How To Get Started Designing Games for Mobile

How To Get Started Designing Games for Mobile Its a Whole New Mindset Mobile gaming is a booming market right now, and it seems everyone wants to dive in and grab a chunk of the market. However, getting started in mobile gaming isnt just about porting your Windows or Xbox title over to iOS. Design for Your Current Platform, Not Your Previous One This seems like common sense, but a lot of games out there will attempt to shoehorn the design of a console onto a multi-touch gaming device. While, yes, this can work, frequently the player is reminded that theyd rather be playing the game on a console gamepad than on an iPhone. When it comes to artwork, remember that tiny fonts may be readable on a Retina display (and allow you to fit a lot of text on the screen), but they are not very enjoyable to read. The same goes for highly detailed textures. You dont need a massive, high-resolution texture for all your assets. The detail can actually make the game more visually noisy, detracting from the artistic feel and causing eyestrain. While sound can make or break a game on a desktop computer or console, on mobile, its an entirely more complex matter. Most gamers would love to have sound in every game they play, either for the aesthetic or gameplay value. However, there is a matter of practicality to mobile gaming, in that many people cannot play the game with sound due to being in public spaces. By all means, include sound if youre able; many mobile users have headphones, or arent limited by environment. Optimized code. Yes. The power of current desktop computers allows a lot of un-optimized code to slip by, hogging extra system resources without anyone taking notice. Mobile is far more unforgiving than even a game console. Mobile OSes have a variety of techniques for handling background processes, battery management, resource allocation, etc. If your game bludgeons the systems battery to death in an hour, your game is going to get bad reviews, and you wont make any money. Slow performance is one of the first reasons people will choose to shelf a game forever. Optimizing Tips Weve covered what not to do. Now, lets look at a few places to improve. Interface Are you using a single multi-touch screen? If so, is it a tablet or a phone-sized screen? Are you using something more exotic like the PS Vitas front and back touchscreens and physical controls? How about camera-based augmented reality? Touch is very intuitive. Do not fight that. As I mentioned above, many games simply superimpose gamepad controls on a touch screen. This works in some cases, but frequently is problematic. One of the most important things you can do in this area is play other games and see what works and what doesnt. Specifically, what works without you having to think about it. The more instant immersion for the player, the more chance you have of them staying with the game, and either recommending it to others, or purchasing in-game items through microtransactions. If you cant find an existing scheme that works for your game, think about how you would manipulate your avatar in the real world, and find some way to translate that to the screen. Art As stated above, massive textures on mobile arent a great idea from the design point of view. They are also horrible about growing the size of your game in the devices storage or sucking up available RAM. You need to do everything you can to shrink your textures to the smallest size that will look good on the device. (Always keep high-res originals though, for when next-generation devices are released with higher-resolution screens.) Learn how to create a texture atlas, or find a good tool for the engine youre using/creating to build them automatically. Sound Audio is brutal, and pains many a good sound designer at the requirements placed on them. High-quality audio can cause an apps size to balloon incredibly. Be sure to listen to your final audio on every compatible device. Mobile phone speakers demolish audio, so dont just judge on how it sounds through headphones. Code Use an engine or framework that lets you go as close to bare metal as your programming skills allow. High-level managed code is frequently all you can do, but depending on the engine/framework you use, it may go through several layers of interpretation which can really slow down well-written high-level code. Final Words First impressions on an app store are critical! While you may have the urge to just get it out there and be done, then update it later, dont. With the way app stores work, you may only get one shot at that front page where people pick you up out of the crowd. Marketing and PR only go so far; if the first hundred people who checked out your game give it a 1-3 star review, odds are you wont get another chance. Take your time, do it right, and ship it when its done.

75 Names of Unusual or Obsolete Occupations

75 Names of Unusual or Obsolete Occupations 75 Names of Unusual or Obsolete Occupations 75 Names of Unusual or Obsolete Occupations By Mark Nichol The English language abounds with word describing occupations and professions that are rare or obsolete or are otherwise unusual and hence obscure. Here is an incomplete but extensive list of such terms, along with brief definitions. 1. ackerman: a plowman or oxherder 2. alewife: a proprietor of a tavern 3. alnager: a wool inspector 4. arkwright: a carpenter specializing in wooden chests 5. bowyer: a bowmaker 6. brazier: a brass worker 7. catchpole: an official who pursues those with delinquent debts 8. caulker: someone who packs seams in ships or around windows 9. chandler: a candlemaker, or a retail supplier of specific equipment 10. chiffonier: a wigmaker 11. cobbler: a shoemaker 12. collier: a coal miner or a maker of charcoal (also, a ship that transports coal) 13. cooper: a maker or repairer of barrels, casks, and tubs 14. cordwainer: a shoemaker 15. costermonger: a fruit seller 16. crocker: a potter 17. currier: a leather tanner, or a horse groom 18. draper: a cloth dealer 19. drayman: a driver of a heavy freight cart 20. drummer: a traveling salesman 21. duffer: a peddler 22. eggler: an egg seller 23. factor: an agent or steward 24. farrier: someone who trims horse hooves and puts on horseshoes 25. fishmonger: a fish seller 26. fletcher: a maker of arrows 27. fuller: someone who shrinks and thickens wool cloth 28. glazier: a glassmaker or window maker 29. haberdasher: an owner of or worker in a store for men’s clothing or small items used for making clothes 30. hawker: a peddler 31. hayward: an official responsible for fences and hedges 32. higgler: a peddler of dairy products and small game (also, a haggler, or someone who negotiates for lower prices) 33. hobbler: a person who tows boats on a canal or river 34. hooper: a maker of hoops for barrels, casks, and tubs 35. hostler or ostler: one who cares for horses or mules, or moves or services locomotives (originally, an innkeeper, who also maintained stables) 36. huckster: a peddler (now refers to a con artist) 37. ice cutter: someone who saws blocks of ice for refrigeration 38. ironmonger: a seller of items made of iron 39. joiner: a carpenter who specializes in furniture and fittings 40. keeler: a crew member on a barge or a keelboat 41. knacker: one who buys animals or animal carcasses to use as animal food or as fertilizer (originally, a harness maker or saddle maker) 42. knocker-up: a professional waker, who literally knocks on doors or windows to rouse people from sleep 43. lamplighter: someone who lights, extinguishes, and refuels gas street lamps 44. lapidary: a jeweler 45. lector: someone who reads to factory workers for entertainment 46. log driver: someone who floats and guides logs downriver for transportation 47. milliner: a designer, maker, or seller of women’s hats 48. muleskinner: a wagon driver 49. peruker: a wigmaker 50. pinsetter: someone who sets bowling pins back up after each bowl 51. plowright: a maker of plows and other farm implements 52. plumber: originally, one who installed lead roofing or set lead frames for windows 53. porter: a doorkeeper or gatekeeper 54. puddler: a worker in wrought iron 55. quarryman: a stonecutter 56. raker: a street cleaner 57. resurrectionist: someone who digs up recently buried corpses for use as cadavers 58. ripper: a fish seller 59. roper: a maker of nets and ropes 60. sawyer: a carpenter 61. slater: a roofer 62. slopseller: a seller of ready-made clothing, as opposed to a tailor 63. stevedore: a dockworker 64. tanner: someone who cures animal hides to make leather 65. teamster: a wagon driver 66. thatcher: someone who makes thatched roofs 67. tinker: a repairer or seller of small metal goods such as pots and pans 68. turner: someone who uses a lathe to turn wood for balustrades and spindles 69. victualer: an innkeeper, or a merchant who provides food for ships or for the military 70. wainwright: a wagon maker 71. webster: a weaver 72. weirkeeper: a fish trapper 73. wharfinger: an owner or operator of a wharf 74. wheelwright: a maker of wheels for carriages and wagons 75. whitesmith: a worker of tin Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply withHow to Play HQ Words: Cheats, Tips and Tricks15 English Words of Indian Origin