#DevNightMinsk: Mobile Development
November 22 at the Minsk office of the company Wargaming | SOOO "Game Stream" held the first Belarusian #DevNightMinsk . Until late at night, developers and game designers discussed various aspects of game development. Representatives of companies Wargaming, Heyworks, Alis Games and Happymagenta shared their own experiences.
Sergey Galenkin, DevNight, blogger and senior analyst at Wargaming, was also noted at the Minsk conference. He opened DevNightMinsk and took an active part in the panel discussion, which took place after the presentations of the speakers.
The theme of DevNightMinsk was mobile development. After all, this segment is one of the most developed and sought after in the Belarusian game dev. According to rough estimates, there are about 20 studios * in Belarus that develop games for mobile platforms and social networks.
In connection with the relevance of the issues discussed at DevNightMinsk, an online broadcast on YouTube was organized. All those who could not attend the conference in person had the opportunity to watch speeches and ask questions to the speakers at the panel discussion online. And, knowing the love of habravchan for useful and practically applicable materials, below we publish records of speeches.
Blitz report / Alexey Alekseev / Project Manager World of Tanks Blitz, Wargaming
In his report, Alexey spoke about the difficult and thorny path that the developers went through when transferring “big tanks” to mobile platforms. Despite the fact that the history of World of Tanks Blitz has just begun, the game has already earned the love of both experienced tank crews and novices who sat down for control of a tank for the first time.
Due to the peculiarities of the platform, the development team had to tinker with management and in many ways simplify game concepts and mechanics. For example, in the mobile version of the game, the tank is “controlled” not by the crew, but by the avatar of the player, there is no artillery at all, and in the sniper mode there is a booking highlighting.
The DevNightMinsk participants were very interested in the upcoming Android release of WoT Blitz, whose Soft Launch took place quite recently in Italy and Scandinavian countries. According to Alexei, the “soft launch” is successful and in the near future we can expect a full release.
You can watch Alexey’s presentation here .
Advanced texturing for mobile devices / Daniel 'Censored_ID' Kopytko / Lead 3D artist, Heyworks
The computing power of most mobile devices does not reach the capacity of stationary computers and laptops. Therefore, the creation of a “light” game art for mobile platforms can be a real challenge for the artist. Daniel spoke about one of the easiest ways to create beautiful and light textures for mobile applications.
This is a technology Gradient color mapping, which was used several years ago in the development of games for PC and consoles. Valve still successfully applies this technology to create many different characters by simply changing the colors of the original model (for example, the zombies in Left4Dead 2).
For his games, Daniel uses light GreyScale textures, which are repainted through additional shader processing. Thus it is possible, without increasing the size of the game, to create a variety of textures and objects.
The presentation of Daniel, you can see here .
Adventure Alis Games in the mobile market / Denis Voikhansky / Founder and CEO of Alis Games
Denis speech can not be called a report. Without cuts, censorship and videotapes, he talked about all the most painful topics for gamedev and answered any questions about the adventures of Alis Games in the mobile market.
Denis told how the mobile gaming market was before the AppStore and Google Play appeared. Then the developers and operators earned on games with the help of frankly predatory schemes. Many users did not even realize that they paid for the games that they once downloaded and deleted for a long time in their mobile communication bills.
Gradually, Denis turned to the discussion of modern mobile gamedev. Now they play a lot on their mobiles and with pleasure, but this segment of gamedev still has enough unsolved problems.
“I am looking for a hero” on my journey through the mobile market came across a lot of pitfalls that free-to-play games so often meet with. For example, the development of new “boxes” for the game costs the studio very expensive, and the PvP mode, to which the developers have placed so much hope, has not been justified. It may seem that there is not much point in developing new content, because less than 1 percent of users have passed the game to the end. But it is in this percentage that most payers are concentrated. And then there is no choice but to spend time creating new and very expensive content.
Sam Denis does not consider “Looking for a Hero” a successful project. Denis's reasoning sounded quite depressing, but his performance was very useful, especially for those who find it difficult to return from the sky gameplay-dreams to the ground, where units can make a truly successful game.
There could be a video of Denis's speech, but, according to his own conviction, some knowledge can and should be transferred only personally.
Development of cross-platform online games. Tips & tricks / Alexander Demyanenko / Ex Team Leader at Nexters
Alexander worked for two years on the Throne Rush cross-platform network game. In his report, he shared insights on authorization, deployment and configuration of games.
The worst authorization option on mobile devices is “classic” registration, with the login and password entered. Other methods, unfortunately, also have their drawbacks: security holes and the inability to authenticate through a request to the server. Therefore, Alexander recommends using auto-registration with the ability to save data to iCloud and synchronize the game with Facebook.
Alexander also reminded that when deploying and updating on several platforms, it is always necessary to follow the correct procedure. This ensures that your users at some point will not stay for a day without your favorite game due to out-of-sync updates.
Simple game / Artem Gluschenya / Multistanker, Happymagenta
Artem spoke about the main aspects that should be paid attention to when creating “simple” games. Such games do not require a large amount of content, but at the same time deliver to the user no less than a fan.
Orbitum is just such a game, by the example of which Artyom showed the main elements that make it possible to succeed: simplicity, play flow, rhythm, random, “honesty” and animation.
The Orbitum game released this year fell into the section The Best New Games in the USA, Canada and China, and the number of its installations exceeded 600 thousand. In Orbitum you play as a particle that moves along continuously narrowing orbits. The main task is very simple - to survive as long as possible, collecting positive objects and avoiding negative ones.
Artyom's presentation you can see here .
Random marketing or how we released World of Tanks Blitz / Roman Buy / Marketing Manager, Wargaming
Roman began his report with regret that it was not customary in the marketing community to share information and best practices. Most of the reports on mobile marketing are devoted to obvious things, largely not related to the work of the marketing department directly. It is much more often about what the company did as a whole. As a result, many young teams are forced to repeat the mistakes of previous generations.
According to Roman, it is necessary and important to share everything that does not fall under the NDA. Therefore, in his report, he spoke in some detail about the launch of WoT Blitz and gave a lot of practical advice that can be used by both large companies and small studios to promote their applications.
The presentation of the novel, you can see here .
Panel discussion
At the end of the conference, a special panel discussion was organized, at which speakers and experts answered questions from the audience and video chat. Sergey Galenkin, Dmitry Minsky, Roman Bui, Alexander Demyanenko, Artyom Glushchenya, Nikolai Armonik and Svyatoslav Pankratov took part in the panel discussion. Questions related to the prospects and directions of development of gamedev, ways to promote games on Kickstarter, interaction with players, etc.
Thanks to everyone who came to #DevNightMinsk and watched the online broadcast!
This was our first DevNight conference. But not the last. In 2015, the following #DevNightMinsk will surely take place.
If you want to make a presentation, please contact us at meetup@wargaming.net.
Thanks for attention. And see you at #DevNightMinsk!
Sergey Galenkin, DevNight, blogger and senior analyst at Wargaming, was also noted at the Minsk conference. He opened DevNightMinsk and took an active part in the panel discussion, which took place after the presentations of the speakers.
The theme of DevNightMinsk was mobile development. After all, this segment is one of the most developed and sought after in the Belarusian game dev. According to rough estimates, there are about 20 studios * in Belarus that develop games for mobile platforms and social networks.
In connection with the relevance of the issues discussed at DevNightMinsk, an online broadcast on YouTube was organized. All those who could not attend the conference in person had the opportunity to watch speeches and ask questions to the speakers at the panel discussion online. And, knowing the love of habravchan for useful and practically applicable materials, below we publish records of speeches.
Blitz report / Alexey Alekseev / Project Manager World of Tanks Blitz, WargamingIn his report, Alexey spoke about the difficult and thorny path that the developers went through when transferring “big tanks” to mobile platforms. Despite the fact that the history of World of Tanks Blitz has just begun, the game has already earned the love of both experienced tank crews and novices who sat down for control of a tank for the first time.
Due to the peculiarities of the platform, the development team had to tinker with management and in many ways simplify game concepts and mechanics. For example, in the mobile version of the game, the tank is “controlled” not by the crew, but by the avatar of the player, there is no artillery at all, and in the sniper mode there is a booking highlighting.
The DevNightMinsk participants were very interested in the upcoming Android release of WoT Blitz, whose Soft Launch took place quite recently in Italy and Scandinavian countries. According to Alexei, the “soft launch” is successful and in the near future we can expect a full release.
You can watch Alexey’s presentation here .
Advanced texturing for mobile devices / Daniel 'Censored_ID' Kopytko / Lead 3D artist, HeyworksThe computing power of most mobile devices does not reach the capacity of stationary computers and laptops. Therefore, the creation of a “light” game art for mobile platforms can be a real challenge for the artist. Daniel spoke about one of the easiest ways to create beautiful and light textures for mobile applications.
This is a technology Gradient color mapping, which was used several years ago in the development of games for PC and consoles. Valve still successfully applies this technology to create many different characters by simply changing the colors of the original model (for example, the zombies in Left4Dead 2).
For his games, Daniel uses light GreyScale textures, which are repainted through additional shader processing. Thus it is possible, without increasing the size of the game, to create a variety of textures and objects.
The presentation of Daniel, you can see here .
Adventure Alis Games in the mobile market / Denis Voikhansky / Founder and CEO of Alis GamesDenis speech can not be called a report. Without cuts, censorship and videotapes, he talked about all the most painful topics for gamedev and answered any questions about the adventures of Alis Games in the mobile market.
Denis told how the mobile gaming market was before the AppStore and Google Play appeared. Then the developers and operators earned on games with the help of frankly predatory schemes. Many users did not even realize that they paid for the games that they once downloaded and deleted for a long time in their mobile communication bills.
Gradually, Denis turned to the discussion of modern mobile gamedev. Now they play a lot on their mobiles and with pleasure, but this segment of gamedev still has enough unsolved problems.
“I am looking for a hero” on my journey through the mobile market came across a lot of pitfalls that free-to-play games so often meet with. For example, the development of new “boxes” for the game costs the studio very expensive, and the PvP mode, to which the developers have placed so much hope, has not been justified. It may seem that there is not much point in developing new content, because less than 1 percent of users have passed the game to the end. But it is in this percentage that most payers are concentrated. And then there is no choice but to spend time creating new and very expensive content.
Sam Denis does not consider “Looking for a Hero” a successful project. Denis's reasoning sounded quite depressing, but his performance was very useful, especially for those who find it difficult to return from the sky gameplay-dreams to the ground, where units can make a truly successful game.
There could be a video of Denis's speech, but, according to his own conviction, some knowledge can and should be transferred only personally.
Development of cross-platform online games. Tips & tricks / Alexander Demyanenko / Ex Team Leader at NextersAlexander worked for two years on the Throne Rush cross-platform network game. In his report, he shared insights on authorization, deployment and configuration of games.
The worst authorization option on mobile devices is “classic” registration, with the login and password entered. Other methods, unfortunately, also have their drawbacks: security holes and the inability to authenticate through a request to the server. Therefore, Alexander recommends using auto-registration with the ability to save data to iCloud and synchronize the game with Facebook.
Alexander also reminded that when deploying and updating on several platforms, it is always necessary to follow the correct procedure. This ensures that your users at some point will not stay for a day without your favorite game due to out-of-sync updates.
Simple game / Artem Gluschenya / Multistanker, HappymagentaArtem spoke about the main aspects that should be paid attention to when creating “simple” games. Such games do not require a large amount of content, but at the same time deliver to the user no less than a fan.
Orbitum is just such a game, by the example of which Artyom showed the main elements that make it possible to succeed: simplicity, play flow, rhythm, random, “honesty” and animation.
The Orbitum game released this year fell into the section The Best New Games in the USA, Canada and China, and the number of its installations exceeded 600 thousand. In Orbitum you play as a particle that moves along continuously narrowing orbits. The main task is very simple - to survive as long as possible, collecting positive objects and avoiding negative ones.
Artyom's presentation you can see here .
Random marketing or how we released World of Tanks Blitz / Roman Buy / Marketing Manager, WargamingRoman began his report with regret that it was not customary in the marketing community to share information and best practices. Most of the reports on mobile marketing are devoted to obvious things, largely not related to the work of the marketing department directly. It is much more often about what the company did as a whole. As a result, many young teams are forced to repeat the mistakes of previous generations.
According to Roman, it is necessary and important to share everything that does not fall under the NDA. Therefore, in his report, he spoke in some detail about the launch of WoT Blitz and gave a lot of practical advice that can be used by both large companies and small studios to promote their applications.
The presentation of the novel, you can see here .
Panel discussion
At the end of the conference, a special panel discussion was organized, at which speakers and experts answered questions from the audience and video chat. Sergey Galenkin, Dmitry Minsky, Roman Bui, Alexander Demyanenko, Artyom Glushchenya, Nikolai Armonik and Svyatoslav Pankratov took part in the panel discussion. Questions related to the prospects and directions of development of gamedev, ways to promote games on Kickstarter, interaction with players, etc.
Thanks to everyone who came to #DevNightMinsk and watched the online broadcast!
This was our first DevNight conference. But not the last. In 2015, the following #DevNightMinsk will surely take place.
If you want to make a presentation, please contact us at meetup@wargaming.net.
Thanks for attention. And see you at #DevNightMinsk!
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244789/
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