1. Re-designing your casual game for iPhone and iPad Gabby Dizon Boomzap Entertainment

2. 2 Who is Boomzap Entertainment? Casual games for PC/Mac, Wii, iPhone/iPad Virtual office in 6 countries Recent focus: Hidden object / puzzle / adventure games (HOPA)

3. What this talk is all about Redesign your PC casual game for iDevices Maximize your existing IP 3

4. Awakening: The Dreamless Castle Published by Big Fish Games PC version released February 2010 Mac version released March 2010 9 international versions released on PC iPhone/iPad release: December 2010 4 #1 on

5. The four letter word: “Port” Evokes images of mindless work There’s a lot more to porting your games to iThingies than just getting them to run Hence, we talk about “redesign” 5

6. First things first: Your game engine iOS compatible? OpenGL ES ready? Build or buy? Commercial options: 6

7. How we did it Boomzap’s engine – in-house, C++ based, OpenGL supported Mac OSX port – excellent starting point Porting our engine to iOS – included in project schedule Engine porting + optimization took 2 months (50%) of supposed project schedule 7 Let’s avoid monkey-touching steps wherever possible!

8. How we did it Lesson: Port your engine outside of the project schedule! 8

9. The finer points of touch controls Tap response has to be immediate Swipe and bounce have to feel smooth, not jerky Customers REALLY CARE about these features – do not ignore them We spent a LOT of time just fine- tuning these movements 9  Tap / Double-tap  Swipe / Bounce  Pinch to zoom  Tap-and-drag  Two-finger swipe

10. Build management Start of project - iPhone build first, then iPad after 60% into project – iPad build is more important (Xmas sales) We ended up doing iPhone and iPad build at the same time Plus 2x Lite builds Updating 2 separate SVN repositories every day 10 Use a script to automate the update of the 2nd repository!

11. Build management 11 Lesson: Do the HD SKU first, then work your way down

12. Asset Management Image assets should all be power of 2 Compressed or uncompressed? (memory vs. file space) How many resolutions? (480x320, 960x640, 1024x768) What we did = A Dropbox directory (synced to team members) per build (iPhone Full/Lite, iPad Full/Lite) One asset change = manually update 4 versions 12 The assets of the SD directory can contain only the delta; all other files are copied over from the HD directory. Great for sharing and syncing assets!

13. Asset management 13 Lesson: Automate asset changes wherever possible!

14. Navigation issues Tap vs. click No context-sensitive cursor 14 PCiPad

15. Room navigation 15 PCiPad Explicit compass mode on iPad to navigate rooms

16. iPad to iPhone issues UI redesign may be needed, cannot just scale down Pinch zoom more important Hit areas should be larger Fonts need to be larger, clearer Portrait mode for HOG scenes 16

17. Antique Road Trip USA: iPad vs. iPhone iPad 17 iPhone

18. iPad to iPhone Redesign 18 Lesson: Scaling won’t work – take the time to redesign the UI

19. Tutorial Very important to hook the player in Usability videos are very helpful 19

20. Tutorial 20 Lesson: Plan the iOS-specific tutorial as early as possible!

21. Social Integration Use a social game network Leaderboards, achievements, friends list 21

22. Social Integration Newsletter sign-up Email a friend Feedback Cross-promotion User ratings 22

23. We’re Smarter Now New iOS projects underway Reusable modules for future games –Touch controls –Achievement system –Newsletter/email a friend libraries Build most important SKU first In the future: Android/WebOS/etc. 23

24. Recap Prep your engine Automate your assets Have a pipeline scalable for multiple builds Address UI issues early Tutorial NOW, not later Reusable social modules Have a great publisher (as we did with BFG) 24

25. Thank you! gabby@boomzap.com @boomzap on Twitter 25 http:// www.boomzap.com