作者：Tom Curtis

如果你在近几年坐飞机旅行，可能会用空中娱乐设备（In-Flight Entertainment ，简写为IFE）来看电影、听音乐或者做其他事。这些设备一般情况下也可以用来玩游戏，这不禁让我们想到：飞机仓是否也存在一个有待挖掘的游戏市场？

不同航空公司上的IFE也不尽相同，可能是单独的桌面，也可能是镶在坐椅的靠背上——但所有设备都为游戏开发者呈现了相同的机会：让游戏展现在每天数百名，甚至数千名的旅客眼前。

问题是，把游戏安装到IFE上并不容易。大多数航空公司都制定了严格的章程和条例，开发者无法简单地把自己的游戏推销给乘客，但有些IFE公司，如DTI软件和Western Outdoor Interactive，却可以帮助开发者解决这些难题。

如EA、Capcom和Namco Bandai大型开发商等已经开始与这些公司合作，将自己的游戏带到旅客手中。EA新平台总监Matt Dixon表示，如果公司没有这些外部支持，开发航空友好型游戏将是一项大工程。

Matt Dixon称：“我们很努力地确保游戏适用于各种IFE，但这项工作需要投入大量时间和资源——信不信由你，这不是简单的任务。这就是DTI公司参与并协助我们完成的过程。”

当然，如果像EA这样的大公司都需要借助外力把游戏带入高空，那么对于更小型的独立游戏开发商来说，这项任务就更困难了。Dixon认为小独立开发商除非获得某些已经同IFE厂商合作的公司的发行机会，否则就不可能完成这一任务。

Bedard指出：“比如，大多数航空公司都希望得到一些多数人欢迎的策略和益智游戏。而亚洲的航空公司，却更倾向于在亚洲地区比较有名的游戏，如麻将或中国跳棋。”

“热门品牌游戏也同样受捧，因为乘客不需要为了玩这类游戏而学习新的规则。”

inflight pacman(from gamaustra)

当然，让航空公司接受游戏只是完成了第一步。现代IFE设备有许多技术上的限制，导致游戏在那些设备上的实际运行会有些困难。

命中移动的目标（平台）

DTI设计副总裁Marc-Andre Bruneau认为IFE设备就像智能手机，总是在变化，因此，如果想在IFE设备上运行游戏，开发者必须解决更老、分裂性的硬件生态系统问题。

Bruneau还谈道：“平台上的低水平软件总是在演变，可能游戏刚登陆飞机上的IFE发布，它就已经又升级了。另外，大多数座背系统首先是满足影像播放的需要，并且硬件制造商在其系统获得航空公司认证以前，必须经过一轮技术鉴定，这意味着这项技术在安装系统时就问世三到五年了。

“为了设计出能够运行游戏的系统，他们必须经历一系列整合过程……最终，对于游戏所安装的系统来说，每款游戏都是量身定做的。”

EA成员Dixon还指出，许多IFE设备的硬件仍然非常陈旧，所以更难把为新设备所设计的游戏直接移植过来。

“新系统主要是Android，尽管你已经能进行QA测试，但还是会感到太过时。当下的系统中能运行Android 2.1，这已经远远落后于智能手机平台的Android 4.1了。”

DTI的Bruneau补充道：“尽管近来的硬件水平与当前的智能手机越来越接近了，但某些航空公司使用的仍然是Unixware、OS9000 甚至是Windows 3.1系统！”

dtisoft(from gamaustra)

除了这些限制，开发者还必须记住IFE设备还受到外观条件的制约。考虑到这些设备的外形因素和有限的网络连接，开发商不得不删除一些现代游戏功能。

Dixon认为：“开发商还必须记住，设备是固定在座位上的，所以加速器将失效，且任何连接功能也没有存在的必要了。这不是单纯地将智能手机上的软件放到其他设备上，我们还要考虑非常多关于游戏玩法和受限制动作的问题。”

尽管存在如此多的阻碍，Dixon对空中游戏市场仍然抱有乐观态度。这让EA拓展了一个新盈利来源，为其休闲游戏提升了曝光度，他预计随着IFE设备的成熟发展，开发商将更容易面向航空乘客发布游戏。

据其所称“今天的航空公司很清楚，要留住客户就得提供不同于传统标准的服务，内容就是其中之一，他们现在正研究可以更频繁升级的系统，有些系统已经足以带来出色的游戏体验。我们的投入收获的不但是经济回报，更让我们欣慰的是将有成百上千万用户有机会在旅途中尝试体验我们的游戏。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Games on a Plane

by Tom Curtis

If you’ve travelled with an airline in the last several years, chances are you’ve encountered an In-Flight Entertainment device that offers on-demand video, music, and other media. In many cases, these devices also play games, which left us wondering: is there an unexplored business here worth investigating?

Most In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) devices can vary wildly by airline — they might be standalone tablets or even built into the seat ahead of you — but they all offer developers the same opportunity: to put your game in front of hundreds, or perhaps thousands of travellers every day.

The problem is, it’s not easy to install your game on an airline’s IFE devices. Most airlines have a number of strict rules and regulations that prevent developers from simply distributing their games to passengers, but some external IFE companies — like DTI Soft and Western Outdoor Interactive — exist to help developers get past those hurdles.

Major developers like EA, Capcom, and Namco Bandai already work with these companies to get their games into travelers’ hands, and EA’s new platform director Matt Dixon told Gamasutra that creating an airline-friendly game would be a huge undertaking if the company didn’t recruit this outside help.

“We work hard to make sure our games are designed tested and certified for the various In-Flight Entertainment systems available, but this takes time and a lot of resources — believe it or not, it’s not a simple task. This is where DTI stepped in and really helped us through the process,” he said.

Of course, if major companies like EA need external help to get their games into the skies, the task is even more complicated for the smaller, independent developer. We asked Dixon if he thought this was possible: he said the only real way for small teams to get their game on an airline is to secure a publishing deal with a company already working with an IFE firm.

DTI’s VP of creative and product design, Vincent Bedard, told us that to secure a deal with an airline, developers also need to make sure their games already have proven appeal, because most companies only want to pick up games that are sure to find an audience.

“For instance, most airlines will want a good mix of strategy games and puzzle games, which are popular with most demographics. An Asian airline, however, may choose to include more well-known Asian games like Mahjong or Chinese Checkers,” Bedard said.

“Including well-established and popular brands are always good to include as well, as they don’t require a passenger to learn new rules in order to play.”

Of course, getting an airline to adopt your game is just one piece of the puzzle. Modern in-flight devices come with a number of technical caveats, and making your game actually function on these machines can prove a bit difficult.

Hitting a moving target (platform)

In order to shed some light on these challenges, Gamasutra spoke with DTI’s VP of engineering, Marc-Andre Bruneau, who explained that In-Flight Entertainment devices, much like smartphones, are constantly changing, and on top of that, developers will need to work with an older, fragmented hardware ecosystem if they want to get their games up and running.

“The low level software of the platforms are in constant evolution, and can even be updated the day of the airline release,” said Bruneau. “In addition, most seat-back systems have been developed first and foremost for video playback, and the certification process that hardware manufacturers have to go through before a system is flight certified means that the technology is already three to five years old once it is installed.

“In order to have games that work on these systems, they need go through a variety of processes for in-flight integration…At the end, each game is unique to the in-seat system on which it is installed.”

EA’s Dixon pointed out that many IFE devices are still running on very old firmware, making it even more difficult to port games that were originally designed for newer devices.

“The new systems are mainly Android based, though by the time you’ve run QA you’ll be many flavors out of date,” he said. “Today the systems are only just running Android 2.1, which is far behind the smartphone world of 4.0.”

DTI’s Bruneau added, “Although the recent hardware is getting similar to today’s smartphones, there are even some airlines flying Unixware, OS9000 or even Windows 3.1 based systems!”

Beyond these limitations, developers also need to keep in mind the physical limits of an IFE device. Given the form factor and limited online connectivity in these devices, some modern game features are simply off the table when making a title airline-appropriate.

“Developers also need to keep in mind that the devices may be fixed to a seat, so accelerometers will become defunct and any connected features will need to be stripped out,” Dixon said. “It’s not just a case of taking your smartphone content and porting it across, a lot more thought about gameplay and restrictive gestures has to be taken into consideration.”

Though despite all of these hurdles, Dixon remains optimistic about the in-flight games market. It’s helped EA develop a new revenue stream and boost exposure for its casual titles, and he predicts things will become much easier for developers as IFE devices continue to evolve.

“Today, airlines understand that to keep customers you have to offer something above and beyond the traditional service. Content is one of these services, and they are now working on systems that can be updated more easily and more frequently. Not to mention that the systems are already a lot more capable of running great gaming experiences,” he said.

“We see our investment not only paying off financially, but we’re excited by the fact that millions of people will have the opportunity to try and enjoy our games.”（source:gamasutra）