The Future of Mobile Gaming - Interview With David Kainer

The Rising Mobile Gaming Fever

When you have a lot of time to kill or you are waiting in a long queue or you need a break from the work, the best option is to play a nice entertaining game on your mobile. These days, you'll find more adults than teens interacting with mobile games. Consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 not only download more games than any other age group, but also play and purchase them more. Female gamers are also starting to become a part of the mobile gaming community.

Mobile gaming is so popular that people have actually become addicted to them. One of the primary reasons why mobile games are in high demand is the casual, comfortable and interactive gaming engagement they provide. The gaming industry is constantly working on creating innovative games with intricate and enhanced gaming features. They are constantly struggling to make this addiction a complete burning passion for people.

There are variety of mobile games found in different categories of racing games, puzzle/logic/skill games, action games, arcade games, role playing games, card and casino games, adventure games, strategy games and lifestyle games. To match different people's needs, developers design single player or multi player games based on various technologies that include (eg. Embedded games, SMS/MMS games, browsing games, J2ME games, BREW games and native OS games.

One major problem faced by the publishers and developers of mobile game is describing a game in such a way that it attracts the customer to make the purchasing decision. They are mainly sold through network carriers / operator's portal/ distributors by attracting user by their text descriptions and appealing screenshots. There are some well known and established play patterns that decrease the perceived level of risk for the buyer which includes (game play mechanics that are instantly recognizable) such as Tetris, Space Invaders or Poker.

On the other hand, platforms and technologies for mobile gaming have significantly improved. The available memory size, processor capacity, display size and resolution on mobile phones have all improved with time thus enhancing the overall gaming experience for the user. Nowadays users find latest interesting java games already fitted in mobile phones at the time of manufacturing. Many websites provide mobile games along with their free/trial options, allowing end users to play it for some time and if they like it they easily can purchase it. Apart from these mobile games can be also downloaded by using infrared and Bluetooth.

Juniper Research indicates that end user generated revenues for both one-time downloads and subscription/rentals of mobile games give a substantial market of $5bn in 2007 and it is expected to grow nearly to $16bn by the end of 2012 . Mobile gaming industry is not only creating numerous opportunities for game publishers and game developers but also opening new doors of great entertainment for users.

Sarah Shaukat is a technical writer who has written extensively on mobile phone applications, softwares and games. Most of her writings are on Latest Java Games [http://dogandbonegames.com/portalconsumerhomecb?portalID=146] and Entertainement Software

A Guide to Mobile Poker Games

With poker being the latest craze, mobile poker games are seeing dramatic increases in sales. In order to help you find a mobile poker game that you will actually enjoy playing, I have put together reviews of 7 different popular poker games. The best poker game was THK2 and the worst poker game was Sexy Poker 2006. The rest of them fall somewhere in between.

WPT by mForma

The sounds and graphics in WPT are fairly weak. There is basically one sound, and it's a twinkle. There are other sounds but I turned them off after I heard the twinkle ten times.

The single player poker is alright. You play with five other computers and they're somewhat smart.

There are a couple really strange things about this game. For example, when you fold, the round stops and automatically calculates which computer AI won, and the next round starts. You do not see how the round finishes or how the computer bets.

I think you can tell where I'm going with this review. This game is just average. Not terrible but not great. It is therefore not a good buy; save your money for the great games.

Texas Hold'Em Kings 2 (THK2)

The graphics were exactly what is needed. I could see multiple hands as well as my own and I knew exactly what was going on. It was incredibly easy to read and straight-forward.

The single player gameplay was even more impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed building up my bankroll which I would later bring to the multiplayer tables.

It was so refreshing to actually play with people online. Also, you can play the resident pro at certain times of the day to win prizes. Not only that, but they have a leader board which, if you get in the top three, you win prizes. So basically this game not only is a lot of fun but it can pay for itself.

The game and betting interfaces were simple and contained everything you needed. It was really easy to go from single to multiplayer as well as navigate all the options and menus.

Finally the AI was some of the best I've played with. Granted, AI can always be better. I find it extremely difficult to bluff the AI because I'm convinced it is looking at my hand in cyberspace. Maybe that's not the case but still, AI can always be better. Compared to the other games, this AI was really clean.

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys poker. Actually, even if you don't like poker you should get this game. This game is available from magmic.com.

Downtown Texas Hold'Em

I thought it was a little weird that this game started with a brief explanation on how to play poker. I doubt the market is very big for people buying poker games who have no idea about how to play poker; but that's just me.

The game interface is weak. There is a giant logo for the cyber tournament that you are playing in at the top of the screen. The words "Muckawa Casino Final" are scrawled in giant letters, taking up a fifth of the screen. This doesn't add anything to the gameplay and it takes away from vital screen space.

I really don't recommend this game to anyone. If the game interface was better I might suggest it for single player but I can't and I won't.

Aces Texas' Hold'em

This game has no sound which isn't such a bad thing in poker. The graphics are quite well done and overall this poker game is looking sweet. The interface is clear and simple, with a lot of options to change. Resetting your bankroll requires you to start a new game; that wasn't so great.

The AI was fairly smart; they wouldn't let me bluff them. Sometimes I could but rarely after the flop. These AI's are definitely not like playing a person which is alright because I don't expect programmers to be able to program a human brain.

All in all this was a great poker game. The single player is amazing and the only thing lacking here is some decent multiplayer. This is a great game and definitely worth buying. The game is available from concretesoftware.com.

Sexy Poker 2006

This game is horrible! First of all it's not Texas Hold'em, it's 5 card draw. The only reason you would ever buy it is because you want to watch a cartoon girl take off her clothes. I have no idea what the allure of a cartoon girl's nipples are but it doesn't matter because you don't even see any nudity. There are big stars covering her swimsuit area. So boys won't like this game because there is no nudity and everyone else will hate it because it's just simply a bad poker game.

I recently read that female gamers are big business in mobile gaming. Obviously this company did not get the memo and has only programmed females into the game; definitely bad for business.

Overall this game is easy and a complete waste of money.

Secrets of Hold'Em With Howard Lederer

This was a fairly boring poker experience overall. It was nice to play a six player game of hold'em but the fact that there was no multiplayer was disappointing. Hold'em is all about playing humans who are weak and can be bluffed. Playing with robots means that they call you way too often; they're unflappable.

To save you some time and money, I'll let you know what the secret to poker with Howard Lederer is: Bluff. I bluffed out Lederer and you can too! Once I figured that out the game was super easy and it gave me a bad impression of the AI.

This game wasn't terrible but it wasn't great; which means save your money for a better game.

Era of Eidolon, Badaz Poker

I've read other reviews which say that there is online play for this game. I played this game for hours and never found it. Maybe it's my version or maybe it's a giant conspiracy to boost sales; I'm not sure.

The storyline for Badaz poker is fairly interesting and innovative. It's very much a quest adventure game where one of the minigames is poker. If this were a review on RPG's then I may give it a good review. Problem is, I'm looking for good poker games and this is definitely not one.

So hopefully I have saved you some time and money when choosing a mobile poker game. If you purchase THK2 then look out for qBored in the public poker rooms; I'll be ready to take your money!

All of these reviews are taken from QuicklyBored.com.

Editor and contributor for http://www.quicklybored.com

Mobile Game Development In Future

Future Mobile Game Development

The following topics are the new emerging trends in the mobile gaming world. And these trends will conquer the entire market in a few years to come.

● Massive Multiplayer Mobile Game Development

● Advertising/Promoting Through Mobile Games

Promoting Cinemas/Movies Through Mobile Games

Advertising New Products Through Mobile Games

● 3d Real World Scenario Mobile Games

Massive Multiplayer Mobile Game Development

The 3rd generation games with AI computer players are getting outdated today and the global multiplayer is getting its value. For this reason Online Massive Multiplayer Mobile Game Development is introduced, where players play against many other people around the world with their mobile phones. Definitely in a few years massive multiplayer mobile games will hit the market like the PC game scenario. Today, there is very little number of global multiplayer mobile games available in the market like Find4 by Smackall.com.

Interactive Server

This Massive Multiplayer Mobile Game is using the GPRS connection for the networking with a central server acting as router. It is almost the same as Nokia's SNAP technology. This trend will soon get popular around the mobile game players. Smackall.com has developed the Massive Multiplayer Mobile Game SDK for FIND4 game. A customize SDK and the server is now available for sale.

Advertising/Promoting Through Mobile Games

Advertising and promoting a product is totally getting changed to new concept. Consumer product based companies are advertising their products through the PC games and with other entertainment products. As the mobile gaming have a very market and the advertisements reach very closer to the customers. It is very helpful for mobile game developer to make their games cost effectiveness and earn big revenue from them.

Promoting Cinemas/Movies through Mobile Games

Nowadays, film promoters look for publishing their cinemas/movies through other entertainment Medias. For this reason many producers and film makers come up for developing a game based on the movie. This type of publishing or promoting will reach the right customer and the right age group which the film is aiming at. So that today's film directors are promoting their films through the mobile games with the help of custom mobile game developers. Games are developed based on the characters from the movie. These types of games will reach the customer soon and bring a good result as the character is familiar and the game story resembles the one they are impressed on.

Advertising New Products through Mobile Games

Mobile Game Development is moving towards advertising market to make it cost effective and earn more revenue from each game. Some consumer product based companies have started investing on games. For example a famous painkiller in India has advertised on a mobile game in which they player uses their product for injuries. This type of advertising has become familiar in mobile game industries today. Soon there will be running displays in the bottom of the screen to hold advertisements and flash news.

3d Real World Scenario Mobile Games

Today in mobile game development there is lot of restrictions and minimal resources available for game development, like CPU and memory in the device. The mobile gaming industry has just reached 3D gaming and soon there will be real world scenario games on mobile phones.

Vishnu sankar, mobile game developer from Smackall.com an Indian based mobile game development company. Smackall.com provides high quality of customized mobile games and mobile applications. We have recently released our multiplayer mobile game SDK. For further details please visit www.smackall.com