Great Article: Why Mobile Games Still Suck at Most Genres

BigDave

Let’s shine a light on the fact that almost every title in the top 50 Grossing Apps (gaming) on both Android and iOS in the United States fit under one of three umbrellas: strategy, puzzle or casino..

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-mobile-games-still-suck-most-genres-nick-huggett

• Found it today, liked it, thought some of you also would like -shared it

DigiChain

Interesting stuff. Thanks Dave.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

It's appealing to addictive behavior. These developers seek out what is called white whales. Most of their revenue come from a small number who become addicted and spend large sums. To me this is immoral and wrong on so many levels. Candy crush is one of the worst. I will never go down the road of making games like that. I see making games as art and an expression of my creative influences. @RP and I share these same values, which is why we are a great team.

imjustmike

It's certainly a good read and I agree with most of it, but I'm not sure it's as black and white.

I don't think it's fair to say that mobile stuck at most genres, it's that the genres are differently suited. I wouldn't play a strategy game like age of empires on a console, I'd play on a pc. I wouldn't play an adventure rpg like fallout on a pc, I'd play on a console. And I wouldn't play a tabletop board game like dead of winter on anything other than a table.

Also, it's unfair to lay the criticism that only a few genres make huge amounts on mobile. If you look at the top selling xbox games there is so little variation it's unbelievable. There is a reason these is a new Call of Duty game every single year...

Moik

Controls are definitely one of the most important things to get right in order to have a successful game, and that's true of any platform. CSR Racing a good example of an exception to the controls rule the blog presents. It's highly grossing and highly rated, and approaches being a twitch game since its controls are timing based. I've played mobile games with super tight Megaman-tier controls before (Mikey Shorts is the only name I can remember, but it was the best example), so I feel it can happen.

To me, the bigger influence causing this genre cull, is that mobile platforms have far shorter play sessions influencing player choice. Even if League of Legends were to figure out perfect iOS controls, the gameplay loop of from queue to complete is generally about 30-60 minutes. I don't know how long the typical mobile play session is, but I don't think it's that long. People would be halting their session mid-way and leave unsatisfied.

Casino and Puzzle are very easy to adapt to super small loops or states you can save for later. I feel like that should be as much of a goal in projects targeting mobile as control quality.

BigDave

Good insights guys. Thanks!

Approw

@BigDave thanks for sharing, quite interesting subject.

@Lost_Oasis_Games I totally agree with your statement. Games are a form of expression and should be great to play on its own without buying gems or whatever you want to call it. But I understand that it is very tempting for developers to make games like these. however they are usually no indies, but large companies who push out these games. If a game is great on its own, but just needs an in app purchase system to get some revenue I understand that. Personally I prefer paying once for a great game rather than keep buying stuff through in app purchase.

This movie is a great example of what I believe the mindset of an indie developer should be. Explore new game mechanics and art styles. Some of the games shown in this movie are a bit too arty for me though, but its fun to watch anyway.