Current Industry Trends
A big part of the gaming scene in the current day and age is the prevalence of online connectivity when gaming. Players can almost expect some online component when playing a game and in most cases are the main focus of the game (multiplayer). As shown in the graph below, the rise in online gamers is quite significant and is definitely a large market to target when making a game.
(Statista, 2019)
Another arising and popular aspect of gaming is how portable it has become, due to mobile phones being much more capable of storing and running games, as well as the release of portable consoles such as the Nintendo DS and Switch. Mobile gaming, similar to online gaming, makes up a substancial market with around 1.4 million mobile gamers in 2019. However, this market is also substancial due to its 60% portion of the global video game markets profits. (Williams, 2020)
Lastly, publishing a game is a major area in having your game out there and available for people to see and play. This is an important step in the game development cycle and is something that can provide closure and happiness to the days, weeks or even years it took to make the final result.
Skills to Develop
These areas unfortunately, are not areas I currently have very much knowledge in. In my years of game development, I have only created one game that was originally targeted for mobile development, only slightly touched online implementation and have not published and games (yet). Due to multiple factors, including time and having the option to include it in assignment work, these vital skills have not been able to be added into my current knowledge. To solve this, I plan to create a game that will incorporate all of these areas to help further my knowledge and skills, as well as being a great addition to showcase on my portfolio.
To come up with an Idea I needed to focus on key areas of what I currently know and how this can help me efficiently learn and apply these new skills. For mobile development, the controls need to be simple and it needs to be a small enough game to run on all devices with no large game size and low device specifications. For online implementation, it needs to fit in with mobile limitations (controls etc) as well as be functional and hopefully be a main point of the game (multiplayer). I also wanted the game to be simple as I want to make sure I fully understand how the code for applying online mechanics works and is applied. Lastly, publishing the game will most likely be done through the Google Play Store or some alternative but will be decided after some investigation and research.
In addition to this I also need to incorporate the skills I do know to make sure the game can be made as efficiently as possible. As I have a few year’s worth of knowledge in C# and making games in Unity, it made sense to make a game using Unity. I also have knowledge in design; in level, artistic and sound, meaning I can incorporate these aspects creating the levels, art and music for the game.
Project to Level Up my Skills
With these limitations and focus points I came up with a simple multiplayer game. The game concept is simple, two players (online) start at the same position and will race to the bottom of a randomly generated maze with the one reaching the bottom wins. However, the person losing will move faster than the other introducing an interesting mechanic into how you play the game. The controls for the game are a simple tap/hold on the left or right of the screen to move in the corresponding direction. To keep the overall game size low, a more simplistic approach to the art and game assets will be used, such as using the base assets in Unity (cubes, etc) as well as some simple aesthetic inclusions like lighting and particle effects to make it less bland. As stated, this game will be made in Unity and will be programmed in C#, with the game most likely being published to the Google Play Store.
Outcomes
Overall I feel like the development of this game will significantly improve my knowledge in some of the vital areas of game development. It will also serve as an addition to my portfolio, to which will improve the diversity of skills displayed.
Expected Outcomes
Mobile Development in Unity
Online Development in Unity
Publishing a Game to Google Play
Some additional outcomes from this process may also include: getting multiple downloads and getting good ratings. Both of which from unknown people.
References
Statista. (2019, August 9). Number of active video gamers worldwide from 2014 to 2021. Retrieved from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/748044/number-video-gamers-world/#:~:text=While%20there%20were%20almost%201.82,2.7%20billion%20gamers%20by%202021.
WePC. (2020). Video Game Industry Statistics In 2020. Retrieved from WePC: https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/
Williams, R. (2020, January 2). Mobile games sparked 60% of 2019 global game revenue, study finds. Retrieved from Mobile Marketer: https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/mobile-games-sparked-60-of-2019-global-game-revenue-study-finds/569658/
コメント