Mobile gaming has really broken out to become a medium in and of itself the past couple of years. With apps and games like Bejeweled, Angry Birds, FlappyBird, and more, mobile gaming has started to catch the attention of even the most serious of gamers and game designers. Mobile gaming also has a couple of unique features that are not carrying over to older, more traditional, gaming platforms.
The first great thing about mobile gaming is that everyone pretty much already has a mobile gaming console. Unlike being locked into developing only for Nintendo, XBox, PlayStation, or another platform (or having to sink a lot more into development costs to develop for them all), mobile gaming companies only have two broadly-accepted platforms they have to work on: iOS and Android. Neither platform would seek to lock their developers in, though, so we don’t see the console wars playing out over tablets and smartphones.
The second great thing is that it simplifies the controls a lot. Mobile gaming requires being able to interact quickly with a touch screen so game developers have to keep their interfaces fairly simple and intuitive. This forces them to really focus on gameplay mechanics and to think about how much physical interaction they’ll be demanding from their users.
A third thing that makes mobile gaming unique is the ability to have in-app purchases that let you get away from the time-sink quality of a lot of games and go straight on to the next stage. For example, instead of spending hours fighting monsters in a forest for a rare sword, you can just buy that sword and be done with it.
A fourth thing about mobile gaming is that it’s always easy to pick up or put down. Unlike computer or console games that may have a lengthy loading screen and only allow you to save your progress at certain key points, mobile games are generally meant to be easy to walk away from without losing a lot of progress.
What are some other things you like about mobile gaming? And have you bought a tablet or a smartphone and had it become your primary gaming device? Let us know in the comments below!
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