Loose Threads: If you could make a mobile game, what would it be like?

It's very easy for us to sit and scoff at lesser mobile games, snorting at their lack of refinement or originality. But what if we, the gamers, had the opportunity to make our own mobile titles? Would they sell, would anyone want to publish them, would they even be possible?

Last week we put the question to you to see what wonderfully creative ideas you would cough up. Forum newcomer ET3D was anxious to get his/her ideas out there:

"What I'd like to create for a start, and I think should not be hard, is extensions to PC MMOs."

Hang on, that doesn't sound like your own idea. Still, it's interesting, so go on…

"I play City of Heroes, and since the auction house got introduced I've been buying and selling there quite a bit. A mobile phone app that would let me buy and sell stuff while on the road, and check on my auctions, would be worth an extra dollar or two of subscription price per month, IMO. I played Everquest II in the past, and I used to spend a lot of time crafting (that was when it took more time to make coffee in the game than in real life). Crafting is simple and doesn't require any advanced graphics or advanced control. IMO it could easily be adapted to a mobile phone. If I can make items this way and then have them in my PC game account, it would certainly be worth some money. I'm sure most MMOs have things like this which could be made into Java apps, and allow gamers to participate in their favourite game in some way even when away from a PC or a wi-fi spot for the laptop."

Okay, not exactly what we were expecting from such an open brief, but certainly relevant all the same. Interested, Accelorata Jengold then jumped in to pick up the thread:

"The whole PC or console interoperability thing is a cool idea; weren't there some rumors about something like this happening with WoW? I think if Microsoft got its act together with the Zune there could be some great crossover between it and the 360, especially with a channel like Xbox Live Arcade. I think Peter Molyneux has been talking about Live Arcade games that feed into the main Fable 2 experience so surely untethering the Live Arcade stuff from the living room is the next logical step? "As for my own game, hmm? "How about red neck pig wrestling? Or what about some sort of 'Txt of the Dead' conversion, not really my own game but it would be great."

Good point on Txt of the Dead (incidentally, The Typing of the Dead has been ported to the DS in Japan) but for the sake of this thread we'd sink our development cash (if we had any) into Red Neck Pig Wrestling.

Back on topic, Hidden Away, also wants extensions of bigger games for mobile:

"I like the idea of integrating mobiles with PC MMOs. Given that I've not really had much experience with them, I was thinking that if there was some sort of mini-game in the MMO, maybe you can play that on the mobile and if it rewards you with something, that gets added onto your account. Kind of what the PocketStation tried to do with FF8 on the PS1."

Goodness, this idea is a popular one, we can only assume it won't be long until some big name MMO developer actually takes the plunge and delivers something on mobile that relates to the main experience.

Taking the discussion in a much less obvious direction, Mandark, having waited patiently, pounced from the shadows:

"I'm quite interested in these alternate reality games (ARGs) and mobiles seem the ideal device for these as you'll need to be on the move, able to check info online and also communicate. The only thing is for an ARG to be really big you need a tie in to a TV series or a video game or some other pop culture storyline. "But if you can trigger intrigue in a way that gets thousand of Lost fans to go online and discuss and try and work out in a logical manner what's really going on then you've got a winner. "My storyline would be to have a main character murdered. Players would then have to follow clues to check out his background and then work out who might have done it. But of course there will be, mysterious people and organizations and conspiracies within conspiracies."

It certainly sounds intriguing, and the Lost example is very pertinent. A mobile title where cryptic clues solved in-game related to the weekly progression of a popular TV show's narrative would surely be a winner?

Lowering the tone for the end of the discussion, SetsFireToPoshHammer made a thinly veiled point about the ideas that drive popular mobile game dvelopment these days (or at least, we think that's what he was doing).

"How about mobile versions of My Sweet Ride or Pimp My Sixteenth. Hold on, maybe I got those mixed up a bit but the latter probably will end up getting made at some point anyway."

It's true that MTV culture is becoming all the more prevalent in mobile games, but perhaps the concepts gleaned from this corner of the market make for better games than they do TV programmes.

Which brings us neatly around to next week's topic:

Which film/TV licences deserve their own portable game?

As ever, the details can all be found over in the forum, where incidentally there are plenty of other threads all vying for your words of coffee break wisdom.

Hopefully catch you all in the forum then, and don't forget to click 'Track It!' to be sure to catch next week's Loose Threads.