Windows Phone at Casual Connect Seattle Wrap-up

It's a bit late in coming, just at last we have an official wrap-upwardly of our time spent at Casual Connect Seattle this year. Unlike the Electronic Amusement Expo (E3), which is a console-focused event, Casual Connect centers around coincidental games – a 'genre' or subset found mostly on smartphones, tablets, and PCs.  As such, we ventured along in hopes of scoring some juicy Windows Phone games coverage as well as gauging the casual gaming manufacture's feelings towards Microsoft's smartphone platform in full general.

Head by the break to meet what nosotros learned, plus links to all of our exclusive Casual Connect coverage!

Windows Phone at Casual Connect

First off, Casual Connect is a developer-oriented conference, different E3 which is aimed primarily at the press and by proxy, the gamers at home. As such, company booths did not feature as many playable devices compared to E3. Still, many Windows Phone developers had booths on hand in Seattle, including PopCap, Alawar, Big Fish, and Game House. Microsoft and Gameloft did non have booths just did send representatives to attend and/or deliver presentations.

Now, the slightly disappointing news: none of the developers with booths actually had Windows Phones or signage set. You could find playable iPhones, tablets, and PCs hands enough, but our favorite mobile Os was nowhere to be seen. This is somewhat understandable given that each developer publishes far more iOS and PC games than Windows Phone and they only had a small amount of infinite with which to share their games with attendees.

More disappointing to my eyes was Microsoft's lack of a booth at the result. Sure, the Wordament squad delivered a fine presentation, but that was the extent of Microsoft's public participation. I did catch a few of their staff talking up Windows Telephone here and there, just information technology virtually felt similar I was doing simply as much evangelizing equally those guys. Seriously, every time I introduced myself throughout the event and its parties, an iOS or Android developer would ask me to extoll Windows Telephone 8'due south virtues and benefits over WP7.

If Microsoft just pitched in for a booth like then many smaller companies did, they could have more readily advertised the platform and addressed event-goers' concerns. After all, Coincidental Connect is developer-focused, so what meliorate place to pick up new developers?

BlackBerry'south tabular array was less than impressive, just at least they tried, the poor doomed buggers!

Casual Connect Conversation

Windows Phone bated, Coincidental Connect did have a unifying conversation that nearly every presentation, panel, and developer seemed to necktie into: the freemium or free-to-play (F2P) business. If you ask casual game developers where the future of gaming is going, nearly every single ane will respond F2P. It may seem conflicting to devout Microsoft supporters like us since Microsoft has not historically been open to costless-to-play games. In fact, merely this twelvemonth volition the Xbox 360 finally receive a F2P game, Happy Wars.

One concept that came up over and over once again is that of 'games as a service.' Basically, the makers of freemium games intend for players to spend coin on the game non just in one case, but repeatedly over fourth dimension. The hope of grade is that they'll take in more than money that way than a single upwards-front purchase. But they don't but want to drain gamers' wallets in a vampiric style. Instead, 'games as a service' means that freemium developers need to provide a steady stream of new content to concenter players' interests.

To provide a Windows Phone-specific case, our version of Bug Village hasn't received a single content update, unlike the iOS and Android versions. That means in that location'due south nothing new for players to spend money on (non to mention the lack of multiplayer features that games of this type thrive on). Thus, from a 'games as a service' standpoint, WP7 Problems Hamlet is doing it incorrect.

We tin't put all the blame on Glu Mobile and the developer though. The current Microsoft certification construction highly discourages the publishing of regular championship updates. It's both costly and time consuming, dissimilar the update systems yous'd find on iOS, Android, Steam, and the like. For gratis-to-play games on Xbox 360 and Windows Telephone to truly take off, Microsoft will demand to relax their certification procedures or implement special new ones for these types of games. Happy Wars' official clarification actually promises regular item updates, so hopefully Microsoft will exist doing just that in the future.

Our Windows Phone Stories

Karaoke and dancing upward a storm at the WildTangent party at the Seattle Aquarium

I said before that nobody was going out of their fashion to show their Windows Telephone wares during the outcome. That'southward partially true, but several publishers did hold to private demonstrations and interviews with Windows Phone Key. We even made a costly trip or 2 to visit some studios in the areas surrounding Seattle, but to make sure nosotros had great content to share with you.

Without further ado, here are our Casual Connect Seattle 2022 posts, categorized past subject. Nigh every single article features sectional interviews, videos, and photographs, so don't miss them!

Microsoft

• Windows Phone Cardinal visits Microsoft headquarters
• Xbox Live news: An interview with Beth Goza of Microsoft

Big Fish Games

• Fairway Solitaire Window Phone 8 interview, part one
• Fairway Solitaire Windows Phone 8 interview, office two

Game Business firm

• A refreshing early on look at Emerge's Spa for Windows Phone in activity

Alawar Entertainment

• Xbox Live: The makers of Subcontract Frenzy take plans for Windows Phone viii

PopCap

• Casual Connect video interview: ben Ahroni, producer of Zuma'due south Revenge

Skulls of the Shogun

• Windows Telephone Central visits Skulls of the Shogun studio
• Xbox Live: Skulls of the Shogun extended easily-on footage

Wordament

• Switching to Xbox Alive provided a huge boost to Wordament, tin can help other games also

GREE

• A conversation with Japan'south largest gaming network GREE about Windows Phone

Arise: New Gods

• Ascend: New Gods studio visit and interview
• Exclusive first footage of Ascend: New Gods for Xbox Live on Windows Phone

Predictions for the future

After the event ended, I felt much like this admirer sleeping through WildTangent's party

While I can't claim that Casual Connect Seattle was a big success for Windows Telephone this year, clearly we notwithstanding managed to dig up news and updates for several fantastic upcoming games. Adjacent year's Casual Connect should be a whole different story though. Windows Phone 8 will be out well before then, and it should have a significant impact on developer adoption of the platform.

A big number of developers nosotros spoke to this year work exclusively with the Unity Game Engine; it truly is the about pop game engine for mobile developers (and quite popular for panel, PC, and web development as well). Sadly WP7's closed architecture and reliance on XNA prevented an easy Unity port, greatly limiting the ease and quality of porting iOS games to the platform.

As I spoke to those developers, all I could remember of was how Microsoft needed to make sure Windows Phone eight doesn't miss out on Unity also. Thankfully they were secretly doing just that at the fourth dimension… Less than a month after Casual Connect Seattle wrapped, Unity announced their back up for WP8 and Windows viii. That means most of the barriers that kept developers away from WP7 (user base size notwithstanding) will exist removed from WP8.

At adjacent yr'south Coincidental Connect we'll witness a lot more excitement from developers nearly Windows Phone eight, and if the platform sells well enough, we may fifty-fifty see a playable unit of measurement on display at a booth or 2. Windows Telephone Central will be at that place, so stay tuned, gamers!

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-casual-connect-seattle-wrap

Posted by: watkinsposiciente.blogspot.com

Share this post