Mobile Game Design Essentials -- Table of Contents -- Mobile Game Design Essentials -- Credits -- About the Authors -- About the Reviewers -- www.PacktPub.com -- Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more -- Why Subscribe? -- Free Access for Packt account holders -- Preface -- What this book covers -- What you need for this book -- Who this book is for -- Conventions -- Reader feedback -- Customer support -- Downloading the color images of this book -- Errata -- Piracy -- Questions -- 1. Operating Systems - Mobile and Otherwise -- Operating systems -- Mobile operating systems -- Android -- Google Play and Amazon Appstore -- App development -- Games for Android -- Eclipse versus Intellij -- iOS -- The App Store -- Development on iOS -- Xcode -- Using Xcode -- Windows Phone -- Windows Phone Store -- Developing apps with Windows Phone -- Developing a game for Windows Phone with XNA -- Java ME -- Developing games with Java ME -- NetBeans -- BlackBerry -- The BlackBerry App World -- Developing games for BlackBerry -- Summary -- 2. The Mobile Indie Team -- A matter of size -- Key roles in a successful team -- What it takes -- Commitment -- Cohesion -- Software development methodologies -- Discipline -- Professional training -- Passion for games -- The roles in an indie mobile team -- The game designer -- Designer at work -- Designer tools -- The practices of game design -- Academic formation and personality -- No game is ever done! -- The game artist -- Brushes and canvas -- Forms of art -- 2D graphic assets -- 3D graphic assets -- Art schools and creative types -- The programmer -- The programmer's kit -- Coding departments -- Learning to be a programmer -- The game tester -- The tools of deconstruction -- Aspects of game testing -- Skills of a professional player -- University of Gamestop -- The game producer -- Keeping things organized.

Key questions of a producer -- Skills for all! -- Who is the producer? -- The sound designer -- Creating music and sound fx -- Audio skills and tasks -- Schools of sound production -- Audio personality -- Summary -- 3. Graphics for Mobile -- Pixels and vectors -- Pixels -- Vectors -- The graphic file formats -- Raster graphics -- Vector graphics -- Videos in videogames -- Software to create game graphics -- Resolution issues with mobile games -- 2D graphic assets -- Sprites -- Backgrounds -- Tiles -- The parallax motion -- Masking -- 3D graphic assets -- 3D models -- Texturing -- Materials -- UV Mapping -- More on textures -- Baking -- Animations -- Designing a character for mobile -- The character design process -- Silhouettes -- Colors for mobile -- The user interface and HUD -- Summary -- 4. Audio for Mobile -- Digital sound technology -- Analog versus digital -- Recording and playback -- Recording -- The sample rate -- The word length -- Compression -- Uncompressed -- Lossless compression -- Lossy compression -- Playback -- Types of game sounds -- Dynamic audio -- Adaptive audio -- Interactive audio -- Non-Dynamic linear sounds and music -- Diegetic sounds -- Adaptive -- Interactive -- Non-Dynamic -- Non-Diegetic sounds -- Adaptive -- Interactive -- Kinetic gestural interaction -- The audio editing software -- Avid Pro Tools -- Sound Forge/Sonic Foundry -- Audacity -- Ableton Live -- Designing audio for mobile games -- Planning the audio in advance -- Hardware limitations for mobile games audio -- The role of audio in mobile games -- Listening conditions for mobile games -- Best practices for mobile games audio design -- Scripting skills for a mobile audio designer -- File compression -- Looping background music -- To learn more -- Final advice -- Summary -- 5. Coding Games -- Main features of programming languages -- Libraries -- Abstraction.

Implementation -- Usage -- Game programming -- C++ -- Memory management -- Objects -- Complaints about C++ -- Java -- Memory management -- Syntax -- Java for mobile - Java ME -- Objective-C -- Cocoa -- Cocoa Touch -- Xcode -- Working with objects -- Extending classes with categories -- Protocols define messaging contracts -- Values and collections -- Blocks -- Objective-C conventions -- Getting started -- HTML5 -- Canvas -- HTML5 and Flash -- Issues with HTML5 -- HTML5 games -- Conclusions -- Scripting languages -- Structure of a game program -- Initialization -- The game loop -- Termination -- Conclusion -- Summary -- 6. Mobile Game Controls -- Input technology -- Touchscreens -- Keypads -- Touchscreen gestures -- Single-tap -- Double-tap -- Long press -- Scroll -- Spread and pinch -- Pan -- Flick -- Multifinger tap -- Multifinger scroll -- Rotate -- Input interfaces for mobile games -- Built-in devices -- GPS -- Accelerometer -- Camera -- Microphone -- External controllers -- Gamepads -- Analog sticks -- Touch-enabled cases -- Grip -- Cabinets -- Headphones -- Future technologies -- Eye tracking -- Brainwave readers -- Summary -- 7. Interface Design for Mobile Games -- The role of the user interface -- Approaching user interface design -- UI in videogames -- Designing the UI -- Aesthetics -- More on vectors and rasters -- Designing icons -- Best practices in UI design -- Search for references -- The screen flow -- Functionality -- Wireframes -- The button size -- The main screen -- Test and iterate -- Evergreen options -- Multiple save slots -- Screen rotation -- Calibrations and reconfigurations -- Challenges -- Experiment -- Summary -- 8. Mobile Game Engines -- What engines can do -- What engines can't do -- Game engines -- 2D game engines -- Torque 2D -- Cocos2D -- Corona SDK -- 3D game engines -- Shiva 3D -- Unity 3D -- Top-quality engines.

Unreal/UDK -- Educational engines -- GameMaker -- GameSalad -- Unity3D Tutorial - part 1 -- Tutorial part 1A - importing 3D models -- Tutorial part 1B - setting up the scene -- Summary -- 9. Prototyping -- Steps in the prototyping process -- Defining the prototype -- Building the prototype -- Testing the prototype -- Fixing the prototype -- Prototyping styles -- Horizontal prototype -- Vertical prototype -- Types of prototyping -- Disposable code -- Your imagination -- Pencil and paper -- Visual prototypes -- Interactive prototypes -- Reusable code -- Why prototype? -- What to avoid -- Tools -- Tools for rapid prototyping -- Unity3D tutorial - part 2 -- The player's ship -- The aliens -- Firing -- Summary -- 10. Balancing, Tuning, and Polishing Mobile Games -- Balancing -- Symmetry -- Randomization -- Feedback loops -- Game director -- Statistics -- Tuning -- Tuning strategies -- Difficulty settings -- Global difficulty -- Unity 3D tutorial - part 3 -- The barriers -- The player's ship reprise -- Refining the details -- Adding a GUI -- Adding audio effects -- Particle system effects -- Unity 3D tutorial summary -- Summary -- 11. Mobile Game Design -- The basic game design process -- The dos and don'ts of game design -- Dos -- Don'ts -- Designing mobile games -- Hardware limitations -- Screen size -- Game controls -- Audio output -- File size -- Processing power -- Mobile design constraints -- Play time -- Game depth -- Mobile environment -- Smartphones -- Single player versus multiplayer -- The mobile market -- Mobile gamers -- Business models -- Premium -- Freemium -- Ad supported -- Hybrid -- Choosing the right business model -- What makes games fun -- The four keys to fun - the game mechanics that drive play -- Hard fun - emotions from meaningful challenges, strategies, and puzzles.

Easy fun - grab attention with ambiguity, incompleteness, and detail -- The people factor - create opportunities for player competition, cooperation, performance, and spectacle -- Raph Koster and Roger Caillois -- Summary -- 12. Pitching a Mobile Game -- The pitch document -- Importance of pitching -- Game concept -- References -- Prototypes -- Stuck? -- Genre -- Target audience -- Key features -- Target platform and competitors -- Game mechanics -- Control scheme and interface -- Scoring system and achievements -- A gameplay example -- Screen flow and screens relationship -- Game flow -- Tech -- Screenshot -- Team/Designer resume -- Lilypads pitch document -- Concept -- Genre -- References -- Target -- Platform -- Competitors -- Key features -- Character design -- Game mechanics -- Score -- Virtual currency -- IAP (In-App Purchase) -- Achievements and leaderboards -- Additional game elements -- Screen flow -- Game flow -- Tech -- Game features -- Platform -- The iPhone 4 -- Game screen study -- A list of assets -- Graphics -- Audio -- Software -- Schedule and budget -- Summary -- Index.