Features

Genre Moves: How smartphone and tablet gaming has changed the FPS

And how it'll keep changing it

Genre Moves: How smartphone and tablet gaming has changed the FPS
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| Neon Shadow

The FPS genre has always been the preserve of the dedicated gamer.

In the two decades since id Software broke new ground with Wolfenstein 3D, not much has been changed with regard to the fundamental elements of a first-person shooter.

The corridors might have got bigger, the bad guys might have had their edges smoothed off a little, and some bright spark might have thrown in mouselook, but you're still a wobbly gun wobbling through the world, shooting anything that moves.

If anything, the advent of smartphone and tablet gaming has resulted in the biggest stylistic shifts in the genre since Rare first proved with GoldenEye that you could murder people quite proficiently with a controller.

Mobile game developers are experimenting with control schemes, changing the rhythms of play, and moulding new FPS experiences out of the familiar shapes and colours we all take for granted.

Tasty Poison's Neon Shadow is a fine example of this. It's an old-school shooter dressed up in the finery of the App Store.

Tight corridors, spinning ammo pick-ups, and staccato circle-strafing gun fights make up the core of this Gold Award-winning experience.

Already familiar with touch controls, the Tasty Poison team focused on getting the 'feel' of those early shooters down from the get-go. In doing so, it created an experience that's as much an homage as it is a showcase for new ideas.

Along with bite-sized levels, the game boasts same-device co-operative multiplayer, scraps over wi-fi, and a handful of other innovations that help it stay modern in a crowded marketplace.

Telescopic sight

And Steve McIvor, director at Tasty Poison, thinks there's scope for a lot more experimentation in the future.

"As devices become more powerful, the restrictions will start to fall away, allowing for more innovation. Hopefully, that won't just come from the addition of eye candy but from other design choices, as well.

"I'd guess everything from location services to AR will start to be used more. I'd love to utilise the camera for more customisable players in a future version of Neon Shadow, for example.

"Hopefully, the multiplayer connectivity will be the first of the big innovations, with more players being allowed to join in and a more robust lobby system."

As well as innovating, makers of mobile FPS games are playing catch-up in some important areas. There isn't the multiplayer infrastructure that exists on consoles and PCs in the mobile space, and that's something that developers are having to work around.

But perhaps the biggest clash between blazing new trails and following in the footsteps of the console crowd is with the controls.

For Chip Sineni, director at Phosphor Games Studios, it's here that there's the most room for change.

"Mobile shooters are really in their infancy. We prototyped a couple of different control methods we really like that still aren't being used in the current marketplace - there are better offerings than what is out there.

"The cool thing about controls on mobile is there is no golden answer yet. As developers, it's fun to think there is still room to innovate."

Art gallery

Phosphor is responsible for World War Z, a movie tie-in FPS with some intriguing controls. While Phosphor never quite manages to gel all of the disparate elements into a cohesive whole, World War Z does feature a stack of ideas that are likely to become mainstays of FPS gaming on the App Store.

The way in which Phosphor separates different types of combat, for example. Or enables you to explore freely and then leaves you rooted to the spot in a sophisticated shooting gallery when the hordes approach.

All of these innovations feel like steps in the right direction for the FPS genre on touchscreen.

For Sineni, though, understanding the player and when she's going to be dipping into your game is as important as understanding the device she's going to be playing on.

"We have to consider the level sizes and things like how quickly you hit a checkpoint differently on mobile from how we would on PC or console. That's because of the way we think users will be playing - a burst before bed, or at random during downtime like in a doctor's office.

"Whereas on PC or console, you can probably count on a user having an hour of time [to play the game], we didn't want any long stretches where you don't make progress in World War Z."

Those different beats of play are something that Gameloft game development director Arnaud Bonnard says developers need to understand if they're going to move the genre forward.

"It's the nature of the mobile platform as a whole. People use a variety of apps, for practical or entertainment reasons, and they are accustomed to check one out for a short period and then switch to another.

"Game makers clearly had to adapt to this consumer behaviour. And this trend was accelerated by the staggering amount of new apps available on the App Store every week."

Instant re-play

So, levels that last a handful of minutes and instant visceral gratification the second you dive into an FPS are incredibly important facets of this new generation of touchscreen shooters.

And for Bonnard, the future is all about iteration; smoothing down the rough edges; and better integrating the actions you can perform and the controls you have to perform them.

"I think developers will invest more time in creating a more balanced experience, taking gameplay elements and controls that really fit together.

"There are some FPS recipes that work great with some franchises but are not fit for others. It all depends on what type of experience you want to create."

But is the mobile FPS ready to 'replace' its console or PC counterparts as the go-to port of call for gamers looking for a blast of action?

On this point, our developers are distinctly divided.

Sineni remains a home gamer at heart, although he's optimistic about the future of the mobile shooter.

"As a fan of the genre, I'd have to say console / PC right now. The great shooter ideas on mobile haven't been perfected yet, but if any publishers want to contact us..."

According to McIvor, though the extra budgets and team sizes synonymous with console and PC gaming raise expectations, the ease of mobile wins the day.

"I think portability, the ability to have quick pick-up games, and the restrictions that promote innovation would make touchscreens more fun for me personally."

Coining it in

Bonnard, on the other hand, contends that mobile and console gaming are two sides of the same coin, and that comparing them is counter-intuitive.

"It isn't a matter of choosing sides. And that's the whole point when advocating the benefits of a mobile FPS game.

"We shouldn't compare an iOS game with a console one - they are different experiences, and each platform satisfies different playing moods."

While mobile might not replace the console or PC as the FPS destination of choice just yet, then, there's scope for new ideas on smartphones and tablets that can move the genre out of the shadow of its illustrious forebears and into pastures new and, as yet, unexplored.

Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.