As a boy, I received my first gaming system – an Atomic Purple Game Boy Color. There was a Super Nintendo in the family, but my Game Boy was actually mine. I did share it a little, but I felt it was exclusively mine to play. I cut my teeth as a gamer on that system. (Literally though, I actually put a bite mark in the screen when raging after continually losing in Super Mario Land)

My library as I remember was :

Many classics in there, but also some not-so-great ones. Mario Tennis for the GBC has to be the one I have the most nostalgia for. It has great music, and it actually taught me the scoring rules of tennis.

When I go back to revisit these, I’m taken aback at the well crafted product these developers made with such a limited system to work with. Despite limitations with graphics and sound, they paint a seemingly extravagant picture to the player. I can’t help but compare these examples with what the young generation today is being supplied with on the mobile games market.

iPhones, iPads, Android phones, and tablets probably outnumber the amount of people on the planet. One might think that with this mobile platform so widespread, we’d see more quality titles at the forefront. But instead, the most popular games have minimal engagement mechanics and are named with a cute adjective that ends with a ‘y’ describing some animal. (I should copyright Cutey Cats and Silly Worms asap) Also animal + simulator are pretty big too.

Why though? These titles don’t hit the spot for me. They don’t do it for me like one of my favorites on list above – Game & Watch Gallery 3. This game is essentially a bunch of older Game & Watch titles on one GBC cartridge that are redesigned with characters from the Mario franchise. The music on this gem is great. The games are simple yet engaging. And I can still play it for hours. What’s interesting is that the simplicity of these Game & Watch games could be likened to the simple nature of games on the mobile platform. And the Game Boy controls, with one d-pad and two buttons, could be easily projected onto a phone screen where you can touch anywhere. But, there aren’t many phone/tablet game experiences that satisfy me like these GBC games do.

The most popular games on mobile are single-tap or swipe games, not traditional direction + button control. These simple as cheese mobile games easily engage the non-gamer though, and that might explain their popularity. It’s not to say that games with traditional platformer controls don’t exist. There’s good stuff like the sanity-shaking VVVVVV, the popular Minecraft: Pocket Edition, and a the new Vulture Island But surely the phone/tablet gaming market has way more room for game control systems with a little more user engagement then the dead-simple tap and swipe action. The single tap/swipe model is not a limitation of the platform. It’s just what many developers choose to use.

Engaging controls are important for a game, but music and sound is also integral. This reference shows the GBC has just 2 square wave channels, 1 wave channel, and 1 noise channel to produce the game sounds with. Even with this limitation, beautiful and spacious music can be produced. It could be argued that reward sounds signalling the player as having done something special is more important than any visual feedback. Any Mario fan can recall the 1up noise with ease.

A favorite from the Game & Watch Gallery 3 soundtrack:

(composer credit: Noriko Nishizaka)

I’ve given a paid mobile game with intriguing gameplay a 1/5 star rating before due to such a lax approach to the audio.

Visuals are what it’s about nowadays – even dead simple graphics. The mobile app stores are littered with games with circles and rectangles that offer you in-app purchases to buy different colored circles and rectangles. Again, this isn’t a limitation of the platform; it’s just what some developers choose to do. Compare the smallest current Apple phone, the iPhone SE with a 1136 x 640 resolution screen, to the GBC’s 160 x 144 screen. The sprites on the Game Boy’s limited screen can show thoughtful design and lively characters. Though I guess it’s no use comparing Nintendo R&D1 with some dude with a Mac and an Apple Developer License.

Also it’s all about particle effects. Particles surrounding a power-up or or player is how games show importance. No longer do we hear reward, we see it presented to us as a shiny and tantalizing ‘gimme it now’ object. Art is what sells. These visual elements have their place, but it shouldn’t be the whole thing.

It’s interesting to compare these old games made with limited hardware with games made on current systems. Limiting game aspects to certain criteria could bring out interesting results when it forces the creators to think differently.

I want to be more do than talk about game design comparisons. With that I’d like to say that I myself have just delved into the world of game development. The good folks at Yoyo Games and Humble Bundle provided an access for me to try my hand at making games and building them to the iOS and Android platforms. The Humble GameMaker Bundle and the prospect of sharing my creation has given me some good motivation. Some game ideas and marketing challenges have been bouncing around my head. But I welcome the fun experience even if I don’t find commercial success.

There are some games in the works, and I’ve also cooked up a developer icon. Think of a splash-screen on a game’s start-up.

dev-icon
A possible developer brand icon design

 

The Japanese writing is supposed to read “shitekina saru” meaning Poetic Monkey or Poetic Ape or something.

I should be sharing posts of various design aspects, game music composition, and thoughts on how different game features effect the player experience. Software I’m currently using is Gimp, LMMS, and GameMaker: Studio Professional. Let’s see where this goes.

-PM