作者：Michael Schade

在Fishlabs，我们做高品质3D手机游戏已经不下8年了。虽然过去我们的关注重点是动作、运动和赛车类游戏，但现在我们也开发其他类型的游戏，比如策略MMO。在这篇文章中，我将向大家透露我们的新游戏《Galaxy on Fire – Alliances》的第一手资料，并解释为什么移动设备（智能手机和平板）——至少在我们看来，是比PC更加适合的策略MMO平台。为了全面综合，我将从开发者和发行商这两个角度阐释这个话题。因此，我不仅会说明为什么移动设备是一个前景更好的MMO市场，还会指出触屏设备尤其适合多人策略游戏的显著特点。

galaxy-on-fire-alliances(from gamasutra)

网页游戏的式微

多亏了低准入门槛、易于操作和多人玩法，网页游戏在90年代末期在游戏界里掀起狂潮，当时正值越来越多家庭能联上网的时候。然而，近年来，网页游戏行业却呈现颓势，许多领军公司因为用户开发成本上升、玩家数量锐减和市场饱和而大量裁员和中止百万美元的项目。尽管不少因素也参与了这个演变过程，但最关键的原因肯定是网页游戏遇到强劲的竞争对手—-手机游戏。看着《Clash of Clans》和《Kingdoms of Camelot》这样的游戏每天从成千上万的活跃玩家手中拿走六、七位数的收益，我们可以毫不怀疑地相信，我们正经历一个新的游戏时代，我们不再电脑屏幕上看到游戏了，而是用手机随身携带着游戏。接下来，我将进一步解释为什么手机确实是最佳的策略MMO平台。

自主发行成为可能

根据Deloitte（游戏邦注：四大会计事务所之一），到2013年末，新的和二手智能手机和平板的总数将超过17.5亿。此外，Apple App Store 和Google Play的应用下载量将再创新高，超过5亿，其中50%是在过去12个月内创造的。考虑到这股蓬勃气势和手机行业的活跃属性，手机游戏的风头短期内是不会消停的。对于开发者，这意味着他们现在可以开拓出一个非常有利可图的市场，这个市场不仅极其地大，而且还相当容易进入。多亏了智能手机上的无缝整合的应用商店，游戏工作室现在可以自己接触到世界各地的大量潜在受众，不必与外部发行商合作。新生的自主权的力量是不可低估的，因为它意味着工作室不再受制于外部合作商的财政压力。以Supercell为例，这家员人不超过100人的芬兰的工作室，只在一个平台（iOS）上发布仅仅两款游戏（游戏邦注：即《Hay Day》和《Clash of Clans》），但每日收益已经达到天文数字级别。当然，这么励志的传奇不是短期内就可以被复制的。但即使你考虑一下更小的规模并相应地减少这些数值，你仍然会发现手机对于新老工作室都是一个非常有利可图的市场。显然，哪里有机会，哪里就有竞争。所以如果你想进军手机市场且闯出一片天地，你确实需要非常强悍的产品，才能把你的竞争对手甩开。以《Galaxy on Fire – Alliances》为例，把它与其他同类游戏区别开来的最关键方面是高端的3D图像和易操作的合作及PVP玩法。虽然精心制作的图像（包括如可全方位旋转/可缩放的3D星球和建筑等小部件），通过屏幕上的互动作用，能让玩家深深地沉浸在游戏世界中，但真正刺激玩家长期游戏的是组队玩法。因为没有什么东西能像与好友分享体验这样吸引人。因此，我们让玩家在游戏中非常容彼此交流和根据另一方的需要调整自己的活动（如进攻或派遣支援部队）。这里，我们还因“下载后成为活跃用户”的比率非常高而获得好处，因为这款游戏只要在能联网的智能手机上就能玩，且在大部分情况下，玩免费手机游戏是不需要注册的。

galaxy-on-fire-alliances 2(from gamasutra)

便携的设备

诚实地说，在过去几周，你有几次是出门不带手机的？好吧，当你很赶时间时，你可能会有那么一两次忘记把手机放时口袋里，但除此之外，我敢说你总是把手机带在身边。那很自然，因为手机已经像鞋子、裤子或皮带一样，成为我们身上不可缺少的一部分。Flurry把这个现象形容为“可穿戴的计算机”：“手机已经成为一种可穿戴的计算机了。我们的数据证实了如下体验：智能手机、平板和安装在这些设备中的应用已经成为我们的全天候伴侣。无论我们是起床、工作、锻炼、吃饭、玩耍还是睡觉，它们都与我们在一起。”自然而然地，这也导致用户行为上的改变。在2011年底，用户每天在应用上花的总时间已经达到94分钟，而在网页上仅有72分钟。近年来，这两个数字之间的差距有继续拉大的趋势。如果你相信游戏占据三分之一的手机使用量、在手机上玩游戏的平均时间会越来越长，那么你要做的就是，合计这些数字，看看手机市场能给游戏开发工作室创造多大的赢利空间。不幸地是，我手头上没有其他手机策略MMO的可靠数据，且现在公布我们自己封测中的《Galaxy on Fire – Alliances》的数据又为时过早，所以我必须避免因为其他数字区分手机游戏的种类，如《FIFA13》。根据这款游戏的首席总监Mike McCabe，这款大热的足球模拟游戏的手机版，在2012年十月初，即在应用商店官方发布约1个月后，注册玩家每天上线5-7次，每次游戏时间长达45分钟。虽然PC或游戏机用户的总游戏时间仍然更高，但可以说，绝大部分Xbox 360或PS3的玩家不会只为了玩一回合游戏而每天开游戏机7次。而对于手机用户，情况就不一样了。可以期望，玩家会登录到一款策略MMO，这种游戏快餐式的玩法正是为这种用户行为设计的，特别是当小小的活动就可能产生重大影响的时候，和当玩家也通通过推送通告跟进游戏进度的时候。

无处不在的网络

当你想到现在几乎所有智能设备都不会断开网络连接，你会觉得这种可穿戴的计算机的生命力更旺盛了。即使没有WiFi，你还可以通过LTE、3G或网络共享连上网。因此，你可以随时随地玩多人策略MMO。相反地，你只有在家或在办公室里玩PC网页游戏，即使你可以随身带着笔记本电脑，你仍然需要免费的WiFi热点或便携网络。另外，任何时候你想执行一个动作比如建筑一个什么东西或重新分配一个单位，你都要打开网页启动游戏—-这是一个相当沉闷的过程。然而在手机或平板上，你可以简单地保持应用在后台运行，当你有闲暇时间时，轻轻点击游戏就出来了。这意味着你可以随时建设你的家园或命令你的军队，比如坐公交车时、午休时或在超市排队时。特别是，玩多人游戏，你并不需要比3G或甚至网络共享更好的连接方式，这是一个绝对不能忽视的大优势。因为说到底，它意味着你不再需要根据你的日程来调整你的游戏习惯。相反地，你现在可以让游戏—-甚至是在线游戏成为你的日常生活的一部分，随时可以玩游戏，并不需要你专门腾出一两个小时。

galaxy-on-fire-alliances 3(from gamasutra)

快餐式玩法

因为手机在我们的生活中无处不在而产生的不同的用户行为，也导致手机和平板上存在不同的玩法机制。因为游戏设计的思路是，无论玩家在应用上花多少时间，这次游戏都是有意义的。现在，我认为从中受益最大的游戏类型就是策略MMO。毕竟，在这种游戏中，进程不是连锁事件的连续流，而是不间断的相互影响的指令和延迟。你升级一个建筑，然后等待更新完成。你派遣你的军队，然后等待它们到达。等等。这意味着你不必时时“在游戏里”，只要需要执行另一个活动时打开游戏就行了。结果是，你每天都可以登录应用若干次，每次只执行一两个小（但是重要的）指令。但你仍然获得重要的进度。这种游戏体验的碎片化在其他类型的游戏中是不可能实现的。比如在足球游戏中，你不可能每进一个球就离开游戏，或者玩跑跳游戏时，你不可能每到达一个平台就停下来。然而，在设计良好的手机策略MMO中，你确实可以只上线1分钟，执行一个重要的动作如进攻，仍然获得有意义的进度。但另一方面，你也可能上线一次持续若干小时，执行若干不同的动作，使游戏不至于变得重复或无聊。玩家正是控制游戏节奏的人，因为你的设备总是放在身上，进入应用只是一瞬间的事，你会更加乐意把这些小而有意义的游戏回合整合到你的日常活动中。优秀的游戏设计师意识到手机玩家有不同的游戏习惯，所以他们会确保你在游戏中的行为总是让你觉得很重要，无论执行这个行为是花了你一分钟还是一小时。

直观的触控

大多数硬核PC和游戏机玩家都认为他们所偏好的平台胜过手机的最大优势是可以使用键盘、游戏手柄或控制杆。然而，他们的论据是站不住脚的，因为这归根结底是一个习惯和练习的问题。游戏如《死亡扳机》和《真况赛车3》已经表明，甚至具有非常快节奏玩法射击游戏和赛车游戏可以在触屏设备上玩得非常好，如果操作执行得正的话。而手机策略MMO甚至更加适合在触屏设备上玩。因为你不必做急转弯或最准确的瞄准。所以触控真是太好了，因为你用几次点击和滑动就可以管理你的基地、命令你的军队和与好友聊天。在用户友好的手机策略MMO中，你可以在屏幕上直观地执行所有动作，只需要动用手指头。对于《Galaxy on Fire – Alliances》，我们不仅使操作方便易用，而且使其成为游戏的必要部分。通过简单的姿势如滑动和点击，玩家可以有效直观地管理他们的星球基地、导航舰队和探索星球地图。整个屏幕都是感应触击的，每一次互动都产生直接的结果。比如，触击一个星球建筑，就可以立即看到它的结构菜单。个人认为，这种操作方式比PC平台必须的鼠标键盘的组合更高效。因为在手机上，你不是借助外部设备控制游戏，而是用你的手指在屏幕上直接执行活动。

及时跟进的推送提示

是的，我们都知道这种东西，有时候真觉得推送提示惹人烦。但那是因为它们被误用为强迫人看的广告工具。然而，在手机策略MMO中，它们确实可以强化游戏体验。因为如果你允许接收推送提示，你就不必开着应用等到你的高级建筑完工或准备开战的舰队抵达目的地。相反地，你可以关闭应用做其他事，比如读博客或写邮件，当你在应用中的活动完成时，你就会立即收到推送提示。你想回到游戏只需轻轻地点击一下。多亏了推送提示的明智使用，你不必频繁地打开应用查看进度了；推送提示就像你的手机中的私人助理，保证你不会错过任何即将发生的事件。

galaxy-on-fire-alliances 4(from gamasutra)

应用商店的支持

手机游戏通过应用商店如Apple App Store或Google Play进行全球推广，我们在本文开头就已经提到这一点了，这不是手机胜过PC网页游戏的唯一优势。因为所有手机用户都会在应用商店创建自己的帐号，当他们想查看你的应用时他们已经注册了。因此，他们不必经过其他额外的注册步骤，而是马上安装并开始使用你的应用。但是，老实说，那其实并不是应用商店推广模式胜过PC网页的地方，因为—-除非你已经先安装了游戏客户端，你也可以非常快地进入PC游戏。手机更加方便的地方其实是支付。因为游戏是直接与你的应用商店帐号绑定的，你不需要通过外部服务如信用卡、银行汇款或Paypal来进行支付IAP这样的微交易。对于开发者，这意味着用户会更加乐意购买DLC、积分包和其他商品，只因为支付这些商品或服务更加方便容易了。对于用户，这意味着整个支付体验更加透明直接。因为如果你的帐号没有和信用卡绑定，你要做的就是保证你的帐户每月在应用和IAP上所花的钱不会太多。如果你使用Paypal或网上银行来购买IAP，那么你可能会禁不住“再买一次”，即使你两天前刚发过誓这个月不在游戏上花钱了。但如果你已经有了每月可用额度，当用完时，你可能不会冲动地再充值。当然，用户也可能很容易落入“金钱陷阱”，但我仍然认为这种事在手机游戏比在PC网页游戏中更少发生。最后，多亏了社交游戏网络的全面整合，玩家甚至不必注册就能在手机上玩MMO了，只要他们在游戏中心上已经有帐号。

交叉推广和插页广告

App Store和Google Play为什么能显著增加你的应用下载量？这与手机的另一个强大优势有关，即应用间的交叉推广。与网页横幅广告不同，手机通过全屏的插页广告引导一款应用的用户到另一款应用，从而产生极高的转化率。当然，我们在这里相当于拿苹果与桔子作比较（至少在一定程度上），因为“应用到应用”仅限于平台内部，而“网页到网页”则超过了平台限制。后者总是比前者更复杂、更麻烦。但还是那个事实：我们在手机上花的时间越来越多了，在“传统的”电脑面前越来越少了，通过插页广告开发玩家当然比网址、链接和横幅广告更容易。为了解释这一点，我在这里透露封测版《Galaxy on Fire – Alliances》的一些数据。为了提高服务器活跃度，我们通过各种渠道邀请版本测试员。另外，我们设置了一个特殊的封测版网站，将新闻稿链接到注册表，在我们的大多数热门iOS游戏《Galaxy on Fire 2 HD》中内置注册广告。尽管后者是一款动作科幻射击游戏（它的受众与对它交叉广告的游戏的是完全不同的），但到目前为止，对我们来说，通过插页广告从活跃的《Galaxy on Fire 2 HD》玩家中招募新游戏的测试员是最成功的方式。在Playhaven的帮助下，我们已经让《Galaxy on Fire 2 HD》的玩家看到超过1百万个插页广告，这促进了10万注册量。相反地是，目前为止我们通过各自的网站得到的注册量仅有1500—-包括通过Safari注册参加封测的玩家（手机用户）和通过PC注册的玩家（非手机用户）。所以，至少按我们的经验看，通过手机拉动流量确实比网页更有效。

平板电脑——终极游戏设备

最后，我们来说说被认为是我们这个时代的终极游戏设备—-平板。结合了直观的触屏操作、游戏机的图像、笔记本的大屏幕和智能手机的便携，平板确实集各种游戏设备的优点于一体。因此，它们当然适合运行策略MMO，因为它们的屏幕足够显示甚至最复杂的地图或最大的基地，而与此同时，它们还便于携带。一方面，平板用户可以轻松地导航和操作游戏；另一方面，平板用户还可以边走边玩。与笔记本电脑（你也可以随身携带）不同，它们不需要放在桌上就能方便地使用。平板确实比笔记本更方便更直观更容易使用。另外，进一步支持平板成为终极游戏设备的事实就是，过去几年平板的销量直线上升。所以毫无疑问，平板将成为手机游戏的终极设备，特别是手机策略MMO！（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）

Commanding Troops on Touch Devices – Why Mobile is the perfect Platform for Strategy MMOs

by Michael Schade

At Fishlabs, we’ve been making high-quality 3D mobile games for more than 8 years. While we’ve mostly focused on action, sports and racing games in the past, we’re now about to tackle another genre as well, namely the strategy MMO. In the course of this blog, we’d like to give you some firsthand insight on our new title Galaxy on Fire – Alliances and illustrate why mobile has – at least in our opinion – outstripped the PC browser as the perfect platform for these kinds of games.  To offer a broad and comprehensive approach, we will investigate this topic from both a developer’s and a publisher’s perspective. Consequently, we will not only show why mobile is a more than promising market for MMOS, but we will also point out the distinct features of touch devices that are particularly well-suited for multiplayer strategy games.

Browser Games – Time to pass the Torch

Thanks to their low entry barrier, easy accessibility and motivating multiplayer gameplay, browser games took the gaming industry by storm in the late 1990s, when an ever-growing number of households got connected to the web. In recent years, however, the browser games industry has not been able to continue its rapid rise but rather has it experienced a phase of consolidation, with leading companies laying off staff and pulling the plug on million-dollar-projects due to rising cost of user acquisition, dwindling player numbers and an overall market saturation. And though a number of other factors have most likely played a role in this development as well, one key reason for this decline can surely be found in the recent advent of a tough competitor to the browser game, namely the mobile game. With top titles such as “Clash of Clans” or “Kingdoms of Camelot” turning in six- or seven-figure revenues per day from tens of millions of monthly active users, there should be little doubt that we’re currently experiencing a new era of conjoint gaming, which is no longer taking place on the computer screen but on the touch screen. In the following, we’d like to investigate this “changing of the guard” a bit further and examine why mobile does indeed constitute the best possible platform for certain game types, such as strategy MMOs.

Install Base & Self-Publishing – Get your Game out to Tens of Millions of Users all by yourself

According to Deloitte [1], the combined number of activated and used (!) smartphones and tablets will have surpassed 1.75 billion by the end of 2013. Moreover, we’ve already been able to record more than 50 million app downloads on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, more than 50% of which have been generated over the past 12 months. And, considering the booming, vibrant nature of the mobile industry, an end to this development is not yet in sight.  For developers, this means that they can now open up a very auspicious and extremely fruitful market, which is not only incredibly huge but also comparatively easy to access. Thanks to seamlessly integrated app stores on smart connected devices, gaming studios can now reach out to tens or even hundreds of millions of potential players around the world all by themselves, without teaming up with an external publisher. And that new-found autonomy is something that could hardly be underestimated, because it means that studios no longer rely on the financial muscle of external partner. Take Supercell, for example. The less-than-100-strong Finnish company runs total of two games (Hay Day and Clash of Clans) on one platform (iOS) and still turns in astronomical revenues day after day [2]. Of course, it’s a one-of-a-kind success story that will most likely not be reproduced any time soon. But even if you think in smaller scales and diminish the numbers proportionately, you’ll still find that mobile can be an incredibly lucrative market for established and uprising studios alike. Obviously, where there’s opportunity, there’s also competition. So if you want to make it on mobile and stick out of the mass, you really need an outstanding product with a top-notch presentation and strong USP to leave your rivals in the dust. In case of Galaxy on Fire – Alliances, the most crucial aspects of the game that will (hopefully) set it apart from similar titles are its high-end 3D graphics and easily-accessible alliance and PvP gameplay. While the elaborate visuals (including little gadgets such as fully rotatable/zoomable 3D planets and structures) “suck” the players deeper into the game by providing them with additional means to “play around” and interact with the things they see on the screen, the strong focus on teamplay caters for additional motivation to stick with the game over a particularly long period of time. Because nothing keeps players hooked like the possibility to share their gaming experience with friends and peers. Therefore, we’ve made it particularly easy for people to communicate with each other inside of the app and coordinate their actions (such as carrying out attacks or sending backup troops) in accordance to one another. Here, we also benefit from the fact that the “download to active users” ratio on mobile is particularly high, due to the fact that the game is always accessible on a smart connected device and in most cases no sing-up is required to play a free mobile game.

Wearable Computing – Our Apps are with us 24 Hours a Day and 365 Days a Year

Let’s be honest. How many times have you left your flat in the past couple of weeks without carrying your smartphone with you? Okay, you might have forgotten to slip your iPhone or Droid into your pocket one or two times when you’ve been in a hurry, but other than that I’m pretty sure you’ve always had your phone right there by your side. And that’s just natural, because we’ve reached a state in which our mobile devices are almost as essential a part of our get-up as our shoes, trousers or belts. Flurry calls this phenomenon “wearable computing” and describes the phenomenon as follows: “Wearable computing already arrived with the smartphone. Our data confirms what many of us know from experience: smartphones, tablets and the apps installed on them appear to be glued to consumers 24/7, 365. They are with us when we wake, work, exercise, eat, play and yes, even when we sleep” [3]. Naturally, this also leads to a shift in user behavior. In late 2011, users had already spend a total of 94 minutes per day with their apps, as opposed to “only” 72 minutes of normal web consumption. [4] And the spread between these numbers has only gotten bigger in recent months and years. If you now keep in mind that games still make up for on third of all mobile usage [5] and that the average gaming session on mobile is constantly getting longer and longer [6], all you need to do is add up the numbers to see how fruitful an environment the mobile market is for ambitious game developing studios. Unfortunately, I don’t have any concrete data from another mobile strategy MMO at hand and it’s still too early to release any data from our own Closed Beta of Galaxy on Fire – Alliances, so I have to refrain to a differing kind of mobile game, namely FIFA 13, for additional numbers. According to the title’s Senior Director Mike McCabe, the mobile version of bestselling soccer simulation registered 5-7 daily sessions with a total playtime of 45 minutes in early October 2012, roughly a month after its official launch on the App Store [7]. Though the overall playtime per user might still be higher on PC or console, it’s relatively safe to say that the majority of Xbox 360 or PS3 players do not boot their consoles up to 7 times a day, just to play a single match. On mobile, however, that’s quite certainly the case. And it is to be expected that the players will log in to a strategy MMO, whose snackable gameplay is specifically designed for that kind of user behavior, even more often – especially when even a small action can have a significant impact and when the players are also kept up-to-date about the progress of the game via push notifications.

Ubiquitous Connectivity – Play wherever and whenever you want

The whole wearable computing thing becomes even more substation when you consider the fact that almost every smart device is non-stop connected to the internet these days. Even if you haven’t got a WiFi connection established, you will in most cases still be able to access the web via LTE, 3G or Edge – unless you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere or locked up in a high-security prison cell, of course. Therefore, you can play a multiplayer strategy MMO on your phone wherever you are and whenever you want. In opposition to that, you can only play a PC browser game when you’re at home or sitting at your desk at work. And even if you’d be carrying a notebook with you, you’d still need a free WiFi spot or a portable internet stick to access the web. Plus, you’d also need to boot your OS, open your browser and start the game whenever you want to perform an action – a rather tedious process that you would hardly ever go through in order to to upgrade one building or relocate one unit. On smartphones or tablets, however, you can simply keep the app running in the background and open it with a single tap whenever you’ve got a little spare time on your hands. This means that you’ll be expanding your home base or commanding your troops at any given time, e.g. when you’re riding the bus, when you’re having your lunch break or when you’re waiting in the queue at the super market. Especially in times, when you don’t need a better connection than 3G or even Edge anymore to play a multiplayer game, this is an advantage that could hardly be overestimated! Because at the end of the day, it means that you no longer have to coordinate your gaming habits with your everyday routine. Instead, you can now make gaming – and even online gaming – an integral part of your daily life and literally play whenever you want and not only when you’ve got the time to sit down at your desk for an hour or two.

Snackable Gameplay – Even the smallest Gaming Session makes an Impact

The different user behavior, which results from mobile’s omni-presence in our daily lives, also leads to different gameplay mechanics on smartphones and tablets. Because here the entire game design is conceived in a way that allows for meaningful gaming sessions regardless of how much time you’re spending with the app. And right now, I can’t think of another genre, which benefits from this peculiar situation more than the strategy MMO. After all, progress is not a continuous stream of interlocking events in these kinds of games, but rather an ongoing interplay commands and latencies. You upgrade a building and then you wait for the upgrade to be finished. You send off your troops and then you wait for them to arrive. And so on. This means that you don’t have to be “in the game” all the time, but only when you’re about to perform another action. Consequently, you can literally enter the app several dozen times a day and only execute one or two small (but important!) commands each time. And you will still make significant progress. Such a “portioning” of the gaming experience is not possible in any other genre. Try to play a soccer game and leave the app after every goal you’ve scored, or play a jump’n’run and take a little time-out after every platform you’ve reached. It just wouldn’t work, would it?  In a well-designed mobile strategy MMO, however, you can indeed only be logged in for 1 minute and perform one important action, such as launching a crucial attack, and it’ll have significant meaning for the further progress of the game. But on the other hand, you can also be logged in for several hours and perform a plethora of different actions without the game becoming repetitive or boring. You’re the one who sets the pace and since your device is always close-by anyway and since it’ll only take you a split second to access the app, you’ll most likely be much more willing to cramp as many small yet equally meaningful gaming sessions into your everyday routine as you can. And since every good game designer is well aware of the differing playing habits of mobile gamers, they’ll make sure that your actions in the game will always feel important, no matter whether it took you a minute or an hour to carry them out.

Touch Controls – Use intuitive Gestures to conquer entire Worlds

Most hardcore PC and console gamers will argue that the biggest advantage of their preferred platforms over mobile is the availability of keyboard, gamepad or joystick controls. At the end of the day, however, that’s a tough call to make, because it all comes down to habituality and practice. As games like Dead Trigger and Real Racing 3 have shown, even ego shooters and racing simulations – i.e. games with very fast-paced gameplay – can be incredibly good fun on touchscreen devices, if the controls are well-thought-out and ably executed. And for mobile strategy MMOs, the whole situation is even more eligible. Because here you don’t have to make quick turns or aim with utmost precision. So here’s where touch controls really shine, because they enable you to manage your bases, command your troops and communicate with your allies with just a few taps and swipes. In a user-friendly mobile strategy MMO, you can perform all actions intuitively right there on the screen, using nothing more than the tip of your finger. In Galaxy on Fire – Alliances, we’ve worked very hard to make the controls not only convenient and easy-to-use, but also an integral part of the game. By leveraging familiar gestures such as swipes and pinches, the players can manage their star bases, navigate their fleets and explore the star map both intuitively and effectively. All parts of the screen are touch-sensitive and every interaction leads to a direct result. Tapping a structure in the planet view opens the respective structure menu right away. Personally, I find this way more efficient and pleasant-to-use than the combination of mouse and keyboard you have to refrain to on the PC. Because on mobile you’re not controlling the game from the outside with the aid of external appliances, but instead you’re right there in the game, shaping the actions on the screen directly with your own hands.

Push Notifications – Keep Track of the latest Happenings even when you’re not Playing

Yeah, we all know it. Push notifications can be a real pain in the ass. But only if they’re being misused as unwished, obtrusive advertising tools. In a mobile strategy MMO, however, they can be invaluable assets that truly enhance your gaming experience. Because if you’ve got push notifications enabled, you don’t have to wait in the app until your high-level structure has been finished or your attack-ready fleet has reached its destination. Instead, you can close the app and do something else, like reading a blog or writing an email, and as soon as the action in question has been performed, you’ll be notified instantly. And all that it takes you to get back to the game is one tap on the display. Thanks to cleverly used push notifications, you don’t have to open the app repeatedly to check the progress of the latest action you’ve performed, but it will be more like you had some kinda personal assistant right there on your phone, who’d make sure that you won’t miss any of the upcoming happenings and events.

App Stores – Lowering the Entrance Barrier for Players and Developers alike

The global distribution of mobile games via app stores such as the Apple App Store or Google Play, which we’ve already been dealt with at the beginning of this article, is not the only big advantage of mobile as opposed to the PC browser. Since all mobile users have to create accounts at their respective app stores anyway, they’ll already be signed up by the time they’re about to check out your app. Therefore, they won’t have to go through any additional registration processes, but instead they can install the game in just a couple of minutes and get started right away. But, to be honest, that alone isn’t really an advantage of the app store distribution model over the PC browser, because – unless you’ve got to install a game client first – you can also get started rather quickly there. What’s way more convenient on mobile, however, is payment. Since the game is linked directly to your App Store or Google Play account, you don’t have to refrain to external services such as credit card payment, bank transfer or Paypal to make a micro-transaction for an IAP. For developers, this means that users are more willing to purchase DLCs, credit packs and other goodies, simply because it’s easier and more convenient to pay for these items or services. And for users, this means that the whole payment situation is quite a bit more straightforward and transparent. Because if you don’t have a credit card linked to your account, all you have to do is make sure that the balance on your account is not more than you wanna spend on apps and IAPs every month. If you’ve got to use Paypal or online banking anyway in order to buy in-game goods, you might become tempted to make “just one more transaction” even though you’ve sworn two days earlier that you’re not going to spend any more money on the game this month. But if you’ve got a concrete amount of money on your disposal every month, you might be less intrigued to re-fill it manually after it’s been used up. Of course, users can easily fall into the “money trap” on mobile as well, but I’d still think it’s less likely to happen in a mobile game than a browser game, because on mobile the process of making an actual transaction is not as eminent as it is on the PC. Finally, thanks to fully integrated social gaming networks, players don’t even have to signup to play an MMO on mobile if they already have an account on Game Center or GPGS.

Cross-Promotion & Interstitials – Use Apps to drive Traffic to other Apps

The power of the App Store and Google Play to generate downloads for your app goes hand in hand with another strong advantage of mobile, namely the possibility to do cross-promotion between apps. Unlike web banners, for example, the procedure of directing the users of one app to another app via fullscreen interstitials results in a particularly high conversion rate. Of course, we’re comparing apples to oranges here (at least to a certain extent) because “app to app” is platform-internal while “web to app” goes beyond platform boundaries. And the latter’s always a bit more complicated and less smoothly to pull off. But still: If you keep in mind that we’re spending more and more time on mobile and less and less time in front of a “traditional” computer, it makes good sense to point out how much easier it is to acquire players via interstitials as opposed to web sites, links and banners. To illustrate this, here are a few numbers from the Closed Beta of Galaxy on Fire – Alliances. To fill our servers with life, we’ve invited beta testers through various channels. Among others, we’ve set up a special Closed Beta website, we’ve send out press releases with a link to the registration form and we’ve displayed customized sign-up interstitials in our most popular iOS game, Galaxy on Fire 2 HD. And although the latter is an action-packed sci-fi shooter (i.e. an entirely different genre with a whole different target audience than Galaxy on Fire – Alliances), recruiting beta testers from the active GOF2 HD players via in-game interstitials has by far been the most successful way for us to drive users towards the Closed Beta of our new game. With the aid of Playhaven, we’ve shown a bit more than 1,000;000 interstitials to the players of Galaxy on Fire 2 HD. This resulted in almost 100,000 registrations so far. As opposed to that, we’ve gotten a bit more than 1,500 registrations through the respective website to date – and this includes users that have signed up for the Closed Beta via Safari (i.e. “mobile natives”) as well as players that have done so via their PCs (i.e. “non-mobile” users). So, at least from our experience, driving traffic to our games via mobile is indeed much more effective than driving traffic to ‘em via the web.

Tablets – The ultimate Gaming Devices

And last but not least, there’s the tablet – arguably the most capable gaming device of our time. Combining intuitive touch and gesture-based controls, console-like graphic performance on a fairly large screen with the all-the-time readiness of the smartphone, tablets really embody the best of two worlds. Thus, they’re indeed perfectly suited for running strategy MMOs, because their displays are big enough to depict even the most complex maps or biggest bases, while at the same time they are not stationary but can still be carried around by their users wherever they go. On the one hand, tablet users can perfectly navigate and operate the games they play. But on the other hand, they can also enjoy them on the go. And unlike a notebook (which you can also carry around quite easily), they don’t need ages to boot and a table to be put on in order to be used conveniently. Instead, tablets are really handy and can be accessed and used way easier, quicker and more intuitively than notebooks. Add to this the fact that tablet sales have been rapidly increasing over the past couple of years, and there should be little doubt that tablets are the ultimate devices for mobile games in general – and mobile strategy MMOs in particular!(source:gamasutra)