Like all emerging technologies, the mobile gaming industry faces
some obstacles. Unlike the PC and console markets where there are a
few key platforms for developers to target, the mobile world has
massive fragmentation and a lack of homogeneous targets for game
developers, negatively impacting the market.
Fragmentation raises game development costs. To make a game
successful, upwards of 600 handsets must be targeted to deliver a
game on a global scale to major operators. Additionally, the return
on investment is potentially poor because of the lack of footprint
available.
There is also an issue with the actual capabilities of each
individual platform. While seemingly similar, each handset platform
has subtle and often major differences in screen size, heap memory,
IO, keypad layout and connectivity.
Additionally, implementation of some of the underlying software,
such as particular Java Specification Request (JSRs) or the
performance of Java Virtual Machines (JVMs), can lead to the same
game on “similar” platforms performing radically differently. This
can lead to user dissatisfaction and disappointment with the
genre.
Another challenge is the limitations of Java-based platforms.
Though Java is perfectly capable of delivering an excellent, casual
mobile gaming experience, it is not ideal for high-performance
mobile gaming. Additionally, price points for Java-type games are
“fixed” at $3 to 5 max, varying somewhat between various regions.
To make mobile game investments more enticing, publishers must
achieve a $10 to 15 price point.
There is an expanding group of gamers who want to see console-like
quality experiences on handsets and are willing to pay a
significant premium for it. The industry must make advancements to
capitalise on the market potential. An increase in 3D acceleration
on phones and the experience quality will advance these
offerings.
Putting the “mobile” in gaming
In order to make mobile gaming a more viable proposition for the
industry are a range of standards which seek to address some of the
issues facing the industry.
Khronos Group
The Khronos Group has long been
the standards body of choice when dealing with graphics-associated
issues. It has a range of working groups that have or are
developing specifications to address all areas of game
development. To give you a flavor of the activities here is a
short overview of what is available today:
OpenGL ES1.x – A royalty-free, cross-platform
API for full-function 2D and 3D graphics on embedded systems, which
is a subset of OpenGL 1.3 graphics library for mobile
applications. The latest revision of the specification is
1.1.
Open GL ES2.0 – This ushers in the era of
shaders and pixel programmability. Developer tools at this
juncture will be more akin to those they use on traditional gaming
consoles. This takes gaming into the realms of photo realism.
OpenVG – A standardisation of 2D graphics
efforts, such as scalable vector graphics, which are targeted at 2D
gaming and user interfaces. This enables more complex UIs with
overlay and transitional effects.
OpenKODE - This will bring an equivalent of
DirectX to the mobile phone and will kick start higher end gaming
much like happened on PC.
The Mobile Gaming Architecture Initiative program involves 14
leading companies spanning the mobile gaming ecosystem – from
silicon providers, to operating system and middleware providers, to
game developers, publishers and operators. Since its launch, this
initiative has since moved into the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) to
expand the involvement of the entire industry.
The OMA Gaming Services Working Group’s charter is to help
reduce fragmentation and to increase the stability of underlying
games platforms for developers. The group is outlining device
categories, indicating to developers a base-level set of
capabilities that devices in that category are guaranteed to
support. The idea is to support three to four device categories,
each giving a defined minimum level of capabilities that is
expressed in terms of a definable difference in user experience.
For instance, they could choose to target a “Cat 2” device that
incorporates certain memory, screen and other features, driving
more confident investments in that platform knowing porting costs
will be dramatically reduced.
There are also extensions to Java that enable it to more easily
hooking into OpenGL ES to enable Java games to leverage underlying
3D graphics acceleration making for better, faster and superior
looking mobile games.
Mobile gaming mainstream
Industry efforts like those mentioned above will yield better
games, shorter development times, more homogeneous platforms, less
porting overhead and a superior user experience, which will drive
an expanded market for mobile gaming. Money freed up by reducing
porting and other development costs can be reallocated into
marketing and gameplay investments, making it easier for games to
be discovered, reviewed, traded and recommended. Ultimately, it is
this effort that will drive mobile gaming to its fullest potential
in the mainstream market.
Bryce Johnstone, manager of the OMAP developer network at
Texas Instruments