WAP Game Design

Compelling Games in a Static Browser Environment

Greg Costikyan

www.ungames.comwww.costik.comcostik@costik.com

What is WAP?Wireless Application ProtocolWAP Microbrowsers in Every Phonedisplays WAP “decks”

Equivalent to Primitive Web BrowsersAllows: Text Images (b&w bitmaps) Hyperlinks Text entry

Why Develop WAP Games?Better environment than SMS Links & Lists make for better UI Not limited to 160 characters Can rely on image-display capability Latency issues not as brutal

Main Format for Games in North Americaand acceptable in Europe

Functional business model

How Does it Work?

a. User requests URL; phone connects to towerb. Tower passes request to WAP gateway (WTP)c. Gateway decodes, passes request to server @ URL (HTTP)d. Server acts on request, returns data to gateway (HTTP)e. Gateway encodes, passes data to phone (WTP)f. Phone decodes, displays WAP deck to user.

Think COLS, not InternetEntering URLs is a Pain in the AssPeople stick with the carrier’s navigational hierarchy

People Pay—the Carriers, Not You

Like the old Commercial Online Services Need a deal to gain access to customers… Customers funnelled to you Share revenue with the carrier

WAP Is Inconsistently ImplementedInconsistent Browser Behavior Test for Nokia, Ericsson, OpenWave Use URL Links, not Select Lists Avoid Soft Buttons & Tables

Cookies Not Always AvailableUse URL Encoding

User Timers, Not Push

Forget about WTAI & WMLScript

Game Session Should Take< 10 Minutes

If They’ve Got More Time, They’ll Find a Real Game Machine

Can Mean: Short Game Saved Gamestate Playable in 5 Minute Chunks

Latency of 1-2 Seconds

Unlike SMS (can be 1 min +)

Multiple Interactions Within a Session Each can be of modest importanceForget Twitch Games

Network Not ReliableHandle Drops Gracefully

Design so Player Disappearance Doesn’t Matter AI Take-Over Allow Player Re-Entry Stand-bys?

Allow Reentry Without Data InconsistencyTime-Outs on Decks

Decks Must be < 1.4k

Unlike HTTP, Text & Images Sent as aSingle Request

Well, it’s better than SMS

HTTP > WTP Encoding Includes Compression

Dealing with 1.4k Limit Write Tersely

Use Graphics Sparely

Make Animations Separate Deckwith timer to autoload next deck

Can Make Long Documents Multiple Decks Consider “Terse” Mode for Experienced Players

Making the Most of Graphics

Make Every Pixel Count

“Updating” image means another server requestNo imagemaps

Still best to avoid “board” layouts

Keep the UI TransparentSelect Lists (avoid)

Soft Buttons (avoid)

Text Entry (keep to a minimum)

URL-link Menus (exploit to the max)

What Game Styles Work?Head-to-head Games

Gameshows

Text Adventures

Boardless Strategy (e.g., Nuclear War)

Evolution of WAPNear-Term:WMLScriptWTAI (Wireless Telephony Application Interface)

WAP 2.0:Supports HTTP & TCP/IPXHTML (Mobile Profile)Cascading StylesheetsLocal persistent storageMMS Integration

WAP likely to no longer be the main event

http://www.ungames.com/tmpl.php/games/vr/

http://www.jamdatgames.com/html/games_gladiator.html

http://www.dataclash.com/main.html

http://web.wirelessgames.com/lifestyles/pets/over.html

Yes, Good WAP Games Are Possible, Virginia

Multiplayer

Persistent

Fantasy that appeals to the Hard CoreMedia licenses (sigh)

URLs

WAP Forum: www.wapforum.orgOpenWave SDK (includes emulator): http://developer.openwave.com/download/Nokia WAP emulator: http://www.forum.nokia.com/wapforum/nokiasim_new.htmlEricsson WAP emulator: http://www.ericsson.com/mobilityworld/sub/open/technologies/wap/tools.html