With the social gaming space emerging as one of the leading development sectors and revenue generators, Craig Chapple talks to the key social tech providers about how studios can successfully harness the tools available
SOCIAL GAMING IS becoming an ever-more prominent subject of interest for both developers and consumers alike. As browser and mobile platforms rapidly
increase in power and are able to attract millions of users backed by highly scalable servers, catering for the huge and profitable sector is proving extemely tempting for many studios. The emergence of Facebook in 2004 saw the social space dramatically rise in popularity, with multi-billion dollar companies such as Zynga taking advantage of the eager customer-base with titles such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars. Zynga now employs over 3,000 staff. Back in 2007 it did not exist.
RocketOwl’s GreenSpace (main image) is one of many social games to enter the browser and mobile space of late. We R Interactive’s Alex Whittaker (middle) and Eutechnyx’s Andrew Perella are champions of social gaming
AN EMERGING SPACE Fast-forward to 2012, and with the creation of the iPhone and numerous Android devices, as well as improvements in the browser space to platforms such as Flash and the ever-improving HTML5, social games are flourishing. With hundreds of millions of potential users up for grabs, those who have the right attitude can now create a mega-hit without going near a console. At the same time, the technology behind the phenomenon has enhanced greatly too. “A few years is a long time in social
gaming,” says Ngmoco UK’s general manager 52| JULY 2012
James DuBern. “And from a technology point of view we've seen the explosion of Android –with Google Play now taking 30 per cent of revenues, iPhones doubling in power, and the establishment of the tablet industry. There have been seismic changes for a developer to cope with.”
A few years is a long time in social
gaming. There have been seismic changes for a developer to cope with.
James DuBern, Ngmoco Unity’s CEO David Helgason says that the
nature of social games development for mobile and browser has changed greatly, in line with DuBern’s assertions of substantial developments in the space in a remarkably short timespan. “Until recently no one was using anything
but Flash for social games,” he says. “Now we see many new social games being made in Unity for iOS, Android, and Facebook, both through our Flash export and through our native browser plug-in.”
We R Interactive CTO Alex Wittaker agrees, stating that Flash has lost ground in the social games market, despite allowing access to 3D cards, citing the rise of the controversial and oft-criticised HTML5 – as well as Unity and WebGl – as providing what he deems as better options for game creation. “Within the last two years we have really
seen Flash lose ground in this space,” he explains. “Apple's growing dominance and the ascendancy of HTML5, WebGl and Unity have rendered Flash no longer the sure thing it used to be. “JavaScript became a viable alternative with performance improvements in the browser engines and more powerful target platforms, and is likely to grow more dominant with its adoption for the Windows 8 Metro interface.”
TOOLED UP With so many platforms to develop on, such a fragmented tech landscape has led to studios clamouring for solutions that successfully allow them to create and distribute their titles onto as many devices as possible. Tools such as GameMaker:Studio
GameSalad, and NgCore through Mobage have been designed to provide easier coding and swift cross-platform distribution, without the need for developers to spend too much time entering new code for each platform.