Music and Sound Effects in Games and Pop Culture

On April 20, 2011, in Company, Flash, Technical, by Gregor
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Currently I am working on the background music and sound effects of one of our new projects. Sounds and music are really important in game design development, because they can create a emotional connection and push the player to continue to play. A good example is Diamond Dash from Wooga on Facebook, who borrowed heavily but successfully from Bejeweled Blitz. With their addicting game play and encouraging sound effects they became one of the fastest growing current Facebook games. Their secret is, that they use voiceovers with a addicting game play. You click the diamonds, get cheered up by a electronic sounding voice from the off. It is a really good combination, with an obvious positive result.

Diamond Dash
In Eccky, TribePlay is using a happy kind of childish music, with drums in the background. It is quite characteristic and fits in the cute style of Eccky. In the Eccky World you have a different kind of music, which is not that distinguishable. This is because most people spend their time chatting with other people and if the background music is too dominant, it can be annoying pretty fast. Mini Games use their own characteristic music, especially for a virtual world for kids this is important because they will easy recognize the music and connect it with the mini games. For kids it is important that things look, act, sound similar to understand the game play. So sounds and music are also about usability. The windows alert sound, a beep, the sound of clicking something, everyone knows the meaning and what to expect.

While researching on different kind of sounds and effects, I stumbled upon a couple of interesting things. Game music has obviously already made it into popular culture. The sound of SuperMario is indeed a classic, bands like Aphex Twin remixed the Tetris music and innovative DJs are using the 8bit Sound of a Gameboy to create techno music. Game sounds have become a legitimate form of art, with orchestra playing the StreetFighter soundtrack, and artists releasing albums of game music. Recently I read an interview with the composers of Prismatic Solid, an Xbox game. Sampling Masters AYA and MEGA just released an album with the Soundtrack to the game. Listen to it on YouTube, it is a great piece of work.

Of course for a Facebook game you can not create a similar sophisticated soundtrack, but still the music should obviously not be underestimated. After the first Demo of our new game is available I will let you know and you can judge and comment yourself. For now I will continue my journey through the world of game music and sound effects…

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Mobile internet users and games

On April 1, 2011, in Flash, GameNext, Social Networks, by Gregor
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Today Facebook announced that it now reaches 250 Million Mobile users, that is a increase of 150 Million until February 2010. Together with this, Facebook also announced a improved UI for Mobile Users as stated on TechCrunch.com. Mobile Phones have become an important device for online users. But Gaming-vise mobile access to Facebook is still limited, as the most popular device the Apple iPhone does not support Flash.
Most mobile gamers usually purchase apps through the different platforms and play the apps on their phone. The famous Angry Bird game as one of the first Mobile-to-Facebook games will be available on FB soon. RIO, the developers of Angry Bird from Finland, is still facing difficulties in the transition progress as Mobile Apps and Facebook Apps are two different areas.
Easier would it be if ones Smartphone supports Flash. In this way the gaming experience could be even more improved, as you can access a lot more casual games directly through Facebook and even play them for free. For Game Developers this will mean they will have to adjust, just as Facebook did, to two different markets using one channel. Mobile games will be the future of games in my opinion, as they are easy to access, fit most people time schedule of a short game for distraction and are quicker adjustable and less complex, so in result of that more affordable. What do you think will be the next Generation of Gaming? What role will Game Developers play? Please join our discussion on LinkedIn in the GameNext Group and share your thoughts.

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Social Network features in Battlenet for China

On March 29, 2011, in New Games, Social Networks, by Ethan
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It’s a blockbuster for every single Blizzfan in China that Starcraft 2: Wing of Liberty is going to launch a Open Beta Test on March 29,2001 for free, namely today. Brood war is considered to be one of the most popular RTS games in China during the past decade. Due to the reason you probably all know, SC2 was launched in U.S. and regions of rest of the world a couple months ahead of China. Though a handful of feverish fans have tasted SC2 by landing severs of overseas, the terrible lag is really an unbearable torture. Late better than never, finally, we’ll unveil this phenomenon in front of our doorway.

Today I focus a bit on the brand new Battlenet. Battlenet was a system founded more than a decade ago when Blizz released Diablo. Since then Battlenet serves as a critical important player verses player feature in each blizzard game launched after. For years, Battlenet has just served as a platform of multiplayer games connection which merely shows the win and lost records plus a basic chat channel but not including a social network function. As year goes by, social network plays a more and more important role in game industry than ever. Let’s check out what kind of storm Blizz had brought into the new generation of Battlenet.

Starcraft
Always Connected
The new Battlenet and SC2 are designed to be seamlessly connected. That means even if you’re playing solo you will still view the latest news, receive game and content updates, and be able to see your friends’ status and chat with them. But this new interconnectivity between the game and the service goes even deeper than that. Now, each player will create a SC2 Battlenet character. This character serves as your single persistent identity across the service. Everything you do in the game will be saved to your character profile for you and your friends to see.

Always Competitive
One of the biggest improvements that the new Battlenet service brings to SC2 is smarter and more accurate matchmaking. While the legacy Battlenet service had good matchmaking, the standard experience for new players was usually a series of crushing defeats against seasoned Battlenet veterans until they either left or developed the skills necessary to thrive in Battlenet’s competitive environment. As a rookie, you won’t experience the embarrassment of being banned as you ever did in first generation of Battlenet.

Always communicated
Battlenet’s social networking and communication capabilities will be some of the service’s biggest new features. This new social backbone for the entire service will seamlessly integrate friends lists, matchmaking, messaging, and more. Text and voice chat are now seamlessly interwoven into and out of the game, enabling communication whether you are in Battlenet or in-game playing SC2. And as is the case with previous Blizz titles, you can form friendships with other characters on Battlenet while preserving your anonymity.

Ethan He is Game Tester at TribePlay and passionate gamer.

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How to make a fun virtual world for kids

On March 7, 2011, in Chengdu, Flash, Social Networks, by Yan
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Do you still remember what do you enjoy doing when you were a kid? As in my memory, I loved to put on my mum’s high heel shoes, dress up a piece of white cloth on my head to pretend it is a wedding veil, and take care of my imaginary baby made out of plastic lying in a fruit basket. Apart from that it proves that women are crazy about marriage and babies in a fairly early age, it also discovers the truth about where the interests of kids lie, simulating the real world.

In the beginning of developing Eccky, we invested quite some time on how to make our virtual world more magical and special by creating lots of superpowers. However, after a while, we hear from our young players that all they want is to throw a party at home, have a pet to take care of, hold a model show and let it snow in the world!
While club penguin and some other famous virtual worlds use animals as avatar, the setting of our world is very similar to the real world. I personally believe that a VW with a human like avatar has a larger space for content than penguin or bear avatars, because a human avatar is easier for them to position themselves into the world rather than an animal avatar to take care of. Kids have very broad imagination, strong curiosity, but quite limited access to the real social world. Therefore, they love to use the virtual environment to simulate and fantasize life with their peers, and to express themselves without fear or ridicule.

Eccky Winter Scene
As developer, we are sometimes extremely amused by the reaction of our players to the new settings and features. They take things very seriously, personal and are definitely not to be fooled with. Last Christmas we introduced the winter into the world and cover the whole world with snow. Kids are so excited about it just like it really snows in the real world and shouting out “Wow, it is so cold here, I will put on some jacket”. We have interviewed some of our loyal players and asked them why do they like Eccky more than other virtual worlds such as Habbo Hotel, their answers are “You can actually go to a clothes shop and try them on, while Habbo only offer stupid catalogue to order from.” It is a hilarious answer, but contains some truth inside.

However, I am not claiming that fantasy and magical elements are not important for a fun virtual world. They can definitely give the world an extra touch. There is no puppy or kitty in Eccky, but only a little water-drop-shaped Wobble with 2 eyes but no mouth or nose. Wobble is a creature which lived in the wild long before Eccky discovered the world and led a tough life to survive on themselves. They can be adopted but need the intimate care and love from the owners to be happy. Although there is no Wobble in the real world, we still surprisingly discover that most of our players are very emotionally attached to their pets. The funny animations of Wobble and interaction between pets and owners are the most importation reasons of that.
Wobble Eccky
Observe what kind of elements there are in the real life and introduce them into the virtual world with nice animation and design, if kids are relating them to the real world, then this world is already one step ahead towards a fun virtual world.

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Social games

On March 3, 2011, in Company, GameNext, Social Networks, by Gregor
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Facebook games and other social games are truly on its way forward. Recently there where a couple of studies, emphasizing that the time of hardcore gamers are over and this decade will be the one of causal gamers. Indeed Social Games reach a wider audience, than “Classic” Games, according to the findings of Flurry, Social Games are mostly played in the age group of 18 to 49 years. Also among the so called casual gamers, women are the larger group of players, compared to men.

But what does this term Social games mean? And are Social Games really different from the old, usual… Games?

One of our competitor, the Norwegian company Playfish, describes Social Games as the following:

Social games are games designed to be played together with friends. [...] This is in some ways a return to the roots of games. You play with the same people you would play cards, board games or go bowling with in the real world. Sharing the game experience with friends makes it more compelling and fun.

Clearly, this is how most people receive the term Social Games. We use the technology given by Social Networks, to play games together. But how social are this games really? Is it Social when you have to invite another 200 so called friends to get into the next level? There is an interesting article on this topic on WhatGamesAre, about the selfishly social aspect in Facebook games. This topic seems to be making the round in the game development scene, as also on currently on-going Game Developers Conference, there was a discussion whether Social games are evil? I think evil is always a strong word, and to describe Zynga’s Farmeville as evil is not exactly getting the point, but still there are a lot of improvements that can be made to lay more emphasis on the Social in games.

Virtual Worlds already provide a more social aspect to gaming, because they let you meet people in games and together you can play certain games, chat or just walking around with the virtual space. As the technology is getting better, also this Virtual World get more advanced in their game play and design. Also Mobile integration can add to more Social aspects of gaming. Communication is a strong tool to connect players, beyond the classical multiplayer experience. We at TribePlay believe, that the next generation of games will have to take this aspect into account. Lets see what the future brings…

By the way, try this cool game, not really social, but fun anyway: Interlocked.

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Social Networks and Social Gaming in the Chinese Internet

On February 18, 2011, in Chengdu, Flash, New Games, Social Networks, by Gregor
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It is not a secret that China is going to be the biggest market for (Social) Online Games. You can already see it in the Facebook Games statistics, where Chinese Gamers are becoming more and more active. Although Facebook is still blocked in Mainland China, its popularity constantly rises, but still it doesn’t reach the majority of 457 Million Chinese Netizen.

If you take a look on Mainland China, pages like Kaixin Wang, Renren and the Facebook like spin-off from QQ, Xiaoyou all massively increased their numbers of users during the past decade.

Kaixin Wang is traffic wise the second most popular page. According to Alexa it is rank #19 in whole mainland china. Kaixin got most of its success after Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc. got block from the great firewall. What about the games on Kaixin? The hottest games on Kaixin001.com is Zhiwu Dazhan Jiangshi (Plants Vs. Zombies) with more than 1,6 Million players, followed by Fangkuai Zongdongyuan with more than 1,3 Million Players, a mini game where you have to match pairs of stones.

Ren Ren Wang is the most popular social network page. It is online for more than eleven years and is ranked #16 on Alexa in Mainland China. Relatively new is QQs Portal Pengyou.com. It is getting more and more users lately, currently they are ranked #43 traffic-wise in Mainland China. Most popular game here is Xiaoxiao Zhanzheng, made by 5Minutes with a setting, that plays during the Stone Age.

Generally you will find a lot more MMORP Games in the “Chinese Internet” compared to Western Games Portal, but also Farmville-like Games are becoming more famous. The best known one is HappFarm or Kaixin Nongchang also developed by 5Minutes, which can be played on QQ Space, as well as on Ren Ren Wang, where it was launched in 2008.

There are of course some hidden treasures in the Chinese internet, which have yet to be discovered. The Social Gaming Industry is booming, and also that currently a lot of Chinese companies lack innovation, as Joel Backaler wrote it, creative games will show up, and hopefully also reach the Western audience.

Authors choice of Online Game: Da Xiao Chuan Chuan Shao (大小串串烧), it is a good training for your local Chuanchuan Place (Chuan Chuan is a Chengdu specialty!), pick tree in a row by clicking with the mouse, the longer you click the more you going to skewer.

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