Android NS2
Hugh
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
<div class="IPBDescription">Cross Platform Marketing</div>G'day everyone and welcome back to... ahem I mean hi guys!
I've got a hair brained idea. After NS2 goes gold, and there is the possibility that one or two team members have the time, how about a smartphone version of NS2. Now hear me out here.
I was thinking very simple gameplay - a skulk vs a marine, with two or three maps consisting of a single room with some varied cover. Offer it for free, but be sure to link to the real NS2 website all the way through. Offer it on the Android marketplace, maybe WP7 as well if it takes off. Stay away from Apple unless you can be sure they won't do you up the bum.
Connection would ideally by bluetooth, with a maximum of two players. (1 skulk, 1 marine). I've seen FPS's controlled by touchscreen before and I think it looks viable.
As for how technically feasible the idea is, I'm not sure. Based on what I've seen of FPS's on modern smartphones, graphical horsepower shouldn't be a problem. The skulk and marine can be massivly poly'd down, the map geometry and textures extremely simple, the map size utterly tiny (I'm thinking half the size of server room). No shadows, no dynamic lights. A very simple product.
The product would have only two goals - addictive repetitive gameplay, and clickthroughs to naturalselection2.com. People play it maybe five or six times, to the point where they are curious enough to click through and see what the actual game is.
I'd don't know much about writing engines for smartphones, I've no idea how hard it would be. I will guess 250 man hours for guessing's sake, so just over a month with two people going at it 8 hours a day. Remeber, I'm taking an extremely simple engine. If it could be done in 250 man-hours, UWE is looking at a cost of maybe $6,500 depending on what an employee is paid. Of course, I can't account for the opportunity cost of having an experienced UWE employee working on the smartphone game instead of patches for the real game.
Assuming the $6,500 cost, 185 sales would need to be made to recoup it. Assuming (Again, lots of assumptions for arguments sake) 2.5% of people who play the mini game buy the full game for their PC, 7,400 players would be required.
In the context of the exploding smartphone market, I think 7,400 downloads is very conservative, and that UWE could expect at least several times that over the course of a year.
So, what do people think? Anyone with experience developing for Android or WP7 or iOS or Symbian or whatever? What would it take to create a 3D engine capable of facing two simple character models off in a simple room, over a bluetooth connection?
I've got a hair brained idea. After NS2 goes gold, and there is the possibility that one or two team members have the time, how about a smartphone version of NS2. Now hear me out here.
I was thinking very simple gameplay - a skulk vs a marine, with two or three maps consisting of a single room with some varied cover. Offer it for free, but be sure to link to the real NS2 website all the way through. Offer it on the Android marketplace, maybe WP7 as well if it takes off. Stay away from Apple unless you can be sure they won't do you up the bum.
Connection would ideally by bluetooth, with a maximum of two players. (1 skulk, 1 marine). I've seen FPS's controlled by touchscreen before and I think it looks viable.
As for how technically feasible the idea is, I'm not sure. Based on what I've seen of FPS's on modern smartphones, graphical horsepower shouldn't be a problem. The skulk and marine can be massivly poly'd down, the map geometry and textures extremely simple, the map size utterly tiny (I'm thinking half the size of server room). No shadows, no dynamic lights. A very simple product.
The product would have only two goals - addictive repetitive gameplay, and clickthroughs to naturalselection2.com. People play it maybe five or six times, to the point where they are curious enough to click through and see what the actual game is.
I'd don't know much about writing engines for smartphones, I've no idea how hard it would be. I will guess 250 man hours for guessing's sake, so just over a month with two people going at it 8 hours a day. Remeber, I'm taking an extremely simple engine. If it could be done in 250 man-hours, UWE is looking at a cost of maybe $6,500 depending on what an employee is paid. Of course, I can't account for the opportunity cost of having an experienced UWE employee working on the smartphone game instead of patches for the real game.
Assuming the $6,500 cost, 185 sales would need to be made to recoup it. Assuming (Again, lots of assumptions for arguments sake) 2.5% of people who play the mini game buy the full game for their PC, 7,400 players would be required.
In the context of the exploding smartphone market, I think 7,400 downloads is very conservative, and that UWE could expect at least several times that over the course of a year.
So, what do people think? Anyone with experience developing for Android or WP7 or iOS or Symbian or whatever? What would it take to create a 3D engine capable of facing two simple character models off in a simple room, over a bluetooth connection?
Comments
Is it bad that that's the first thing I thought too?
Hmm, ideally, you could make a proof-of-concept on Spark.
A real traditional RTS where the units are something you control, and it would tie in better with a salespitch of the game. It could be adapted too so that there can be several commanders in this game as well, with multiplayer hotseat-joining if a player captures a tech-node so they can play together.
Maybe even help players to hone their commander-skills if they buy the real game, but now with the extra added layer of having players to control instead.
<b>"What you have been playing now is only the start, buy Natural Selection 2 for PC and Linux and <i>become </i>the unit."</b> <i>*links to youtube video with gameplay trailer*</i>
The benefit here is that it doesn't need to be 3D, the RTS gameplay can be directly taken from NS2, the graphics can be snapshotted and converted.
They could probably do a game in the NS2 universe, a basic single player story or very simple multiplayer, but simple is always best.
And Angry Skulk? LOLz :D
Ontopic:
where is the tl;dr? gonna read it anyway cause its ns2hd who wrote it tho.
...
Ok, I read it now. I would argue that a fps on a smartphone is not the best idea, they usually dont turn out to well. I think the idea of a rts in the ns2 universe seems better, could actually even use ns2_trams minimap as the minimap, and maybe even as play area (depends on how good graphics you want) XD.
But to be honest, I doubt this is a very great idea. the game must be good enough to get high ranked and achieve alot of downloads, where even if it is good, only a few will actuall follow that link. Less people will actually buy ns2, and I got a feeling it would just end up as a waste of resources. Perhaps if they got a fan to do it for free, and then get to check out the game before publishing to make sure its good, it might be smart though.
Oh, like GTA1/2-style? That would be pretty cool and could incorporate RTS components.
I can sort of imagine a control scheme. For marines, you could have a 'joystick' in the bottom left corner which controls your character motion, press and hold on the overhead game environment to aim and shoot. For aliens, specifically skulk, you could have the same 'joystick', but you could also have some vector dragging (so it's kind of a tap-drag in the direction you want to move) to leap/move, leap will do a bit of damage upon hitting, if you're within melee range, you can tap a marine to bite.
NaturalMotion, the company behind the realistic physics tech for grand theft auto/red dead redemption games, did something similar to market their engine with the (american) football game Backbreaker. It was an extremely stripped down version of the game that just had you run the ball through a defensive line but the selling point was the realistic physics as you were tackled.
If they made an RTS only version of NS2 for smart phones (including iPhone >.<) I'd pay for it. A demo that shows the player all the features including DI, power nodes, and all tech on both teams would atleast spark some curiousity in potential buyers. This would also help those too scared to jump in a comm chair/hive at first because it would give them an overview of their duties as a comm.