Challenges and Opportunities in Mobile Games

By Michael Juntao Yuan
2005-04-13


Thoughts from the 2004 Austin Game Conference
Mobile games have gained a lot of popularity among both consumers and developers in the past year. This article focuses on the key issues that face mobile game developers today, including the relationship with wireless operators and strategies for porting games to target multiple devices.

The Austin Game Conference has emerged as one of the primary conferences for game designers, developers, and entrepreneurs in North America. This year, more than 1400 professionals from over 350 companies attended the conference to discuss the technical and business challenges that face today's game industry. For mobile developers, this annual conference is enticing because of its comprehensive lineup of sessions dedicated to mobile games. The crowded sessions indicate that mobile games are steadily gaining in mind share of game developers and publishers in the field. (But like any emerging technology, of course, the mobile game industry is laden with both opportunities and land mines.) It is certainly an opportune gathering for newcomers to learn a great deal from veterans and early adopters. While attending the conference, I had the opportunity to sit in on sessions hosted by leaders in this industry and to engage in one-on-one conversations with many of them. Here's what they had to say.

Tutorial Pages:
» Thoughts from the 2004 Austin Game Conference
» The Big Picture
» Appeasing the Operators
» Choosing the Right Platform
» Porting, Porting, Porting ...
» In Conclusion
» Resources


First published by IBM DeveloperWorks

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