flash lite

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Some pretty exciting developments are taking place in mobile device input methods.  Game developers get to take advantage of devices with a  traditional keypad, touch screens, multi touch screens and motion sensors.

It’s early days yet but the potential in these devices is starting to be realized with games such as TapTap Revolution for the iPhone using multi touch and demos such as this moving ball demo that use Flash Lite and accelerometers.

It wont be too long before some brilliant mind makes a leap in mobile device interaction akin to Johnny Lee’s amazing Wii Remote hacks. These hacks transform the $40 game piece into a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer.

Gamasutra posted an article discussing the role Flash Lite has played in empowering Tokyo based content provider Pikkle to create a casual gaming site attracting 40% of all male teenagers in Japan. According to Pikkle’s president David Collier, Flash Lite has been key in building the community because of its lower barriers to development and the ease of game downloads when compared to Java games.

Obviously the rest of the world has some ways to go to catch up to the penetration rates of Flash Lite enabled handsets but the number of handsets is steadily increasing.

Afzainizam Zahari currently lives and works in Singapore as a teacher, his game Think Fast came in 8th place.

The Game

About Izam

Izam has a strong desire to boldly go where no man has gone before (except maybe the depths of a volcano). He is a dreamer/artist/inspirer/performer/animator/game creator/mac user and an overall charming person. Before he became the fountain of knowledge to adolescents, he was busy creating animations for television programmes, web development and mobile games for PDA. All of which were done using Flash. More information about the man and his strange escapades can be gleaned from his blog

The Interview

WordRap

Tell us a little about yourself.
I am Afzainizam Zahari and I am from Singapore. I am currently teaching Science, Biology and Multimedia to secondary school students. I majored in Biology and did a minor in Multimedia in National University of Singapore. I have been involved in multimedia development since 1999 when I was first introduced to Macromedia Director. I learnt about Flash and immediately I fell in love with it.

How did you become a Flash Lite developer?
Back in 2000 I knew Flash was the way to go for rapid multimedia development for offline content as well as for the web. Flash 5 was released in 2001 and I never looked back. In 2002 I started to create mobile applications and games for the pocket pc platform. I enjoyed the experience tremendously.In 2004 when Flash Lite was introduced I got really interested in the possibility of having flash games on the Nokia series 60 platform. I decided to create a simple boxing game for the Nokia 3650. I was forced to re-learn Flash 4.0 Actionscript syntax. Flash 4.0 has quite a number of limitations but then Flash Lite 2 was released a year later. It was quite a relief because I can make use of Actionscript 1.0 and up. However the phones back then in 2005 was mostly able to support up to Flash Lite 1.1. So it was still quite a challenge for me.

You are interested in casual games, tell us why?
I am a strong supporter of casual games. Personally I find that I have very little time to sit down to play a full game on the video game console. Casual games that make me smile and tickle my brain cells work for me. I find it a rewarding challenge to be able to figure out the likes and dislikes of casual players and create a game that will interest them. These are the people that have very limited time to play, but once you catch their attention, you’ve got a winner.

Tell us how you came up with idea for this game.
The idea of Think Fast came from a personal situation in a chocolatier. My friend and I were calculating the prices of the various chocolates on the shelves. I challenged her to find out who is faster at calculating mentally. I lost.She’s a Mathematics teacher by the way. So..Anyway, that immediately gave me the inspiration to create such a game with cute and colorful characters trying to get chocolates from the Lollipop tree. It was a joy to create the game right down from drawing to scripting.

What other games do you like on Playyoo?
Playyoo attracted an amazing number of polished and well developed games. I was blown away by some of them. I really like Bog Frog. It was the kind of game I find it hard to put down until I solved the puzzle for each level. I also like Sketch Mini. It has that really cool animation which simply made me smile. It is a joy to play.

What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on a game called Journey Man. This game was conceptualized when I was 10 years old with 2 of my childhood friends. We never got around to creating the game because we went our separate ways ever since we went on to secondary school. I guess its about time I close that chapter of my childhood by creating the game that we have always wanted to create back then.

What do you think Playyoo can offer to you as a developer?
As a developer I really hope that Playyoo can be a platform for me to showcase the games I create to a large audience easily. And from there, maybe obtain a certain amount of revenue from players who really appreciate the games that I created.

Do have an advice for other game creators how to win a contest like this one?
You have to create an original game that captures people’s attention (in a good way). A great idea for a simple game, with simple user interface that people can simply jump in and play straight away. People don’t really like to be bogged down with too many instructions or having to learn so much just to play a simple game. Keep it really simple. User experience is very important.

The regional winners for the Flash Lite User Group Contest have been announced. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who contributed to the community.

 

EMEA

Mondo Under by bitacora13
Fantastic graphics and animation in this game will probably stretch some devices but if it works on your phone you will enjoy wandering around a sub city sewer munching flies and dodging toxic sludge filled holes and steaming hot pipes….and that’s just the first level.

 

Americas

Bog Frog by Ekleptica
Bog Frog immediately catches the eye with its smooth, fresh graphics, and it backs these up with great game play. It is simple enough: you have to guide the frog to the lily flower, through a sequence of ever more complex puzzles. The variability between each level keeps things interesting. A recent update to the game which adds time limit mode makes it even more fun.Totally addictive!!

 

Asia Pacific

UFO Catcher: Barnyard Abductionby Naz
Become Zorg, a Zkrznian Elite hunter and collect specimens for the Zkrznian Interplanetary zoo. You are awarded bonus points for 3-of-a-kind abductions and special combinations. Try to avoid the crop dusters or your trusty UFO will be sprawled over the farm-scape with no chance to phone home.

 

Full listing of the winners is available at the 2007 Flash Lite Game Contest site.

Next in line is Mariam, her game Sea Combat came in 17th place.

The Game

About Mariam

My name is Mariam Dholkawala and I am based out of Mumbai, India. After spending six years in a game development company (Indiagames Ltd), I recently moved on to work independently on projects under a development studio iGameStudio.I have been a game developer for close to 7 years now and have loved every moment of it. I started my gaming career with Macromedia Director as the Lingo Scripting Language was a lot more powerful for than Actionscript. Soon as Flash evolved and the market started demanding light weight and graphic rich games, I moved on to Flash development.

The Interview

WordRap

How did you become a Flash Lite developer?
My journey into Flash mobile game development began when I first read an article about the Mobiclip extension for Flash. This extension allowed me to compile a swf file into a format for mobiles. I immediately requested for their SDK and become a part of their small developer base. Working on this gave me an understanding of mobile limitations and ways to overcome them.Soon I received an invitation to be a part of the Flash Lite 1.1 beta and my journey into the world of Flash Lite began. The first game I made with my team at Indiagames was “Cryptic Capers”. This won us an award at the Macromedia Flash Lite Content Contest in 2005 in the Best Game Category. Then on I just got hooked to this technology and created a huge catalogue of games. It’s now been close to 4 years and I still love working on Flash Lite.

You are interested in casual games, tell us why?
The biggest advantage of developing casual games is they are simple, fun, and in most cases provide an easy one thumb play to its users. Today people want to fill up their spare time (waiting for someone, in a meeting, travelling in the train) in playing a game. Hard-core games don’t allow that because they need detailed understanding and time. Casual games are currently considered a market driver, and that’s why I develop casual games

Tell us how you came up with idea for this game.
While submitting my games for the Playyoo contest, I realized that most of my games were single screen games. I wanted to do something different so I thought of doing a game with a scrolling screen. At the same time I also wanted to make sure that the scrolling experience was consistent on all handsets that supported it. So discarding the idea for a complex scrolling game I thought of this simple concept for Sea Combat.

What other games do you like on Playyoo?
Currently the Playyoo website is populated with various games, so filtering the good from the average is difficult. However as a manager of the IndiMaD UG, I did get an opportunity to see all the games off the Playyoo website and I think all the developers who have contributed have done a great job on their games. Kudos to all.

What are you currently working on?
Currently I have tied up with a local Indian brand to create a mobile viral campaign for their product. This application is being developed using Flash Lite. Apart from this, I also have a Flash Lite game which I was working on, but has been put on hold due to this new project.

What do you think Playyoo can offer to you as a developer?
I think Playyoo provides a great platform to showcase and share games with the rest of the gaming community. It is a great place to receive feedback on your work, make new friends and see what other developers are doing.