In the coming months, we’ll be seeing more media players, like the
recently released Nexus Player, and TVs from partners with Android TV
built-in hit the market. While there’s plenty of information available
about the technical aspects of adapting your app or game to Android TV,
it’s also useful to consider design changes to optimize for the living
room. That way you can provide lasting engagement for existing fans as
well as new players discovering your game in this new setting. Here are
three things one developer did, and how you can do them too.
recently released Nexus Player, and TVs from partners with Android TV
built-in hit the market. While there’s plenty of information available
about the technical aspects of adapting your app or game to Android TV,
it’s also useful to consider design changes to optimize for the living
room. That way you can provide lasting engagement for existing fans as
well as new players discovering your game in this new setting. Here are
three things one developer did, and how you can do them too.
Infinite Dreams is an indie studio out of Poland, co-founded by hardcore game fans Tomasz Kostrzewski and Marek Wyszyński. With Sky Force 2014 TV,
they brought their hit arcade style game to Android TV in a
particularly clever way. The mobile-based version of Sky Force 2014
reimaged the 2004 classic by introducing stunning 3D visuals, and a
free-to-download business model using in-app purchasing and competitive
tournaments to increase engagement. In bringing Sky Force 2014 to TV,
they found ways to factor in the play style, play sessions, and
real-world social context of the living room, while paying homage to the
title’s classic arcade heritage. As WyszyĹ„ski puts it, “We decided not
to take any shortcuts, we wanted to make the game feel like it was
designed to be played on TV.”
they brought their hit arcade style game to Android TV in a
particularly clever way. The mobile-based version of Sky Force 2014
reimaged the 2004 classic by introducing stunning 3D visuals, and a
free-to-download business model using in-app purchasing and competitive
tournaments to increase engagement. In bringing Sky Force 2014 to TV,
they found ways to factor in the play style, play sessions, and
real-world social context of the living room, while paying homage to the
title’s classic arcade heritage. As WyszyĹ„ski puts it, “We decided not
to take any shortcuts, we wanted to make the game feel like it was
designed to be played on TV.”
Orientation
For starters, Sky Force 2014 is played vertically on a smartphone or
tablet, also known as portrait mode. In the game, you’re piloting a
powerful fighter plane flying up the screen over a scrolling landscape,
targeting waves of steampunk enemies coming down at you. You can see far
enough up the screen, enabling you to plan your attacks and dodge
enemies in advance.
tablet, also known as portrait mode. In the game, you’re piloting a
powerful fighter plane flying up the screen over a scrolling landscape,
targeting waves of steampunk enemies coming down at you. You can see far
enough up the screen, enabling you to plan your attacks and dodge
enemies in advance.
Vertical play on the mobile version
When bringing the game to TV, the quickest approach would have been
to preserve that vertical orientation of the gameplay, by pillarboxing
the field of play.
to preserve that vertical orientation of the gameplay, by pillarboxing
the field of play.
With Sky Force 2014, Infinite Dreams considered their options, and
decided to scale the gameplay horizontally, in landscape mode, and
recompose the view and combat elements. You’re still aiming up the
screen, but the world below and the enemies coming at you are filling
out a much wider field of view. They also completely reworked the UI to
be comfortably operated with a gamepad or simple remote. From
WyszyĹ„ski’s point of view, “We really didn't want to just add support
for remote and gamepad on top of what we had because we felt it would
not work very well.” This approach gives the play experience a much more
immersive field of view, putting you right there in the middle of the
action. More information on designing for landscape orientation can be
found here.
decided to scale the gameplay horizontally, in landscape mode, and
recompose the view and combat elements. You’re still aiming up the
screen, but the world below and the enemies coming at you are filling
out a much wider field of view. They also completely reworked the UI to
be comfortably operated with a gamepad or simple remote. From
WyszyĹ„ski’s point of view, “We really didn't want to just add support
for remote and gamepad on top of what we had because we felt it would
not work very well.” This approach gives the play experience a much more
immersive field of view, putting you right there in the middle of the
action. More information on designing for landscape orientation can be
found here.
Multiplayer
Like all mobile game developers building for the TV, Infinite Dreams
had to figure out how to adapt touch input onto a controller. Sky Force
2014 TV accepts both remote control and gamepad controller input. Both
are well-tuned, and fighter handling is natural and responsive, but
Infinite Dreams didn’t stop there. They took the opportunity to add
cooperative multiplayer functionality to take advantage of the wider
field of view from a TV. In this way, they not only scaled the visuals
of the game to the living room, but also factored in that it’s a living
room where people play together. Given the extended lateral patterns of
advancing enemies, multiplayer strategies emerge, like “divide and
conquer,” or “I got your back” for players of different skill levels.
More information about adding controller support to your Android game
can be found here, handling controller actions here, and mapping each player’s paired controllers here.
had to figure out how to adapt touch input onto a controller. Sky Force
2014 TV accepts both remote control and gamepad controller input. Both
are well-tuned, and fighter handling is natural and responsive, but
Infinite Dreams didn’t stop there. They took the opportunity to add
cooperative multiplayer functionality to take advantage of the wider
field of view from a TV. In this way, they not only scaled the visuals
of the game to the living room, but also factored in that it’s a living
room where people play together. Given the extended lateral patterns of
advancing enemies, multiplayer strategies emerge, like “divide and
conquer,” or “I got your back” for players of different skill levels.
More information about adding controller support to your Android game
can be found here, handling controller actions here, and mapping each player’s paired controllers here.
Players battle side by side in the Android TV version
Business Model
Infinite Dreams is also experimenting with monetization and extending
play session length. The TV version replaces several $1.99 in-app
purchases and timers with a try-before-you-buy model which charges $4.99
after playing the first 2 levels for free. We’ve seen this single
purchase model prove successful with other arcade action games like
Mediocre’s Smash Hit
for smartphones and tablets, in which the purchase unlocks checkpoint
saves. We’re also seeing strong arcade action games like Vector Unit’s Beach Buggy Racing and Ubisoft’s Hungry Shark Evolution
retain their existing in-app purchase models for Android TV. More
information on setting up your games for these varied business models
can be found here.
We’ll be tracking and sharing these variations in business models on
Android TV, including variations in premium, as the Android TV platform
grows.
play session length. The TV version replaces several $1.99 in-app
purchases and timers with a try-before-you-buy model which charges $4.99
after playing the first 2 levels for free. We’ve seen this single
purchase model prove successful with other arcade action games like
Mediocre’s Smash Hit
for smartphones and tablets, in which the purchase unlocks checkpoint
saves. We’re also seeing strong arcade action games like Vector Unit’s Beach Buggy Racing and Ubisoft’s Hungry Shark Evolution
retain their existing in-app purchase models for Android TV. More
information on setting up your games for these varied business models
can be found here.
We’ll be tracking and sharing these variations in business models on
Android TV, including variations in premium, as the Android TV platform
grows.
Reflecting on the work involved in making these changes, Wyszyński
says, “From a technical point of view the process was not really so
difficult – it took us about a month of work to incorporate all of the
features and we are very happy with the results.” Take a moment to check
out Sky Force 2014 TV on a Nexus Player and the other games in the Android TV collection on Google Play,
most of which made no design changes and still play well on a TV.
Consider your own starting point, take a look at the Android TV section on our developer blog, and build the version of your game that would be most satisfying to players on the couch.
says, “From a technical point of view the process was not really so
difficult – it took us about a month of work to incorporate all of the
features and we are very happy with the results.” Take a moment to check
out Sky Force 2014 TV on a Nexus Player and the other games in the Android TV collection on Google Play,
most of which made no design changes and still play well on a TV.
Consider your own starting point, take a look at the Android TV section on our developer blog, and build the version of your game that would be most satisfying to players on the couch.
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