‹ Kars on the Playyoo system •
I’m happy to present Samir K. Dash and his game “Match the Blocks”, that won the Playyoo Launch Contest. I played this game myself and I can tell you the current highscore is incredible.
About Samir
Samir currently works as System Consultant (Creative Content) leading an e-learning & multimedia team at Enterprise System Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (www.esspl.com) at Bhubaneswar, India. He is passionate about Flash, Flash Lite and has developed few applications, games and components for web and mobiles. He runs his experimental Flash Lite based mobile greetings site MobileWish. He beliefs “ Flash Lite will fuel the nexgen M-Learning through usage of mobile interactives and games. Playyoo’s contribution towards bringing together the Flash Lite community and spreading the awareness among common mass has turned this chain reaction, ON.” More details about Samir can be found at his blog MobileWish. He beliefs “ Flash Lite will fuel the nexgen M-Learning through usage of mobile interactives and games. Playyoo’s contribution towards bringing together the Flash Lite community and spreading the awareness among common mass has turned this chain reaction, ON.” More details about Samir can be found at his blog http://samirshomepage.wordpress.com
The Interview
As part of our feature of fine game creators we are going to have short interviews and provide them via Podcast here. I actually did a Skype interview with Samir but unfortunately the sound quality is rather bad. Still I will investigate how to improve it and post it later if I succeed.So we rather print the interview here.
How did you become a Flash Lite developer?
It was back in 1997, when I found a copy of a promotional CD from a digit magazine with Flash 5 trial copy, I started experimenting with it and gradually realized this software has everything that turns on my imagination. Later I started self learning Flash and followed every version until (two, three years back) I came to know that they have launched a mobile profile too. My interest raised further knowing that I can see my little animations on mobile handsets. My first Flash Lite application was “Traffic Signs” in Flash Lite 1.0 — which was nothing but a pack of slides of traffic sign images in each frame. Later when I joined ESSPL and started using Flash for client projects, I found out that Flash Lite can be used to create “Value Additions” to some of enterprise/web applications other teams are developing – like a mobile companion to any of the application that are being developed in Java/.Net , that will show some information on handsets – Rss gadgets, string/XML parsers etc. Thus I got my passion for Flash lite.
You are interested in casual games, tell us why?
Most of the jobs in my current company involve development of interactive and e-learning stuff and that’s the main reaso. When I view Flash Lite games, I see it as a medium to keep the user engaged deeply for some minutes. I belief, the causal games are the only robust way to guide the instructional designs of a next generation M-Learning.. That’s is the main reason I was first attracted to wards this area. I believe causal mobile games are the next big thing both in game as well as M-Learning industry.
Tell us how you came up with idea for this game?
“Match the Blocks” is perhaps the simplest game in the series of ten games I contributed to Playoo. I believe, that in most of the cases if it is a mobile game, there is a high chance that the user may not be in a situation where he can concentrate more on game playing…like he might be downloading the game while waiting for cab, or ordering a meal at restaurant. So the idea is to keep the game playing rules simple, so much time is not wasted by the user in learning “How to/what to do” about the game. Additionally more the complicated a game is , less chance, the user will be able to find sufficient time and attention for it to play on handset. So, I created “Match the Blocks” keeping in all these things in mind, and those things worked very well too.
What other games do you like on Playyoo?
I think there are many brilliant games in Playyoo. To name a few — QTile, Mondo Under, Panic Mechanic, Orang Bunian, these are few names of some brilliant games I liked at playyoo. Qtile is very technically sound design in game , Mondo Under is a wonderful piece in graphic effects, Panic mechanic has a good entertaining factor and Orang Bunian is a very simple but beautiful game.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on 3 casual games for playyoo, one of them is “Bhul Bhuleya” based on a new concept. I am sure the user will like the gaming experience of that very much. The second one is a Flash lite 3 game, and the third one is a version 2 of “Match the Blocks” . Apart from games I am also working on a m-learning stuff that will I hope make m-learning easier to implement in Flash Lite.
What do you think Playyoo can offer to you as a developer?
<Playyoo has done a wonderful job in bringing together the Flash Lite developers and the game players. I think it’s very important for Playyoo to improve this synergy factor. Most of the developers would be more interested if Playyoo can create a potential market for them to showcase their games and interactive for commercial benefits.I also wish that Playyoo can push the M-Learning related interactive development, which can actually redefine the whole concept of learning using Flash Lite games for students – as games are much more effective than pure texts. As I said earlier the next big thing both in game as well as M-Learning industry lies in causal games /interactive development.
Do have an advice for other game creators how to win a contest likethis one.
The specialty of Playyoo contest was that unlike other game development contests held in previous years, it is based on the concept of “for the game players”…the judging criteria was more on “user’s preference in gaming” – with in 300 kb one need to bring the entertaining factor and has to keep a balance between the technology and the taste. Many games that were brilliantly designed and technically sound may fail in these type of contests if users can not see it as per what they expect from this. The key is to keep a balance between the technical potential and the gaming factor. And yes it is always good to make the game small so users won’t need to wait too long, make it FL 1.1 (because the more users can play it on their handset), don’t make the game rules complex…make it simple and short…and I am sure the game will gate more users.
Thanks for the interview and your games.
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Tags: casual game, contest, developer, feature, flash lite, interview, match the blocks, samir
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