Is Branded IP the new way to go for games!

Contemporary gaming companies such as EA and GameLoft are having a hard time creating something as substantial as Clash of Clans. Unlike their dominance in conventional gaming-market of PC and consoles, these companies are having a hard time replicating that for mobile and keep their dominance. However EA has finally understood that it needs to combine the development prowess of small studios with its brand cult to hit the bulls eye. They have closely worked with their partner to create SIM City and are now geared up for even more.

What are the reasons behind that?

An unfamiliar progression

PC and Consoles games are entirely different from mobile with respect to the target users. Unlike PC games that emphasized on life-like graphics and set it as a marker of progression, mobile games evolved altogether on a different plane. The progression of mobile games set off new challenges and protocols to create blockbuster games. Before companies like EA could understand the dynamics, small players apparently made it big in the mobile. Many of these were independant studios. Despite the fact that established players did a good job catching up, the indie studios took the cake in the form of rapid learning and setting standard development patterns.

Touch vs. Press

Touch screens have altogether a different approach to set commands as compared to the conventional joystick of a gaming console. Combined with the accelerometer (which is now implemented in console handsets as well), the game design for mobile needed altogether a different approach to set it right.

Connecting all the possible touch commands to cognitive actions is one of the primary things that mobile game developers have mastered their skills at. On the other hand companies such as EA and Ubisoft have mastered the console and keyboard commands that calls for a different set of commands altogether.

What can be expected?

One can expect the mobile game market to get better with respect to creating and distributing content. While there are tonnes of games in the app store, you hardly come across quality content that is engaging enough to be played for a long time. While there is a lot of potential coming from small developers, their resources in making themselves heard is limited. This is where branded IP can chip in and create value for the small developers, EA as well as customers.

5 games that employed low poly art like a pro

In continuation to our previous post on low poly art, we have decided to look into a few games in the market that demonstrated clever use of low poly within the game art design. Low poly holds the future for mobile gaming and set for an evolution, very similar to game art meant for console and PC games these days. It is already happening with various mobile game development companies employing the art in an aesthetically pleasing and clever manner. Let’s look at a few of those-

1. ManuGanu

“Manuganu is a 3d side-scoller running game”. It is made with low poly art. Of course, it’s a 3d game with low poly art, but not all of its parts are 3d as well as not all parts are made with low poly. The whole character is made with low poly with some 2d images pasted at certain points.  Since the character movement is limited, players do not get close to those places and avoids them to see the anomalies of 2D image pasted on 3d models. Doing this, the art looks real and also fills in the gap for curvier elements wherever they are needed.

2. Subway Surfer

Subway Surfer is a great example of low poly and 3d. The characters, objects and the whole environment are created with low poly art. Next time when you play the game, put your focus on the character and the environment as well. There are fewer curves and the character’s face, cap, eyes, wardrobe, hands, etc., all reveal boxy polygons.

The road, trains, gateways on sides, trees, or even the skateboard is made up of low poly models as well. While playing this game, players are busy with collecting coins and skipping difficulties, so it’s rare that they had a deep look on the characters and objects of game. Now you know that they are low poly, just check out the images of Subway Surfer on Google to confirm it.

3. Clash of Clans

You can’t see the polygons in the look of Clash of Clans (CoC) as they are really smooth and sculptural with a perfect fill of colours. All the stripes of CoC are probably made using Max (3D) and they are implemented as 2D sprites which is the main reason why you can’t notify the shape of polygons here. Another reason is characters and objects are far away from your view. You can just notify them moving here and there, you can’t see them closely enough to observe their triangular shapes.

4. Gunship Battle

The helicopter, huts, train, mountains, tanks, and others objects of Gunship Battle are purely low poly 3D models.  The soldiers are always seen from a specific height by the player. This demands less details and extremely low polygons–making the game run glitch free.

5. Catdammit

Catdammit is a comical arcade game, revealing the story of a cat holding a chainsaw. Cat has a task to destroy everything with its chainsaw. Colourful low poly art style makes this game look really promising. Cat, its chainsaw, citizens, cars, benches, and all other objects are beautifully coloured in a way that no one could easily observe that it is a low poly art development.

Low poly art is very vibrant in appearance and rich in detailing colours. It is a unique way to showcase the characteristics of models and objects. With low poly art, an artist can describe lots of movements in objects and the above given games are live proof of its beauty.

Related: Low poly- the pixel art of mobile games