1. Ge#ng
Started
In
Mobile
Games
Ali
Hamidi
(Co-­‐founder)

2. 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

3. 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

4. Who
Am
I?
• Ali
Hamidi
• Co-­‐founder
• CTO
• Game
Designer
• Gamer

5. Two
Audiences
New
to
games
development
Already
developing
games
• No
games…yet!
• Developing
games
on
a
different
plaWorm:
– Flash
– PC
(Mac???)
– Console

6. New
To
Games
Development
• The
Idea
• Type
(Archetypes)
• Mechanics
• Control
Schemes
• Style
• PlaWorm

7. The
Idea
Come
up
with
it…
Then
refine
it…
• The
inspiraTon
• Talk
to
people
• Something
you
would
play?
• Try
to
find
similar
examples
• Something
you
know/think
– What
did
they
do
well?
there
is
demand
for?
– What
did
they
do
badly?
– Did
they
sell
well?
• I
could
do
it
be[er…
– Did
they
get
good
reviews?
– What
feedback
did
they
get?
• Research
is
good
• Copying
is
bad!

8. Archetypes

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

10. 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)

11. 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!

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

13. 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

14. Flexibility
Tool
Comparison
Complexity

15. Some
Advice
Do…
Don’t…
• Start
with
a
simple
idea
• Obsess
over
innovaTon
– You’re
much
more
likely
to
be
• Obsess
over
“cool”
able
to
do
it
• Reinvent
the
wheel
• “Borrow”
ideas
when
– If
there
is
a
good
way
of
doing
learning
something,
use
it
– Working
with
some
kind
of
• Make
excuses
reference
helps
• Copy/Clone/Duplicate
• Something…Anything!
• Learn
from
the
process

16. Already
Making
Games
• PorTng
• Constraints
• MulT-­‐plaWorm
ConsideraTons

17. PorTng
From
Flash
RIP
Flash
(on
Mobile)
…but
you
have
some
opTons
Social
Game
Casual/Arcade
Game
• Spaceport
• Corona
+
Spriteloq
– Convert
SWF
assets
straight
– Lua
based
into
SVG
– MulT-­‐plaWorm
– Rich
API
– Convert
AS3
into
JavaScript
– Spriteloq
converts
SWFs
into
– Not
automagical,
sTll
need
to
Corona
friendly
spritesheets
do
some
work
– Spriteloq
converts
layouts
and
• www.spaceport.io
generates
Lua
for
you
• www.anscamobile.com

18. 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…

19. 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

20. 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

21. MulTplaWorm
ConsideraTons
• Performance
• Screens
– Pixel
DensiTes?
Aspect
RaTos?
• Billing
– IAP?
In-­‐App
Billing?
• Services
– Game
Center?
Xbox
Live?
– Push
NoTficaTon
• Hardware
Features

22. 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!

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