Bring Best Practice to Mobile Game Development

WANG XuProducer @ Ubisoft ShangHai

Title

•Click to edit Master text styles• Second level

• Third level• Fourth level

• Fifth level

Multi-Platforms Development

Mobile Development – Will Not Discussed

• India Game Development• Game directly ported from its Web/SNS version• Re-skinned, straight copying games• Pirate games

• Practice of bringing social elements to mobile game

Let’s try to tell Some Difference

• Tools and Pipeline• Production Value• Design and Production Focus• Design Iteration • Management and Communication Overhead

Difference – Tools and Pipeline

• Relatively speaking, mobile games enjoy better tools• Console game spare no effort on pushing pipeline to their limits

Difference – Tools and Pipeline

Difference – Production Value

Story Atmosphere Characters Unique Flavor Epic Moments Rewards Buzz Polish

Difference – Design and Production Focus

• Mobile• Creativity games(idea) still dominate the dashboards.• Game balance works as barrier of new comers thus is the

priority • Flexible and agile design/production process

Difference – Design and Production Focus

• Console/PC/Handheld games• Systematic the game design, game loop, game mechanism

game flow…• Try to find the recipe of creativity and innovation. • Give enough focus to 3C, sign and feedback.• Heavy design/production validation process.

Difference – Design Iteration

• We received professional playtest report.• It’s easier to hand over a iPhone to somebody to get his opinion.

Difference – Design Iteration

•Be rational to the feedbacks

Difference – Communication Overhead

• Agile but Scrum?

Bring Best Practice to Mobile Game Dev

• Tools and Pipelines• Design Methodology• Motivation is more important

Best Practice – Tools and Pipeline

• Keep checking and improving the pipeline make sure nobody in the team will need to wait for another people if he wanted to see his modification in the version.

Best Practice – Tools and Pipeline• Automate the version checking and making process.

• Everyone in the team should be able to download the most recent version (the CL 5 minutes ago included) to his mobile phone through WiFi.

Bring Best Practice to Mobile Game Dev

• Tools and Pipelines• Design Methodology• Motivation is more important

Design Methodology – Perspective• Keep the practice of designing the core game play for First Playable Presentation (aka. vertical slice)

• For F2P game, always review it from the perspective of 1st 30 minutes’ player experience.

Design Methodology – Validation

• Strive for a lightweight design validation process, but to play fair, you have to convince them with something playable every 2 weeks at least

Design Methodology – Stages

• Still there are the stages of

• Concept• Pre-Production• Production • Launch/Soft Launch• Post Launch

Design Methodology – Concept

• Prototype (e.g., with Flash).

Design Methodology – Concept

• Prototype

Design Methodology – Concept

• Prototype.

• Know the game engine.

Design Methodology – Pre Production

• Give enough focus to Control, Camera and Character, Sign and Feedback.

Design Methodology – Pre Production

• Insist to have reviewable version everyday.

• Insist to make it real data driven at least for top 2 more important features

• Never believe a feature will be polished/graphic will be good/FPS will be improved but only in last month.

Design Methodology

• Play tests don’t always tell the truth.

GPP

Playtest

team

Design Intenti

on

Designer

Integrate Tags

Test Instrume

ntsResults

SurveyObservat

ionGrid

Playtests

ResultsAnalysi

s

Design Methodology

Design Methodology – Production/soft launch

• Keep thinking of prioritizing and ready to cut features

Bring Best Practice to Mobile Game Dev

• Tools and Pipelines• Design Methodology• Motivation is more important

Best Practice – Motivation Still Works

• For mobile project• Clear objective• Everybody understand and agree with it• Build the communication, everybody contribute their idea

on game design.

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation (on TED)

Q & A

WANG XuProducer Ubisoft ShangHai

xu.wang@ubisoft.com