WAP Game Design Compelling Games in a Static
- Slides: 21
WAP Game Design Compelling Games in a Static Browser Environment Greg Costikyan www. ungames. com www. costik. com costik@costik. com
What is WAP? Wireless Application Protocol WAP Microbrowsers in Every Phone displays WAP “decks” Equivalent to Primitive Web Browsers Allows: § § Text Images (b&w bitmaps) Hyperlinks Text entry
Why Develop WAP Games? Better environment than SMS n n Links & Lists make for better UI Not limited to 160 characters Can rely on image-display capability Latency issues not as brutal Main Format for Games in North America and acceptable in Europe Functional business model
How Does it Work? a. b. c. d. e. f. User requests URL; phone connects to tower Tower passes request to WAP gateway (WTP) Gateway decodes, passes request to server @ URL (HTTP) Server acts on request, returns data to gateway (HTTP) Gateway encodes, passes data to phone (WTP) Phone decodes, displays WAP deck to user.
Think COLS, not Internet Entering URLs is a Pain in the Ass People stick with the carrier’s navigational hierarchy People Pay—the Carriers, Not You Like the old Commercial Online Services § Need a deal to gain access to customers… § Customers funnelled to you § Share revenue with the carrier
WAP Is Inconsistently Implemented Inconsistent Browser Behavior n n n Test for Nokia, Ericsson, Open. Wave Use URL Links, not Select Lists Avoid Soft Buttons & Tables Cookies Not Always Available Use URL Encoding User Timers, Not Push Forget about WTAI & WMLScript
Game Session Should Take < 10 Minutes If They’ve Got More Time, They’ll Find a Real Game Machine Can Mean: § Short Game § Saved Gamestate § Playable in 5 Minute Chunks
Latency of 1 -2 Seconds Unlike SMS (can be 1 min +) Multiple Interactions Within a Session § Each can be of modest importance Forget Twitch Games
Network Not Reliable Handle Drops Gracefully n n Design so Player Disappearance Doesn’t Matter AI Take-Over Allow Player Re-Entry Stand-bys? Allow Reentry Without Data Inconsistency Time-Outs on Decks
Decks Must be < 1. 4 k Well, it’s better than SMS Unlike HTTP, Text & Images Sent as a Single Request HTTP > WTP Encoding Includes Compression
Dealing with 1. 4 k Limit Write Tersely Use Graphics Sparely Make Animations Separate Deck with timer to autoload next deck Can Make Long Documents Multiple Decks Consider “Terse” Mode for Experienced Players
Making the Most of Graphics Make Every Pixel Count “Updating” image means another server request No imagemaps Still best to avoid “board” layouts
Keep the UI Transparent Select Lists (avoid) Soft Buttons (avoid) Text Entry (keep to a minimum) URL-link Menus (exploit to the max)
What Game Styles Work? Head-to-head Gameshows Text Adventures Boardless Strategy (e. g. , Nuclear War)
Evolution of WAP Near-Term: WMLScript WTAI (Wireless Telephony Application Interface) WAP 2. 0: Supports HTTP & TCP/IP XHTML (Mobile Profile) Cascading Stylesheets Local persistent storage MMS Integration WAP likely to no longer be the main event
http: //www. ungames. com/tmpl. php/games/vr/
http: //www. jamdatgames. com/html/games_gladiator. html
http: //www. dataclash. com/main. html
http: //web. wirelessgames. com/lifestyles/pets/over. html
Yes, Good WAP Games Are Possible, Virginia Multiplayer Persistent Fantasy that appeals to the Hard Core Media licenses (sigh)
URLs WAP Forum: www. wapforum. org Open. Wave SDK (includes emulator): http: //developer. openwave. com/download/ Nokia WAP emulator: http: //www. forum. nokia. com/wapforum/noki asim_new. html Ericsson WAP emulator: http: //www. ericsson. com/mobilityworld/sub/o pen/technologies/wap/tools. html
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