SDK's for Wireless Games - Will They Succeed?

Memetic asks: "There is a software development kit for wireless games, downloadable from TTPCom, a wireless devices IP vendor. It's described as: 'an open API delivering access to all the mobile phone's features in order to develop a new generation of on-line and multi-user games...it is possible to take advantage of the GSM, GPRS or 3GPP networks by downloading these games over the air, sending SMS messages between players, and creating multi-user content and games. Technologies such as Bluetooth or GPS are also made available' My question, does anyone see independent developers emerging for donloadable gaming or will this market be driven by the network operators / handset manufacturers?" While using this technology to build games on cell phones doesn't intrigue me, adapting this for our current and future crop of handheld computing devices does. What kind of future do you think there is for games development on such platforms like the Visor, the PalmPilot, and the next-generation-Gameboy that may come down the pipe in the next couple of years?

Comments

Who needs them...

[svara]

Who needs wireless games, when the actual wireless technologies, like cellulars stil suffer from extreemly limited bandwith, bad and small displays etc.
Unless the breakthrough on the hardware part comes (theres some pretty cool stuff in japan already), games on such devices make only limited sense...

Gaming on Palm, Handspring, etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think those OSes will need to undergo a large leap in evolution to allow for a truly interesting gaming experience. Currently, they are underpowered in both hardware and OS.

Also, a color screen would be helpful, but not necessary.

The main problem, Cliff, is that people who want to do this kind of thing with their handheld devices typically buy the PocketPC. Palm-freaks (a term of endearment, not a slight) are usually more interested in the smooth operation of their device and the ease of use stemming from its minimalist design.

Re:Gaming on Palm, Handspring, etc.

[2Bits]

Well, not necessary.

Imagine a game like this:

A strategy war simulation game, that can be played among a group of people. Each player starts with a set of territories, which form a country or a kingdom, or an empire, depending on what you want to call it. And the player is the leader of that country. The rest of the planet is occupied by a other countries (which may or may not have a player). The goal is to capture territories (for the aggressive), or protect yourself from being eaten up. Obviously, you want to make the game as realistic as possible, by taking into consideration your resources, your population, your military, etc. You are the chief, so you can issue orders to move your army/navy/air force, to attack, to defend, to do research on specific topics, etc. Your subordinates will send you reports, memos, etc.

The interface you need for this game is very minimal, just text. But the game must be hosted on a server somewhere. You send orders and receive reports thru wireless messages on your handheld.

This kind of game can be played on for months, even years.

Actually, in the early 90's, we used to play it thru email. You signed up thru email, you send command thru email, you receive report thru email. The game was hosted on a .mil server (forgot the server name).

It was very addicting. Now make the game go beyond planet Earth....

Just what we need

[Reckless Visionary]

Great, I can't wait the video game-like atmosphere our highways are going to have when people are no longer just talking on their cell phones, but playing GTA 3 on them also.

I don't think any propriety "Open" standard wins

[the_quark]

I think what we've seen again and again is that, unless you're a huge juggernaut (like Microsoft), your proprietary "open" standards never win. Even Microsoft can only pull it off, sometimes.

What gets independent game developers going is truly open standards, like TCP/IP. When is my handspring going to be able to play a game with your Gameboy, wirelessly? When both of them have wireless IP adresses. Until then, these things will remain insular, only allowing my brand to play with my brand.

Games?

[sulli]

Wireless spam, that's the wave of the future.

No... Community

[Ieshan]

You know, I hate to give him credit for anything, but Xenos over at Dreammachineonline.com made a rather interesting point about Anarchy Online. The graphics were amazing, but he said "Because you couldn't see player names or know who was standing around you, there was no community."

Even if you COULD see little pixel figures of people, the games would ultimately fail because the community would be nil - and this is what matters in the online gaming world. As people what they play MMORPGs for, most people say Friends or Other Players.

It's harsh to admit, but really, there isn't much chance in anyone playing a game where a) the graphics are terrible, b) the connection is slow, and c) the community doesn't exist, simply because you can't talk/type fast enough on those things, and you can't see the words/phrases/playernames anyway.

Re:bare bones != gaming

[talonyx]

I'm fairly sure one of those 200MHZ+ Pocket PC machines is able to do some pretty amazing graphics work. Keep in mind, DOOM ran on a 486 at 33Mhz with a smooth framerate. You underestimate the power in these units.

Plus, with such small, low-res screens, there's more than enough power for anything you could want on those babies.

game developer magazine

[simpl3x]

the november issue had several articles on just these issues (http://www.gdmag.com/backissue2001.htm#nov01). a very good resource, btw.

Wireless multiplay to open new doors

[MaverickUW]

Okay, here's one way to look at things. Multiplay has become what gaming is about noew days. Most computer games can't get away anymore without having some form of multiplay as part of it.

Now imagine a world where we have these handhelds that could allow us to play mutliplayer games. And I don't mean games like Quake, I mean games more along the line of Majestic. But think of a great spy game that you could be playing with millions around the world, over a Palm Pilot or something. The person standing next to you on the bus could be playing too, and even could be the one working against you. If nothing else, it'd create an excuse of all the paranoid people out there to really be paranoid. Now if you could get games like that over wireless PDA's, you'd see them take off quickly.

Okay, so who's gonna build that awesome wireless PDA and Phone spygame for me?

Not right now

[nzhavok]

Personally I'd be pretty worried about running software on my phone unless it came from someone who I trust. I wonder how long it'll be before we see the first wireless worms with systems like this, I notice on their game engine page they mention WGE System allowing access to system resources. I wanted to find out exactly what this was but I couldn't find a link to their "open API" docs (mabye I'm blind) and I'm not really prepared to download their SDK for the priviledge.

I don't see much of a market for these kind of applications right now and I'm pretty content only playing games on my PC, but I suppose once the technology gets better I might give it a try. Having said that I had a flatmate who would spend hours sitting in a corner playing "snake" with his phone (yes haha very original, now get your mind out of the gutter) so perhaps theres more of a market than I think. The closest I came to playing wireless games would have to be wap elite which is a wap version of the classic game Elite. Oh and if you don't know Elite you are not a true nerd ;-)

SMS Sdk & Linux

[metlin]

For those of you interested in messing around with SMS from Linux (and Windows), check out this project.
Damn cool, but generally getting it running is a pain (although the site does not state any dependencies, there are a few).

In fact, me and my friends were trying to get SMS working so that a centralised Linux box could be used to play simple games. This way, we got about 5 people on SMS at the same time :-) playing simple word games. But again, for all these thingys to be working, your provider must support messaging from the net (which most do).

Although we did not go any further, it was fun doing it. If someone is interested, I'd be happy to help them start some SMS based centralised gaming (yes, OSS). Nothing great, but even simple ones could be great fun!

One Word

[The Cat]

HUGE.

There are (reportedly) over 20 million of these devices in Japan alone. The handheld/cellphone/PDA game market will be great for small and independent developers, and the economics are favorable as well (market size vs. cost of entry).

Now, what kinds of games to play on small devices is the next question...

I'd rather it be not only games

[Xerithane]

I would rather see a suite of applications that tie in not only to other cell phones but central computers so you can have an Exchange-style system setup delivering that information. I think that for a lot of people who are out of the office a lot and on the go this would really come in handy.

Instead of logging into a terminal somewhere, you can just update your status via cell phones through the system.. I ended up writing something similar that operated via email, but you basically were stuck with whatever email client the phone had and had to deal with that.

Ahead of their time

[Zarathustra.fi]

Let's face it. A cell phone is not a gaming console. At the moment most cell phones have a very limited screen - low resolution, small size, limited amount of colors (usually monochromatic). And no sounds, or very primitive ones *bleep*. And the controls suck. Why? Because it's a phone device, not a gaming device.

Entertainment techies should reconsider their model of wireless gaming. Perhaps a cell phone should be a phone, not a Nintendo Gameboy. Make games that use the phone just as it is, a phone. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

I know a Finnish company that develops a geographical GSM phone location service by triangulating the phones in networks. Using this kind of technology it could be possible to switch the game from the phone's screen into a real life experience, placing the player physically in the game, where his movements could be tracked on a predefined "game area". I'm sure countless of gaming applications are inbound after this technology spreads around..

Think Different

[peterdaly]

When most slashdotter's think of games, they think first person shoot'em up, etc. Those will be a huge utter failure on handheld devices, like cellphones. Remember back when online multi-player games had A) limited bandwidth, and B) limited display (text based)? This is what we have to back to.

Remember the old BBS games? I am sure many people here were addicted to games like L.O.R.D. in the old BBS days. Remember MUDS? That is the niche I see these games flurishing in. People have said there is no community. No community? You just have to think differently about what a community is.

Remember the old card board and plastic pieces type games? Chess, Risk, etc. Someone could play 5 chess games on an ongoing bases with people they know in REAL LIFE! Now that's community! Make your moves back and forth every now and then during the day. People probably won't be playing non-stop for 3 hours, but 5 minutes here, two minutes there. Just have to consider games which work in such a time schedule.

Multi-player games worked well in the BBS days, and in many ways, today's cellphones has better display ability than 80x24 ANSI.

-Pete