3. Designing for Platforms
• It is not always possible to have exactly the
same experience on different platforms.
• Even when it is, it is not always a good
thing.
8. PC to Console
• Civilization 4 for PC was re-imagined as
Civilization Revolution for Xbox 360,
Nintendo DS, and later iPhone
• Whilst it would probably be POSSIBLE to
do a direct port, that would fail to consider
the context in which the player is engaged
or the best way to utilise that platform.
9. iPhone HIG Video
• App statement that captures experience
• Consider the context that the user is
interacting with the device
• screen 30 centimetres away?
• phone 1 metre away?
10. Console Player Context
• Shorter Sessions
• Further from display
• lean forward vs sit back (10 ft interface)
• Less fidelity in controls
• Vs mouse / keyboard
• Less resolution (non hi def TVs)
12. Abstracting Systems
• Where an interface must be simpler, one
option is to redesign an underlying system,
either by simplification or abstraction.
• Civ 4 has a unit called a worker. The player
must build this unit then give that unit
order to improve land and build roads.
• Civ Rev has no such unit. The player can
spend money to build a road instead.
• Civ 4 has universal tax - Civ Rev city by city
13. Combining Actions
• In order to further simplicity, look for
opportunities to reduce the number of
actions required from the user.
• Civ 4 has the ability to build boats and then
load those boats with units for exploration
• Civ Rev gives the player one ‘free’ unit on
every boat built
14. Reduce Micromanagement
• Micromanaging the details of a civilisation
takes a significant amount of time and
doesn’t reinforce the streamlined goals of
the Civ Rev design.
• Firaxis made decisions that allow the player
to pay less attention to micromanagement
• workers, ‘happiness’, automatic builds
15. Less Info on Screen
• Providing the interface is intuitive, it may be
possible to retain information but reduce
the amount of information on screen at any
one time (i.e - spread info over multiple
screens).
• On low resolution devices, a larger
percentage of screen is taken up by UI
19. Control Schemes
• Not having mouse / keyboard on consoles
means that it is necessary to use the
buttons and joysticks to access menus and
other items that would normally be placed
at corners of screen.
23. Doom
• PC - Mouse and (OR) keyboard
• iPhone 3 Modes
• id aren’t sure what is best
• compromise of flexibility vs convenience
24.
25.
26.
27. To Summarise
• Abstract Systems and Information
• Group similar items
• Reduce micromanagement
• Understand control schemes
• Consider Resolution
• Reduce on screen information
• Be aware of norms and guidelines documents
Consider the second Deus Ex game.\n\nOne of the first big cross-platform PC games that designed for console first.\n\nNote the radial menu\n
They made compromises and hurt their PC base - ammo and radial menu\n
When MW2 came out there was a protest because of the lack of Dedicated servers\n\n\n
of course on the day of release, we saw how effective the ‘boycott’ was.\n
So it is important to understand the expectations and norms of a platform in order to create somethign satisfying for that platform.\n
\nthe key statement from the iPhone video \nyou want to recreate the core experience, not the feature list\n
Compared to PC - civ would have this profile on console\n\n\n
10 ft interface\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
because of the low res, you can’t cram as much in - you have to be clever about how you split info up over screens\n\n
here is civ 4 - loot at all that data\n\nmight seem cluttered - but it’s perfect for viewing on a pc screen.\n\nlots of easy to read info (once you know how)\n\n
Civ rev on xbox reduces amount of info shown at once - you use the LT and RT to go between ‘bits’ of info\n
\n
another thing you have to consider is the inptu scheme\n\n
note how each corner has a suite of info accessible through the buttons there\n\n\n
civ rev uses the corners but instead of showing the ifnor directly, you have to act to access it.\n\n\n
On the iPhone you don’t have mouseover - so to move a unit, you click and drag...\n\n
Doom was also redesigned for phones and tablets\n\non PC it uses mouse / keyboard\n\non iPhone they had THREE modes! \n\nbecause non was actually that good\n
this one has one finger to rotate and move and you tap the shoot button\n\n
this one has movement and rotation separately - so you can circle strafe - but have to reach for shoot\n\n
this one like last one but instead of a wheel it worked like a joypad\n\n\n