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By Chris De Herrera 
Copyright 1998-2007
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Wish List for Pocket PC Games Development
By Allen Gall, Copyright 2002
Revised 12/3/2002

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Gaming is here to stay on handhelds and has become a respected niche in the software market.  There was a time when early adopters (and somewhat later adopters such as myself) had little but Tetris and second-rate Solitaire clones to choose from when hunting for games.  Such was the case when I bought a Casio E-125, my first Pocket PC, in fall of 2000. 

Times have changed, though.  Now we have developers coming out left and right, from college students to cottage industry software houses to high profile companies such as Hexacto and Monkeystone Handango�s sales statistics for Q3 of 2002 indicate that games are tied with personal productivity for the top spot, with each earning 22%. (This is up from Q2, which showed the latter beating the former by a small margin.  Don�t let anyone laugh at you for buying a PDA just to play games.)  

Of course, those of us who play games on our handhelds all have things we'd like to change about the games we play and the devices we play them on.  As you night imagine, I download and test quite a few games in my role as games editor for this site and Pocket PC magazine.  Over the past two years or so, I�ve come up with some things I�d like to see changed about the handheld gaming scene.  So, without further ado, here is my wish list for Pocket PC gaming development:

1.  It�s OK to rely on old formulas (Tetris/Bejeweled/Arkanoid, etc.), but only if you�re able to make them new.  Some people love these games and other people hate them, but I have a feeling they�re not going to go away anytime soon.  Personally, I don�t mind when people release them (I still include them in my roundup for Pocket PC magazine), but in order for games of this type to be successful, they have to either be innovative or of superior quality to what�s already available.  Or they have to be free or very close to free.  To be innovative, some unexpected element needs to be added to game play.  For example, Rocket Elite was innovative because it combined two different games, Lunar Lander and Choplifter.  Although both these games are dated and extremely simple, Rocket Elite worked because it successfully combined the two in an innovative way and had superior graphics and game play to boot.  Hexacto�s Emperor Mahjong  had the latter two qualities, including a fairly unusual game play mode where you completed a series of levels on a quest to obtain the favor of the emperor.  You were given goodies and little quatrains of wisdom along the way, which added to the experience of playing the game.  That it also looked and sounded better than most other Mahjong games also helped it out.  If you were to make a Tetris clone today, a game that has seen hundreds of clones, it would need to have superior graphics, superior sound effects, excellent game play, and several other features (say, Internet-based scoreboard, console-quality presentation, wireless support, XScale optimization, and so forth).  Also be sensitive to pricing issues�although many games are now successfully launch for upwards of $30, most people won�t be willing to spend that much on an old idea.

2.  Stop rehashing old games from other platforms.  I�m as sentimental as the next guy, but all these re-releases of older titles are getting a little out of hand.  Although porting a game is easier than making an original version, it often introduces technical and game play issues.  I see two reasons for porting older titles to current platforms: to capitalize on the nostalgia of a specific title or platform that has long since left the mainstream; and to re-introduce a winning idea that can�t be improved by rebuilding it from the ground up.  ZioSoft�s SimCity 2000 fell in the latter category; I really don�t think they could�ve made it any better if they�d chosen to make their own version of the game (heck, you could even import saved games from the original in their version).  Their port of Ultima Underworld, however, didn�t do much but demonstrate just how dated the original was.  Underworld was a highly innovative title in its day, but in 2002 it�s a slow, sprite-filled romp through a dungeon filled with monsters about as frighteningly impressive as a smurf.  I�m sure their upcoming port of Need for Speed will be plenty of fun, but I�m concerned about how the 1995-era graphics are going to hold up today�s Pocket PC devices, not to mention the performance.  I�m more looking forward to Speedway Jam!

 

 

 

The Need for Speed franchise worked wonders for the racing game genre on the PC, but in 2002 the graphics just don�t hold up very well.  Check out the blocky textures on the side of the mountain.

 

Now here are some graphics.  This is probably as good as we�re going to get without 3D acceleration.  Nice textures, great use of color and shading.  Other screenshots even show reflections.  (Now let�s just hope it plays as well as it looks.  We�ll talk about that in minute.)

When you want to revive an older game, remember that sometimes the simplest ideas work best; people may be more willing to overlook lesser graphics if the game plays well.  You also won�t have as many technical issues to contend with, and you won�t have to compete with higher-end titles that are built from the ground up.  And that brings me to point #3.

3.  Emulators are good, but only if they're practical.  Lots of emulators have been released for the Pocket PC, emulating everything from the Atari 2600 to newer console machines.  Emulators are good because they give the gamer access to a wide variety of titles, all providing an experience similar to the original since they run on original ROM code.  The ones that work well (PocketNES, PocketVCS, etc.) have succeeded for four reasons: they run simple games that typically don�t introduce a lot of game play and/or technical issues, they're free, they run most games at or near full speed with good emulation, and ROM images are free and easily accessible.  It's nice to have emulators like MAME on the Pocket PC, but only the hardcore will put up with the quirks (shaky performance, weak sound implementation, etc.) until they become more robust and easy to use (I�m told it�s not even playable on my LOOX.  Sigh.)  If the games run at 5fps, most people won't want to bother, and don't even get me started on what�s wrong with the PlayStation emulators.

4.  Demos are good.  These days, gamers do have several ways to find out about games: sites like PocketGamer (the site even has a searchable database of online game reviews), PDAarcade, and others provide reviews and discussions; distributors like Handango allow users to comment on specific titles; and even mainstream gaming sites like Game-Over.net are starting to include reviews of handheld games.  But the market is still a niche, and buyers have a mere fraction of the resources that fans of more mainstream platforms do when doing research, and plenty of good titles slip under the radar of reviewers (That includes me.  Space is limited in a print publications, and there are plenty of good titles I�m not able to include.)  When you ask someone to buy a game based solely on a product description and a few screenshots, you're asking them to take a huge leap of faith.  Potential buyers will bitch if they aren�t given a demo.  After all, we�ve all tried games thinking they�d be one thing, only to find they�re something else after playing them.  Screenshots and press releases are nice, but they just don�t show you the experience of playing a game.  Include a demo, but make sure it's a playable demo.  After playing a demo, the user should know the following: the game's premise and/or genre; the game's features; how the controls/interface work; the basic game play elements; and finally, how well the game performs on his/her device.  You won't get this kind of information from a non-interactive movie, and you definitely won't get it from a slide show Web-based demos are a nifty marketing tool, but they don't let gamers see how a particular title runs on their machine.  Playable demos are good for everyone: they help promote games, and they help buyers make more informed decisions.

5.  Test your games before you release them.  In the desktop PC gaming world, a trend developed in the early 90s where developers were apparently releasing games without adequate testing, and it appeared that the buying public was paying for the privilege of testing software.  It�s no fun to pay for a product, discover numerous problems, and then have to wait around for an update patch.  (Some you old schoolers will remember MicroProse and their infamous Darklands game, which had many nasty bugs and couldn�t be completed successfully until an update patch was issued.)  I�m hoping this trend doesn�t come to the Pocket PC.  Testing seems obvious (at least to me it does), but a lot of developers don't seem to be doing it.  I know that many smaller developers have only one device and that the existing devices have subtle differences that can't always be anticipated.  Fair enough, but at the very least, your game should run well on the devices it's advertised to support.  If it doesn't, you shouldn't be charging for it.  For example, last week I downloaded a demo of a new car racing game.  Performance was so poor in the demo that I imagine the full version to be like driving an animated slideshow.  If you need help testing your game, try holding a beta test--the gaming community is full of people willing to try new games and provide feedback.  Often the promise of a free copy of the finished product is enough incentive to lure potential testers. J

6.  Support storage expansion cards.  Storage space is still fairly limited, but the games keep getting bigger and bigger.  I'm seeing more and more of the sophisticated titles approaching the 10meg mark.  On a 64meg machine, one such game takes up about a third of available storage memory, memory that's also used for other applications.  Since most gamers use some sort of storage card, make sure that your game can be installed on one.  And if possible, optimize your game to run optimally on external storage, especially for those of us using slower Microdrives and SD cards.

Allen Gall is a freelance game reviewer and the games editor for Pocket PC FAQ. If you have a game you'd like Allen to review, you can e-mail him at allen@Pocket PC FAQ

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