers can be “games looks more interesting than apps” or ” games are also apps”…

Of course, they are both correct but they don’t highlight the key differences between the two terms. To answer this, you should think about the difference in terms of UX:

• Games are more about entertainment
• Apps are more about task solving or productivity

The different objectives of the two terms influence how they are designed. Nevertheless, the design principles of games and apps share some common properties.

General Game Design Principles

There are several game genres, e.g. casual, action, arcade, video game, board game, and etc. Nevertheless, they may share some common principles while developing the game.

Three main aspects to consider, i.e., UI, Interactions, Mechanics. All of them contributes to game UX as shown in the following figure.

UI design principles

UI design should fit the theme of the game. Make sure that the following points are checked.

• Sensibility: icons, images, and animations, etc., should be understandable by players
• Simplicity: it should be easy for players to use. Overly complicated the design, e.g. menu or navigation can lead to bad UX. In a mobile game, this should be considered seriously for the smaller screen sizes compared to the desktop version.
• Ambience

To be continued…

In the future post, we will cover the following content

• Interaction design principles
• mechanics design principles from Game Lens