Arcadian Rhythms

This is part three of a short series looking back over some of the mobile games Shaun played in 2014. The first and second parts were published earlier this week. This is the final installment. We strongly recommend reading the earlier posts first.

Advertise Me

Some games are free but don’t offer in-app purchases. These games are usually supported by advertising. The income from the game is thus directly linked to its number of players, and developers don’t need to worry about having insanely-refined market systems in place. Of course, the game will earn you next to nothing if it’s not popular. One way around that problem is to clone existing popular games, much as various developers did with Asher Vollmer’s Threes (most famously including 2048, resulting in the odd situation whereby the clone was cloned more than the original). And you thought the free to play category was cynical!

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This is part two of a short series looking back over some of the mobile games Shaun played in 2014. The first part was published yesterday, and part three will follow tomorrow. Starting at the beginning is recommended.

Monetise, Monetise, it’s the American Way

When we think of mobile gaming we often reflexively think of the games in this category. The umbrella terms for them are often used interchangeably – free to play, freemium, pay to win – although the strict definitions are quite distinct. It’s well known at this point that an awful lot of research, planning and refinement goes into these games, and controversy still bubbles away regarding how cynical or exploitative they are. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, for the time being they are here to stay.

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I had not realised until I went looking that the last time I wrote a mobile round-up was in June 2013, now more than a year and a half ago. That said, last year I wrote a few pieces that went into mobile gaming in a bit more depth than I had previously. (With varying degrees of resulting audience interest. Hi!)

I played quite a few mobile games over the course of 2014, many of which I’ve not written about (although a few have been mentioned on our 2014 round-up podcast, which should be released soon after this is published – allowing for our appalling ineptitude at audio editing). I’ve decided to run through some of these games in a single post, grouping them together by commercial approach rather than genre, and looking at the commonalities between these games as well as my reactions to them. This won’t exactly produce a ‘state of the nation’ as concerns the mobile gaming space, but it might turf up a few interesting talking points.

I should note two things. Firstly that I’ve not included the games that I linked in that first paragraph – Out There, Hoplite, Dungeon Keeper, Transformers Legends – as I’ve already written about them. They are, however, factored into my conclusions. Secondly, that I only currently own an Android device, so iOS (or, er, other) platform owners may not be able to try out all of the games mentioned.

Oh, one more thing. This turned out quite long so I split it into three parts. Parts two and three will follow on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ready? Let’s rock.

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