Interview with Greg Costikyan
Greg Costikyan can be accurately described as a guru. His 30+ years in the game industry, a Gamer’s Choice Award, and his induction into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame can attest to this description. A recent speech given by Greg at the GDC about the lack of innovation in modern gaming received a standing ovation; when Greg talks, the industry listens. Here’s what he had to say to QuicklyBored after his lecture at the AGC about mobile game design.
QuicklyBored: What is the ideal mobile game that you want to be playing right now?
Greg: I don’t have a clear vision of what I’d call “the true mobile game” to be or could be, and if I did, I’d probably be thinking about how to implement it, right? But I do think that if mobile devices are going to be used to provide something other than inferior versions of games developed on other platforms, the games have to be able to use the characteristics of the device that other platforms do not provide. And those are mobility, ubiquity, voice communication, and personal attachment to the device.
What, if any, mobile games do you play right now?
I haven’t actually played any mobile games in a while. I guess the last mobile game that I really liked was something called Ancient Empires, which is just a little turn-based fantasy game, kind of like Heroes of Might and Magic-light.
Is it a lack of time or a lack of interest?
It’s mostly a lack of interest at this point. I’ve been involved in mobile games essentially from its inception, and it’s apparent to me that in some ways they’re even more stereotyped and uninteresting than games from the conventional game industry. Part of the reason I got involved in mobile games initially was because nobody really knew what was going to work, so it was possible to experiment with different things.
You talked a lot today about features inherent in wireless communication devices that aren’t being used. What is the most important thing that the everyday cell phone has that isn’t being taken advantage of for gaming?
I think voice. Probably voice.
What’s the biggest drawback to mobile devices? Is it controls or screen size?
Latency.
Really?
Yeah. Multiplayer games — there’s just a whole series of multiplayer game styles that you can’t implement on a mobile device at the moment. There are workarounds, you can do simple turn-based games and those kinds of things, but latency is a real issue.
Do mobile games have to be multiplayer?
No, but–
Should they?
Yeah. Again, if it’s a single-player video game experience, that can be more-or-less compelling, but it’s not what I would call a true mobile game. These are special devices, first and foremost, that are social by nature. Since we have a device that is social by nature, and games are social by nature, mobile games should be social and that involves multiplayer on some level.
Do you find it odd that more people feel comfortable playing single-player mobile games than multiplayer games?
Not given the current business model. At the moment, if I download a single-player game onto my phone I pay the fee and I know what the fee is, and that’s it. But if it’s a multiplayer game, I have to make a network connection, and I probably don’t really know what my carrier is charging me for data; I don’t know what my bill could come to at the end of the month. There’s insecurity about doing anything multiplayer, and I think that isn’t going to change until the pay structure changes.
Is that the first step? What is the first step towards building the mobile game that you want to see?
From a developer’s perspective, I think the first step is just to try and envision something and implement it, and damn the torpedoes — you’re just going to have to struggle with the technology a lot to get what you want.
But it’s going to be really hard to sell an innovative game like that because it’s probably going to rely on handsets with technical feasibilities that aren’t widely deployed. There is a lot of lip-service by mobile publishers and operators towards the need for innovation, so there’s at least a chance of doing something more novel. Ultimately, handset technology has to change for us to have a lot of these capabilities widely deployed.
What kind of timeline are we looking at for this to happen?
It could happen in five years; I mean a lot has already happened in five years. Maybe ten is more reasonable.
Really? That long?
Yeah. Not necessarily because the technology isn’t capable of doing it at the moment — it’s more the creation of standards and then getting them widely accepted.
What can the carriers do to help facilitate this? What are they willing to do?
I see the carriers more as a roadblock than a potential ally in this regard. Again, we are talking about things that are really mostly handset specific, so it’s really got to be the handset manufacturers that come up with these things more than the carriers. What the carriers can do is not get in the way by restricting what technology can be put on handsets that they carry, and those kinds of things.
To read more of Greg Costikyan’s thoughts on the gaming industry, go here.
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