mobile game design trends from east and west mgf - simon newstead

10 Mobile Game Design Trends from East & West

Simon NewsteadCEO, Frenzoo

About● CEO & Game Designer ● Studio of 25 people in HK and USA● 3D Lifestyle games for women● 20M+ downloads mostly in USA

1/ Touch-first interfaces● More swipe and gestures in core mechanics● Anticipate more games with flick & fling

eg- Dawn of Titans

2/ RPG mechanics in all genres● Party, leveling, evolve, fuse etc● Increased sense of ownership & investment● Expect more customization and meta games

eg- Marvel Contest of Champions

eg- Criminal Case collect & customize

3/ Evolved mechanics ● Continued iteration on proven formulas

eg DomiNations vs Clash

eg Candy Crush Soda Saga new match 3 gameplay modes

4/ Gacha keeps growing

with more sophistication...

How this mechanic works:- gem gacha ->3+ characters- All characters can be sold for a rings (rings can only be gained from selling 3 star

+ characters or 3 star + weapons)- Special characters (super useful) can only gained using the ring currency through

another gacha

5/ Auto-play modes

AI mode that plays on your behalf...

● New play behaviour emerging● Prediction - ios8 notifications, background play

● Brands are waking up to games as a media

6/ IP use increasing

7/ Better Word of Mouth

eg- Summoners War

Additional ways to invite friends- SMS- Email- Line- Facebook … So on

Rewards other than currencies as a strong incentive, rewards you just for the invitation sent

More social channels, meaningful incentives

8/ Deeper Cross Promo

3D Simulation GameMovie Game“Let’s take a break from shooting - I

know a hot resort!”

Make the most of UA spend and userbase

9/ Production quality rising… Driven by great hardware improvements eg- A8X SOC

but RAM?!To 512MB or not to 512MB, that is the question...

Side note - art still needs to fit the audience

Zynga Wizard of Oz Slots

Zynga Poker

10/ Added depth to social ● More ways to communicate, plan, help,

manage roles, compete, share rewards etc

● Social also being added to other genres outside of battle/rpgs

● Great foundation for a strong elder game

Bonus Trend ● Game dev tools are rapidly improving● Easier to gather data and iterate faster

Final notes● Lots more exciting things happening

○ Hardcore gets viable (FPS, MOBA, ARPG)○ Emergence of story games○ Events as core mechanics○ etc...

● It’s a great time for mobile games!

simon@frenzoo.comiteratingfun.com