Nicholas Nova has collected some references about the history and genesis of game controllers.
Link: Evolution of Game Controllers” (liftlab.com)
Posts Tagged: game
10
Jan 08
Unusual game control schemes
“Some present their own standards in its place, due to their being well-suited to their style of game; the dual joystick (shooting) style has been used in a few games itself, from the old classic Robotron: 2084 to Geometry Wars. Others really have no chance of ever becoming a standardized control scheme, but are okay with it. After Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, why would anyone else even care to make a platformer controlled entirely with the pressings of two buttons? But then, why would someone have cared to make it to begin with?
“For some of these games, special hardware is needed to measure player performance in greater detail, so as to translate it into game terms. In the Golden Tee games, rolling the trackball further and faster makes for a stronger shot. Other games use special controllers to accentuate the game experience. Guitar Hero naturally does this to help the player feel like a rock star, and the bicycle-powered arcade game Propcycle is perhaps the closest we will ever come to experiencing human-powered flight.”
Link: Game Design Essentials: 20 Unusual Control Schemes (gamasutra.com)
19
Jan 07
Designing games graphics for small screens
“The judo rule: Turn your weaknesses into your strengths. If you cannot escape the limitations of the small screen, use them to your advantage! Think of ways to turn the screen size into an integral part of gameplay — part of the game’s challenge that the player must learn to overcome. Make the small screen a cognitive challenge, not just a visual limitation.”
Link: Mobile Game Graphics – Overcoming the Small Screen Challenge (nokia.com)
25
Dec 06
Designing games for the long tail
Yiibu has made available a wonderful little presentation about the design of mobile games.
“Design for play, quiet contemplation, exploration, discovery, suspense, laughter, friendship, joy…(remember boredom, stress, fatigue, personalization, control, play—everyone’s personal time is different)”
Link: Creating ‘Casual’ Games, Content and Applications for the (Mobile) Long Tail (yiibu.com, PDF, via)
6
Nov 06
Designing games for people’s pockets
Some guidelines for the design of handheld games.
“There are two major things you have to keep in mind concerning the interface and user-experience, first one is that most players will be picking up your game in short breaks. They need to be able to quickly start it, and quickly put it away without losing “everything”. The second thing is that you are dealing with alot of non-technical people, without any or little gaming experience. So keep things simple and intuitive.”
Link: Mobiles, design, and gameplay (orangepixel.net)
13
Jul 06
Mobile game design process review
A post-mortem of the creation of the mobile game “Tower Bloxx”.
“As we discussed earlier, the original idea came from a mock-up image which was later turned into a prototype, which led to our core mechanics. After production started, we also needed something to fill the long-term gameplay demand, so we had several ideas of how the rules of the city mode could work, and we prototyped those using both pen-and-paper and Excel. In this way, we could test and tweak our ideas without the need for programming time, which helped us getting the game done faster.”
Link: Postmortem: Digital Chocolate’s Tower Bloxx (gamasutra.com)
16
Jun 06
Mobile game quality doesn’t matter
Spilling the dirt on what makes a successful mobile (phone) game. What matters? Name. Location.
“Anyway, the dirty little secret that all of these sound bytes about mobile games quality are delicately side-stepping, and which the latest quote from THQ hints at: in the mobile industry right now, quality does not affect sales one iota. OK, maybe one iota… but last I checked the international currency markets, the iota wasn’t trading particularly well against the dollar.”
Link: Mobile game quality (mojordy.com)
