The developer of Spelunky says there’s a huge difference in developing for mobile vs desktop/console as relates to having a successful game. Maybe I’m not “typical” but I almost never play game *except* on a mobile device.
Maybe because I’m always working when sitting in front of my computer? It’s for work, iPad/iPhone is for whatever I want? Dunno. But read the article, it’s good.
Mobile “just too scary” for indies, says Spelunky dev | GamesIndustry International
Interesting mention of mobile games having “short bursts of gameplay by design”.
This, for me, is an important difference between mobile and traditional console/PC games. On mobile the player is often dipping in and out of a game throughout their day as they have some downtime, so is less likely to be able to get ‘into the zone’ in a way many games require. This is why non-time based games (like puzzles) work better on mobile.
Something to think about when designing time based mobile games.