Tom Sloper

Today we have new gaming platforms. There are games for wireless phones and PDAs. Some calculators, watches, messaging pagers, and other handheld devices are also capable of supporting games. The purpose of this article is to apply basic game design principles to these devices. I've worked as a designer and producer of electronic games since 1979. My first electronic game design was for a game watch (Game Time by GCE, circa 1981-82). I've designed handheld game LCDs, board games, dice games, and games for videogame consoles, computers, and the Internet. I'm not a programmer. The ideas in this article are based on general principles of game design - not on details of the technology. When designing games for a new gaming platform, the first fact you must face is the constraints of the system. These platforms aren't generally intended to support games. These devices ca... (more)