作者：Dale North

第一款Apple Watch游戏的开发者正在开辟一条新道路。

如今的游戏正在不断缩小。但游戏市场却并非如此——得益于游戏的兴盛，苹果App Store在2014年销售额达到了150亿美元。如果开发者知道如何为英寸屏幕的全新Apple Watch创造游戏，他们便能够在新兴可穿戴式游戏领域中拥有自己的立足点。根据分析预测，2015年苹果将卖出4千万台Apple Watch，所以这将成为一个可探索的广阔空间。

但是当3月份苹果公开Apple Watch的时候他们似乎并未为游戏创造者铺好道路。对于这款可穿戴式设备，该公司主要专注于健康性与舒适性的应用，并且在3月份的新闻发布会上苹果也未提到任何有关游戏的字眼。开发者仍然不能利用该设备的完整功能与开发工具。现在，苹果的预览页面中只出现了2款游戏。

现在可能还太早，苹果只提供了较少的帮助，但游戏开发者却非常主动。在2015年，游戏将会创造出300亿美元的收益。如果可穿戴式游戏也有如此发展趋势，那么开发者便不会错过它。

研究公司EEDAR分析师Patrick Walker说道，当消费者开始与可穿戴式技术进行互动时，游戏将变成这一连接的主要组成部分。他向媒体表示，Apple Watch将跟随iPhone的趋势，即从实用性最终转向游戏。

Walker说道：“最初，Apple Watch游戏市场会因为该平台的局限性，即屏幕大小和输入方法等因素而未能得到有效发展。大多数消费者会困惑，‘为什么我要在手表上玩游戏而不是在智能手机上？’”

“然而根据历史发展规律，消费者通常会以一些不可预见的方式陷入全新的苹果技术中，而与这种技术的全新互动方式也会创造出全新的游戏可行性。游戏在Apple Watch上的突破性的成功将取决于开发者是否能够将游戏整合到与可穿戴式技术进行互动的全新方式中。”

有些开发者希望作为可穿戴式游戏开发的先驱，而有些开发者则只想要尝试全新的设备。但不论是哪种开发者，创造第一款Apple Watch游戏都不是件易事。

苹果的WatchKit让开发者能够在Apple Watch上做许多尝试，但却不包括原生应用开发。

束缚与阻碍

所有游戏发行时都是与iPhone绑定在一起，而手表服务只是作为运行于智能手机上的一个屏幕界面。第三方开发者还不能创造独立的原生Watch应用。这让Watch成为了一个“单薄的客户端”。

此外，开发者也不能使用Apple Watch的Digital Crown的完整功能以及其它许多高级功能，如Taptic Engine和心跳感应器。苹果表示很快便会允许开发者访问原生应用，而现在包括游戏在内的所有应用都只是iPhone应用的扩展。

信息服务公司Tango的游戏发行部副总裁Jim Ying表示，即使当这一新设备及其工具完全开放时，开发者也需要发挥创造性来运用这一设备。

Ying说道：“大多数iPhone游戏开发者将Apple Watch当成是第二个屏幕体验，因为它的起始位置是在智能手机上。他们正着眼于现有的成功业务模式并观看着这一手表会如何改变它。对于独立游戏来说这里也存在一些挑战，如屏幕大小和电池寿命等等。所以为了在此创造出独立游戏体验，开发者就需要发挥创造性思维。”

当提到应用和游戏开发时，游戏本身也具有挑战性。开发者表示在Watch上执行动画并不像在智能手机上那么简单。他们必须使用旧式图像序列才能在Apple Watch上呈现动画，就像手翻书那样。流畅的动画需要更多图像组成这些序列，而这便需要占据大量的空间。

新的思维方式

旧式iPhone和iPad需要完全不同的游戏创造思维，Apple Watch也需要属于自己的方法。Bossa Studios(即将问世的游戏《Spy_Watch》开发者）首席运营官Vince Farquharson认为强行将iPhone风格的游戏带到Watch上是一种错误的方法，Farquharson说道，“这简直是一种罪孽。”

“对于Watch来说，10个理念中有9个理念会是错的。你能够想到的所有传统理念都是错误的理念。我们需要花较长时间与之进行互动，其屏幕太小呈现不了太多内容，并且电池的消耗速度也会很快。你需要明智地看待这些因素。你可以着眼于它的功能和局限性并找出能够弥补其不足的方法。”

“你不能尝试着思考如何在另外一个平台上创造游戏——这是错误的思维方式。你应该着眼于它的独特性——这才是你的出发点。这也是接近这一设备的更有趣方式。”

《Spy_Watch》是一款互动性角色扮演的早前文本冒险游戏，玩家将扮演间谍的角色。Bossa Studios所采用的方法是使用Watch的内置通知系统去传达游戏故事。Farquharson认为Watch最初的局限性“很让人兴奋”，并表示这能够激发他们工作室内部的试验因子。他还强调，可穿戴式设备也具有自己的优点。

Farquharson说道：“它能够做一些其它设备做不到的事。这是现今能够最快发出通知的设备，所以我们应该思考如何有效将其利用于游戏开发中而不是想着如何对抗种种局限性，并一味地将传统体验整合到不适合的设备上。”

Robot 5是以创造Apple Watch游戏为目的的全新工作室，它拥有3个待发行作品，包括一款连线消除益智游戏和一款足球游戏。它计划在年中面向Watch发行10款游戏。该工作室的Peter Chen承认，他们需要为此付出大量的努力。

Chen说道：“时间便是其中的挑战和局限性。在我们的游戏中添加复杂的场景是非常具有挑战性且会消耗大量的时间。例如改变iPhone游戏中足球的颜色可能需要通过改变几行代码才能完成，这只需要花费几分钟的时间。而在Apple Watch游戏中，基于不同场景所需要的足球次数，这样的改变可能需要花费好几个小时。”

“最大的挑战是动画的复杂性。iPhone游戏可以拥有非常复杂的动画，伴随着对于每个像素以及整个屏幕上的物体移动的完整控制。而Apple Watch游戏却不行，所以我们必须想办法模拟这样的行为。”

有些开发者提到了第三方Watch应用的反应性，这是与iPhone的客户端连接的副作用。这意味着快速的动作游戏可能并不适合。

Chen说道：“当你轻敲第三方应用的一个按键时可能会出现延迟情况。也许在不久之后苹果便会优化这一问题。但是因为敲打按键行动是通过蓝牙传输到iPhone，再从iPhone通过蓝牙回到Apple Watch，所以当你轻敲第三方应用的按键时会不可避免地出现延迟。”

Everywear Games（即将面向Watch问世的角色扮演游戏《Runeblade》开发者）首席执行官，Aki Jarvilehto说道，心态的改变是比任何技术限制都更大的障碍。

Jarvilehto说道：“形状因素本身就是不同的，其中存在许多我们需要去执行的各种参数，我们必须通过反复试验才能了解它们。从开发视角来看，最大的改变就是心态的改变。智能手表游戏将会顺利进入我们的生活中。它们需要能够轻松被感知到并且具有游戏的乐趣。这是一种根本性的改变，我们需要为此回答一些新问题：你将如何在5至15秒内传递乐趣？你将如何在几天，几周甚至是几个月时间里传达游戏体验？”

保持游戏的简短性

面对那些最初问世于Apple Watch的游戏，开发者已经意识到了游戏时间的问题。不只一个开发者告诉媒体，他们希望在首次发行时将时间设定为15秒以下。而这将不再是关于技术限制，而是关于玩家的舒适度与乐趣问题。

《Watch This Homerun》开发商Eyes Wide Games表示，让玩家长时间将手举到脸前是不可行的，这也推动他们打开全新的游戏风格。

其首席执行官Stephen Griffin说道：“在开发初期，我们创造了一个物理模型并佩戴了一整天以感受随时抬起手臂游戏的体验。基于这样的经历我们搞清楚了2件事：长时间不断抬起手臂并不是件舒服的事，而像佩戴普通手表那样短时间抬起手臂然后将其放下将会更加自然。”

“当我们听到苹果提供给开发者关于Apple Watch的应用10秒钟的目标建议后，我们的结论也得到了证实。尽管这个时间短于我们最初的计划，但这也验证了我们关于游戏尝试的一些假设。”

他说道，让自己的团队感到兴奋的是他们将能够创造全新风格的游戏。

Griffin表示，因为打开，启动并运行游戏的这种短时间体验并不适合手机。他表示，从长远看来，这种较短的体验将得到完善并有可能弥补时间所带来的不足。

“不可避免地，这类型游戏将会呈现出非常短的体验；然而我们认为这也将会是一种更加集中的体验，它们将彼此联系在一起从而组成一个更大的游戏体验。即比起5分钟的体验，你将拥有20个15秒钟的体验。更有趣的是，我们认为比起3至5分钟的手机体验，这些15秒钟的体验将更适合玩家忙碌的生活，并且能够吸引他们更频繁地游戏。”

Griffin相信Apple Watch的易用性有可能逐渐取代手机游戏。

“从游戏回合和总体时间来看，我认为Apple Watch游戏有可能取代手机游戏，就像休闲手机游戏取代休闲桌面游戏那样。这是关于人们将把时间花费在哪里的问题。”

现在，面对着巧妙的应用内部购买的使用，Apple Watch游戏将需要通过付费定价去谋取利益。例如Playscreen的游戏《Blackjack Anywhere》售价2美元，但却没有应用内部购买或时间限制。这就跟早前游戏一样。

EEDAR分析师Patrick Walker表示，在Watch上并不存在足够的屏幕空间能够放置有效的广告，尽管能够使用一些较短的间隙广告。所以Watch游戏将会基于特定价格进行出售，除非它们打算使用手机屏幕。

Walker说道：“对于那些基于对之前平台的学习和范式而进行设计的游戏盈利存在一定的挑战，即更大的屏幕能够更好地吸引玩家并传达广告。游戏开发者必须在了解消费者的游戏体验是否真正适合可穿戴式平台后再决定盈利方式。一开始该平台上的许多游戏都将会是付费游戏，因为在这种小屏幕设备上执行基于IAP或广告的收益模式具有挑战性。”

Digi-Capital总经理Tim Merel表示不管是付费应用还是免费应用在Apple Watch上都具有发展潜能，尽管这种小屏幕需要开发者想出全新的广告方式。原生广告将变得比现在更加重要。Merel同样也强调，每天不断增加的游戏时间对于游戏开发者来说将是一个有趣的机遇。

Merel说道：“Digi-Capital的分析表示，每天的游戏时间对于手机游戏来说非常重要，就像第一名和第五名畅销应用之间甚至可能出现多达35倍之间的差距。因为在一天时间里Apple Watch的使用率将超过iPhone，这便为开发者提供了很好的机遇。而利用该机遇便需要开发者采取全新的方法，因为这毕竟是个采用小屏幕的设备。”

因为只有18个小时的电池寿命，所以用户每个晚上都需要为自己的Apple Watch充电。

无需担心电池

苹果为这台可穿戴式设备设置了18个小时的电池寿命，即与iPhone相配对。这数值是包括45分钟的应用使用。我们很难判断游戏是否会对此产生影响。用户和专家认为电池寿命将会是Watch的最大劣势。

尽管还有其它考虑因素，但似乎Apple Watch游戏的开发者并不担心其电池寿命。Eyes Wide Games告诉GamesBeat，“我们可以自信地说电池寿命并不会是问题所在。”

Robot 5的Peter Chen表示如果游戏玩法（游戏邦注：每次少于15秒）能够匹配电池状况的话便会很好。

Chen说道：“我们期待Apple Watch用户每次运行应用的时间是在15秒钟以内。因为每次抬起手臂长达几分钟是没有意义的。对于游戏也是如此。”

连接性也是电池寿命需要考虑的问题。基于WatchKit，游戏和应用将使用无形的无线连接在Watch和iPhone之间发送数据，而持续消耗的另一个层面将附加在有限的电池寿命中。但因为iPhone将承担大部分处理过程，所以Watch也会比较轻松。

“因为应用和游戏在这些过程中所消耗的时间并不长，再加上处理过程还是在iPhone上进行，所以我认为在Watch上玩游戏与使用应用对于设备电池的影响是一样的——在一整天时间里它们对于电池的消耗并不会太大。”

始终处于iPhone的影子之下

苹果表示其Watch将只专注于应用的舒适度和健康性，并且未提到游戏的任何字眼。IHS Technology分析师Jack Kent表示Watch的小屏幕将会大大限制互动性，所以开发者必须发挥创造性才能将游戏带到该平台上。

Kent说道：“自从智能手机和平板电脑诞生以来，游戏便成为了主要的手机媒体类别——包括苹果在内的设备制造者经常会面向游戏开发者呈现全新的硬件功能。这与智能手表是不同的。在Watch发行时，大多数应用开发都将专注于健康和舒适度服务，交流和通知。虽然游戏在智能手表中也拥有自己的角色，但这仅限于基于定位的游戏以及非常休闲的游戏。对于智能手表来说游戏将不会成为主要卖点。”

Digi-Capital的Merel强调，尽管拥有较大的安装基础，但与iPhone相比较还是小巫见大巫。基于这一原因，Apple Watch将不可能在游戏方面取代手机设备。

即使身处iPhone的影子之下，Apple Watch也可能因其便利性这一筹码而吸引用户。我们所交流过的许多开发者都表示，基于易用性，可穿戴式设备将能够提高游戏的用户留存和用户粘性——这也是将给手机开发者带来挑战的两大元素。

Chen说道：“人们日常生活中总会遇到许多适合快速分散注意力但却并不是很方便的情况，如在开往回家之路的拥挤地铁上或等待开会的时候。我们可以想象一个人一天玩《Blackjack Mini》10次并且每次游戏时间为10秒，而如果是玩一款更具沉浸感的iPhone游戏的话，玩家一个晚上将会窝在沙发上花10分钟玩一次游戏。”

Eyes Wide Games的Griffin认为Apple Watch终有一天也会变成像今天的智能手机游戏一样重要。它需要的是有趣的游戏体验。

他说道：“只要游戏足够优秀，Apple Watch上的游戏将成为所有Apple Watch用户的改革性游戏。之后他们花费在iPhone上玩游戏的时间将越来越少。就像休闲游戏从台式机转向手机一样，休闲游戏也有可能再一次转向用户更频繁使用的设备上。”

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

It’s not easy to make Apple Watch games, but developers are doing it anyway

Dale North

The first Apple Watch game makers are carving a new path.

Games are shrinking. But gaming market isn’t — games helped Apple’s App Store sales reach a record-breaking $15 billion in 2014. If developers figure out how to squeeze games down for the tiny 2-inch screen of the new Apple Watch, they could have a solid foothold in the emerging wearable games sector. And with analysts predicting up to 40 million Apple Watches sold in 2015, this could be a good space to be in.

But Apple did little to pave the way for game makers when it announced its Apple Watch in March. The company focused on health and fitness applications for its wearable, never mentioning gaming in its March press conference. Developers still don’t have access to the device’s full feature set and development tools. As of now, Apple’s preview page only has two games.

It’s still early, and Apple is providing little assistance, but game makers are taking the initiative already. Mobile gaming is expected to reach $30 billion in 2015. If wearable gaming is going in the same direction, developers won’t want to miss out.

Patrick Walker, an analyst at research company EEDAR, says that as consumers begin interacting with wearable technology, gaming will become a bigger part of the conversation. He tells GamesBeat that Apple Watch could follow iPhone’s history, moving from utility use toward gaming eventually.

“Initially, the market for Apple Watch games will be modest because of the limitations of the platform in terms of screen size and input methods,” Walker says. “Most consumers will ask themselves, ‘Why would I play this experience on my watch instead of my smartphone?’

“However, history has shown that there are typically unforeseen ways in which consumers engage with new Apple technology, and new ways of interacting with the technology create new gaming possibilities. Breakout success of gaming on the Apple Watch will depend on integrating games into these new ways of interacting with wearable technology.”

Some developers are hoping to pioneer wearable game development and others are simply excited about experimentation with a new device. But making the first Apple Watch games hasn’t been easy for any of them.

Apple’s WatchKit lets developers do a lot of things with Apple Watch, but native app creation isn’t one of them.

Tied down and held back

At launch, all games are tethered to the iPhone, with the watch serving only as a screen interface for applications running on the smartphone. Third-party developers aren’t yet able to create standalone native Watch applications. This essentially makes the Watch a thin client.

Beyond this, developers do not have access to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown’s full feature set, and many of its other advanced features of the Watch, such as the Taptic Engine and the heartbeat sensor, are not yet available to developers. Apple could permit native app access to developers soon, but for now all apps including games will essentially be extensions of iPhone apps.

But even when full access to the device and its tools opens up,  Jim Ying VP of games publishing at messaging service Tango says that it’ll take creative minds to go beyond this.

“Most iPhone game developers see the Apple Watch as being a second-screen experience because their starting location is in the smart phone space,” Ying told GamesBeat in an interview. “They look at their existing, successful business model and see how the watch can improve that. There are also challenges to standalone games like screen size and battery life. It will take creative minds for that standalone experience to come to fruition.”

The watch itself presents its own challenges when it comes to app and game development. Developers say that animations aren’t as easy to implement on Watch as they are on smartphones. They must use old-fashioned image sequences to show animations on Apple Watch, just like a paper flip-book. Smooth animations require more images for these sequences, which hogs precious space.

Bossa Studios’ Spy_Watch uses Apple’s own notification system to make you feel like a real secret spy.

A new mindset

Just as the iPhone and iPad required a different mindset for game making, the Apple Watch will need its own approach. Bossa Studios chief operating officer Vince Farquharson, creator of upcoming launch title Spy_Watch, says that shoehorning iPhone-style games on the Watch is the wrong approach — “I think it’s a sin,” Farquharson tells GamesBeat.

“Nine out of 10 ideas are wrong for the watch. All the traditional ideas you can come up are just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It takes too long to interact with it, the screen is too small to show that, or it’s going to drain the battery. You have to be quite smart about it. You’ve got to look at the features and limitations and figure out a way to do something that is complementary to the device.

“You don’t try to work at how you get a game on another platform — that’s just the wrong way of thinking about it. You look at what is unique — what is cool, and that is your start point. That’s a much more interesting way to go about it.”

Spy_Watch is an interactive role-playing story reminiscent of old text adventures, where players will take up the role of a spy. Bossa Studios’ workaround was to use the Watch’s built-in notification systems as a way to convey the story. Farquharson called the Watch’s initial limitations “exciting” and said that it helped fuel experimentation within the studio. The wearable also has some good points, he noted.

“It does things that others aren’t quite as good at,” Farquharson said. “It’s the best fast-notification device that exists, so we worked at how we could use that for a game rather than fight against the tide all the time, trying to fit a traditional experience onto that device that didn’t exist when those experiences were designed.”

Robot 5 is a new studio created specifically for the sole purpose of creating Apple Watch games, and it has three prepared for launch, including a match-3 puzzle game and a football game. It plans to release 10 games by mid-year for the Watch. The studio’s Peter Chen admits that it has been a lot of work to get these going.

“Part of the challenge and limitation is time,” Chen told GamesBeat. “Adding the kinds of complex scenes that are in our games is very challenging and time-consuming. For example, changing the color of a football in an iPhone game might take a few minutes by changing a few lines of code. In an Apple Watch game, this change might take several hours depending on how many times the football is used in different scenes.

“The biggest challenge is the complexity of the animations. iPhone games can have animations that are infinitely complex, with full control of each pixel and also of objects movements across the screen. Apple Watch games don’t have this kind of control over pixels and objects, so we have to mimic this kind of behavior.”

Some developers have mentioned responsiveness for third-party Watch apps, a side effect of the client-type connection to the iPhone. This means that fast-paced action games may not be a good fit right now.

“There does seem to be a delay from when you tap a button in a third-party to when the button action takes place,” said Chen. “Apple will likely optimize this issue on launch or shortly after. But there will always be some kind of delay when tapping buttons in third-party apps because the button tap goes from the Apple Watch over Bluetooth to the iPhone, and then back from the iPhone over Bluetooth to the Apple Watch.”

Aki J?rvilehto, the CEO of Everywear Games and developer of upcoming Watch fantasy role-playing game Runeblade, says that a change in mindset is a bigger obstacle than any technical limitation.

“The form factor itself is certainly very different, and there are a number of parameters that you’ll have to operate within that we simply have to learn through trial and error,” J?rvilehto told GamesBeat in an interview. “From the development point of view, the biggest change is without a doubt a change in the mindset. Smartwatch games will have to integrate into our lives smoothly. They need to feel effortless and fun to play. And that’s a radical change and a completely new question to answer: How do you deliver fun in 5-15 seconds? How do you deliver a gameplay experience that evolved over days, weeks and months?”

Keep it short and simple

Even as these first games debut on Apple Watch, developers are already conscious of gameplay session times. More than one developer told GamesBeat that its goal was sessions of 15 seconds or less for this first launch batch. But this is less about technical limitations and more about player comfort and enjoyment.

Eyes Wide Games, developer behind launch title Watch This Homerun, said it became clear early on that holding your arm up to your face wasn’t going to work and that this consideration actually helped open up a new style of gameplay.

“Early in development, we built a physical mockup to wear throughout our day to get a feel for being able to play whenever we lifted our arm,” CEO Stephen Griffin said. “Based on that experience two things became clear: It wasn’t comfortable to hold your arm up continuously for long periods of time and secondly, it really felt more natural to lift up your arm spend a short amount of time looking at it then put it down much like you do with a normal watch.

Watch This Homerun is the first of a series of Watch sports games from Eyes Wide Games.

“Our conclusions were later confirmed when we heard rumors that Apple suggested a 10 second goal for Apple Watch apps at developer labs. While it was shorter than we originally planned, it freed us to drop several assumptions about what we had to put into the game.”

What his team wound up with, he said, is a new style of game.

Griffin says that this short kind of game would have been impractical on a mobile phone due to the time it takes to pull it out, unlock it, start the app, and run the game. It could be that these shorter experiences could build up to equal more play time in the long run, he says.

“They are definitely abbreviated experiences by necessity; however, we see them more as concentrated experiences that link with each other to form a larger play experience. Instead of one 5 minute experience, you have twenty 15 second experiences. More interestingly, we think that these 15 second experiences will better fit into a player’s busy day than 3 to 5 minute mobile experiences and will actually lead to more playing rather than less.”

Griffin believes that the ease of accessibility of the Apple Watch could have it replacing mobile games eventually.

“In terms of number of play sessions and total playtime, I think that Apple Watch games will replace phone games for everyone who has one, much like casual mobile games replaced casual desktop games. It’s about where people are spending their time.”

For now, outside the clever use of in-app purchases, Apple Watch games will need premium pricing to make money. For example, a launch game by Playscreen, Blackjack Anywhere, is $2, with no in-app purchases or time limits attached. It’s just like the old days.

EEDAR analyst Patrick Walker says there isn’t enough screen real estate for effective banner advertisements on the watch, though it could work with short interstitial advertisements. Until watch monetization is figured out, watch games will have to be sold at a set price unless they use the phone screen.

“There will be a challenge in monetizing games that are designed based on the paradigms and learnings from previous platforms, which depend on a larger screen to engage players and deliver advertisements,” Walker said. “Monetization will need to be figured out after game developers learn what consumer gaming experience truly fits with a wearable platform. Initially, many games on the platform will be premium because of the challenge of implementing an IAP or ad-based revenue model onto a device with such a small screen.”

Digi-Capital Managing Director Tim Merel says that there is potential for both paid and free apps for Apple Watch, though the small screen will require new approaches to advertising. It could be that native advertising could become even more important than it is today. Merel also notes that the potential for an increase of sessions per day for games could be an interesting opportunity for game makers.

“Digi-Capital’s analysis shows that sessions per day are critical for mobile games, with up to 35 times difference on that factor between top 1 percent and top 5 percent grossing apps,” Merel told GamesBeat. “As Apple Watch is intended to be used even more frequently than iPhones during the course of the day, that offers an intriguing opportunity for developers. Taking advantage of that opportunity might require new approaches because of the small form factor.”

Apple Watch will need a nightly charge with its 18-hour battery life.

Don’t worry about the battery

Apple quotes an 18-hour battery life for the wearable, and that’s when it’s paired with an iPhone and checked regularly throughout the day. That number only figures in 45 minutes of app use. It’s hard to know if games will have more or less of an impact. Users and experts are concerned that the battery life may be the Watch’s greatest weakness.

Despite these other concerns, it seems that developers of Apple Watch games aren’t worried about its battery life. Eyes Wide Games tells GamesBeat that it is “confident that battery life won’t be a problem.”

Robot 5’s Peter Chen says that if gameplay matches that of apps — 15 seconds or less at a time — the battery situation should be fine.

“We can expect that Apple Watch users will use their apps for about 15 seconds or less at a time,” Chen said. “Holding up your arm and wrist for minutes at a time simply doesn’t make sense. Usage for games will be no different.”

Connectivity is also a concern for battery life. With WatchKit games and applications using an invisible wireless link to send data between the Watch and iPhone, another layer of continual drain is added on the already limited battery capacity. But with the iPhone doing the heavy lifting in terms of processing, the Watch should be fine, says Chen.

“Since these sessions for both apps and games are so short, coupled with the processing happening on the iPhone, I expect playing games will affect the battery in a very similar way that using apps will affect the battery — they’ll both sip the battery throughout the day.”

Always in iPhone’s shadow

Apple’s announcement of its Watch focused solely on applications for fitness and health, with no mention of games. IHS Technology analyst Jack Kent says that Watch’s small screen will limit interactivity and that developers are going to have to be really creative to put games on it.

“Since the days of feature phones and into smartphones and tablets, games have been the dominant mobile media category – and device makers including Apple have often turned to games developers to show of new hardware features. It is different with smartwatches,” says Kent. “At launch, most app development is focused on health and fitness services, communications, and notifications. There is a role for games on smartwatches, but is likely to be limited to niche location-based titles and very casual games. Games won’t be the main selling point for smartwatches.”

Digi-Capital’s Merel notes that while the install base could be large, it will always be a subset of the iPhone install base. For this reason alone, the Apple Watch won’t supplant mobile devices for gaming.

Even in the shadow of the iPhone, it could be that convenience is what has the Apple Watch gaining favor with gamers. Many developers GamesBeat spoke with felt that the wearable could increase retention and engagement — two elements that challenge mobile developers — through ease of access.

“There are countless instances throughout the day where a quick distraction would be fun but too inconvenient, like going home on a crowded subway or waiting for a meeting at work to start. We can imagine someone playing Blackjack Mini 10 times a day for 10 seconds at a time, and potentially playing a different, more immersive iPhone game once at night on the couch for 10 minutes,” Robot 5’s Chen says.

Eyes Wide Games’ Griffin thinks that the Apple Watch could one day be as big as smartphone gaming is today. It needs good experiences to do so.

“As long as the games are good, gaming on the Apple Watch will revolutionize gaming for everyone who has the Apple Watch. They will play much less, if at all, on their phone,” he said. “Just like casual gaming moved from the desktop to the mobile phone, casual gaming will once again move to where users spend their time.”(source:venturebeat)