How to Win at Mobile Gaming

Informa Telecoms & Media says that worldwide game revenues will reach $7.2 billion by 2011, but ONLY if consumers can find games they actually want to buy.(1) We examine Super Happy Fun Fun’s 3D Tilt-A-World, a Best Interactive Experience winner at the International Mobile Gaming Awards to find out what it takes to win at mobile gaming.

3D Tilt-A-World uses camera-based motion detection so that tilting the phone tilts the 3D playing field. Tilting causes a ball to roll through multiple levels, maze-like paths, playfield puzzles, and deadly falls in a race against time. This action certainly helps you understand why it won the interaction prize ― especially when played on VibeTonz®-enabled phones because the game has no sound.

Games for the PlayStation, X-box, and Nintendo video console systems usually use audio, visual, and haptic (rumble) elements in complement to enhance game play. With no sound events in 3D Tilt-a-World, unique VibeTonz haptic effects were tied only to visual events:

• The ball bumping into walls, bumpers, or spinners
• The action of picking up items
• Going through checkpoints or vortexes

So, even though gameplay is silent, the developer was able to use the VibeTonz API to enhance play with rumble-like action and make the game more interesting, entertaining, and interactive.

Super Happy Fun Fun also added engaging popping-like haptics to the game’s menu interface. Because haptics can be linked to either or both audio and visual events, you can use VibeTonz effects to enhance mobile games in creative ways that may not at first be apparent. For more information about how to win at mobile gaming or about designing games with VibeTonz Studio, e-mail your Immersion representative.

1 Report: Mobile game growth pegged to discovery. October 19, 2006. FierceMobileContent. http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/report-mobile-game-growth-pegged-to-discovery/2006-10-20