Unreal Match 3

For those interested in developing mobile games with Epic's UE4 a great learning resource that the company has recently added is Unreal Match 3, consisting of a game plus written and video tutorials around it.

If you are interested in developing something for that market specifically (rather than AAA console that UE4 is more often thought of as more compatible with) this is well recommended.

More on this here on the official Epic site.

Mobile Frostbite?

My previous blog post is about mobile VR; this one, in a parallel theme, is about a high-tech game engine running on mobile platforms. 

According to this official blog post here, efforts are already underway (and yielding early results) of porting Battlefield 4 (arguably the most famous title the DICE Frostbite engine has powered) on iOS.

There is no video of this (yet) but the premise certainly sounds very promising and shows how far mobile platforms have come (and what we might be able to see in 2015).

Unity and PS Vita

As of last month Unity (version 4.3) can deploy games to the latest portable Sony game console, the PS Vita. This means that that components such as the motion sensors, the cameras and the dual analog sticks that come with the device will also be accessible for development.

You will need to be a SCE licensed developer for this, you can read more about this here on the Unity site. 

Games with Google Glass

If you want to get a taster of what basic games with Google Glass could potentially be like you could check out the video below. 

Google has created these 5 mini games for inspiration to developers and while these are (clearly) very simple they do showcase the potential that is there quite well. It'd be more interesting to see more elaborate efforts at some point of course; hopefully this will come with time.

Project Shield, a new Nvidia-made mobile console

Nvidia has recently announced a new mobile gaming console (as pictured below) which is titled Project Shield. Project Shield is Android-powered and also uses a Tegra 4 chip. The display is 1280x720 and as can be seen below there is an integrated controller too. More interestingly however the device is capable of streaming PC games. This works with a PC and the Project Shield device being on the same wireless network and also provided the PC in question has a GeForce GTX.

A very interesting foray into the gaming hardware market for Nvidia, for more information you can read more about the device on the official site here.

iPhone 5 announcement and real-time graphics capabilities

After many months of rumours the new iPhone 5 is launched and I am including below an excerpt of the video from Apple's recent event. The vid focuses on the graphics capabilities of the new device by showcasing EA's Real Racing 3 on the iPhone 5. The results are indeed impressive, approximating console quality visuals.

iPhone 5 is to have a four-inch screen which will be capable of handling resolution of 1136x640 and 326 pixels per inch plus a new A6 processor equipped with a CPU and GPU twice as fast as the A5 (on the current devices). Many of us are eagerly awaiting what developers can achieve on the new device and if the results above are any indication of what we can expect then mobile gaming will be inching, slowly, closer to graphics quality similar to your typical AAA current generation console game.

OnLive cloud gaming now on Android mobile devices

I have posted in the past about OnLive; a cloud gaming solution that has made quite a few headlines recently for its impressive ability to offer a new business model for gaming title access. During this past month OnLive has finally made it to mobile covering Android devices (for now anyway, hopefully iOS too soon, I have to say that at the moment there is nothing on this on the iTunes Store other than a viewing application so watch this space if you are an Apple device owner).

This particular blog post has been sparked off by the even more recent announcement/update by OnLive which made possible the use of Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY's Playstation controls to be added; rather than the wireless OnLive controller (or basic touch controls for selected titles only), this means that I really should find the time to test this out now.

Microsoft patents interchangeable smartphone

Microsoft has recently filed a patent for an interchangeable, modular smartphone which has a number of secondary devices that can be added/removed from it. As can be seen in the pic below the patent allows for the addition of keyboards, batteries and (most importantly) gamepads (to end up with a mobile device similar to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play).

This is an interesting move from Microsoft which perhaps illustrates that there is a strategic decision to place some emphasis in the mobile market, particularly in light of their Nokia partnering.

AR functionality patent for iOS

News has broken that Apple has filed a patent which features augmented reality functionality for the first time as part of the core of iOS software, all linked to the capabilities it already has for mapping. This will be in a very similar way to the approach that existing third party AR apps are conducting it; i.e. by overlaying content/data onto the camera feed. It can be seen in more detail in the picture below.

While this may potentially worry developers such as Layar or other existing developers that are working on/have proposed AR solutions for Apple devices already, it is in my opinion a very positive development for seeing the medium attain more widespread usage from the average iPhone/iPad user.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and the Havok engine

As I've mentioned in a previous blog post I've recently gone for a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play as my next new phone; it appears that the device is gathering support from a number of developers including Havok which has brought its very popular physics engine to the Xperia Play (and subsequently Android 2.3).

In the demo above you can see what having this physics engine running on a mobile device means as you can watch a number of animations that have been achieved with it. Havok for Android seems to significantly raise the bar in terms of gaming (animated) graphics so the vid is well worth checking out.

Kinect and iPhone interaction in a game

It is very interesting to see truly multimodal gaming attempts such as the (yet untitled) prototype below. Essentially the game, created by Singapore developer Rockmoon, consists of a co-op effort of two players; one on the Kinect controlling the hovering spacecraft and one on the iPhone as the co-pilot taking care of the gatling gun.

This is a very early effort according to the developers but impressive nonetheless, it will be very interesting to see mobile devices interacting with Kinect on a variety of apps (not just gaming!) in the future in a similar manner.

Unity games now on an Android platform

A piece of news of interest to mobile developers which I left unreported; as of early March Unity has now made available an Android plug-in, enabling interested parties to deploy Unity-based games on this platform. It also comes with a remote similar to the iOS one, allowing for tests of the game on the fly.

This retains the same pricing model with the iOS too, with Unity Android being $400 and Unity Android Pro $1500. For more information (and also a trial) please visit the official site here.

SupaBoy, a portable SNES

It looks like Hyperkin will be releasing a new product called SupaBoy, which essentially be a portable Nintendo SNES console capable of running ordinary SNES cartridges, styled after the controller of the original console. The obvious difference will of course be that it will also have a 3.5" screen (see picture below).

Also equipped with controller ports, AV-out for use on a television and a rechargeable batter lasting for (reportedly) five and a half hours, this looks like a really cool proposition for mobile gaming and retro-gaming fans.

AR hotel reviews on the iPad

A new application of interest to augmented reality researchers (particularly the ones with a location-based focus) is TripAdvisor's online hotel review app which has chosen the iPad as its exclusive platform of choice.

The application is based on Google Street View with additional content superimposed on its visualization (relevant to the hotel theme) and while not truly AR per se (and how could it be as the iPad currently does not have a camera, although that it said to change soon with iPad 2) this still is a novel idea which can find great use in the interested audience, and of course can be further extended with future evolutions of Apple's device.

You can find the application here.

Sony claims CryEngine for PSP2

The CryEngine (the cutting-edge game engine behind the Crysis titles) is now touted for an external Sony PSP2 developer release. Crytek, the company behind it has not (yet) announced it though the info can be found on the SCE Japan website. This is the latest of ringing endorsements the new Sony mobile console is getting from figureheads of the gaming dev area, including Epic Games' Tim Sweeney and id Software's John Carmack.

The PSP2 is to currently feature an ARM Cortex-A9 processor and judging by these news and support behind it it will be interesting to see how or whether it will dethrone Apple from its current mobile gaming lead.

Minecraft to go mobile

The incredibly successful indie PC hit Minecraft is to be released on iPhone and iPad, according to a recent announcement by the game's creator Markus Persson. While these versions are not expected to have the full features of the PC version this still is an important piece of news for mobile gaming.

It should be noted that the PC version itself is still a beta one, despite having sold, in downloads, over 1.3 million copies. As long as the touch screen interface usability issues are respected and integrated well enough in this it could well make a fascinating addition to Apple's gaming cannon.

Playstation tablet?

On a month where Sony has gone all out on announcing new mobile devices (see previous posts on this blog on the Xperia and the NGP) here comes a new rumour about Sony engineers building a 9.4-inch display tablet, albeit one that will be PlayStation-certified.

This will run on the Sony PlayStation Suite framework, a new scheme devised by the company which allows developers to port games to the Android OS (new and old ones). While Sony has offered no official confirmation, further rumours include the device codenamed S1, the device taking on the form of "open paperback stuffed into the back pocket, or a magazine folded backward upon itself such that only a single page is visible to read" (according to the Engadget site), the device to come with a pre-installed PS1 game and a Tegra 2 processor, 1280x800 resolution and cameras.

Even prices such as $599 have already been suggested (for a Wifi-only version), so it remains to be seen whether any of this is true. The density of information does however appear to suggest an official press release is close.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play phone

After months/years of speculation (and a number of posts on this blog too) Sony has now unveiled its first Playstation phone, called Xperia Play, created by Sony Ericsson and running on Android 2.3 (see picture below for the device).

There are plenty of things to get excited about with this such as analogue stick style touch pads, promised console-quality games, a 50-title launch lineup (quite impressive for any console, mobile or otherwise) but personally I can't help but feel that Sony is somewhat competing with itself having just launched the NGP/PSP 2 device, as well as the huge competitor in this area that is Apple.

Integrating Kinect and Windows Phone 7

Already there have been efforts demonstrating the potential for integration between Microsoft's Kinect and Windows Phone 7, none better than one of the mini games Kinect has called Rally Ball where a second player is now added (with Windows Phone 7's input). The second player's purpose is to generate balls and trace their path they will take (with the first player trying of course to avoid them). There is also the possibility of a third player joining in (see below).

This at the moment is a demo and not a commercial release but it does demonstrate great potential of integrating touchscreen and camera-based modalities in gaming (as shown in the video above).

PSP2 and the Unreal engine

The PSP2 spec and details were finally revealed by Sony last week. Touted as NGP (Next Generation Portable) it hosts a gamut of features such as, to name but a few, a touchscreen function allowing for ‘touch, grab, trace, push or pull’, augmented reality features using camera and player movement, a front and rear touch-sensitive input, front and rear cameras, gyroscopic motion control (using the same technology as the PlayStation Move), GPS location sensors and others.

Of even more interest however is the simultaneous announcement of Epic Games (at the same launch event in fact) of the Unreal Engine appearing on this new mobile device (see video below). This is essentially a PSP2 upgrade of the popular free iPhone demo Epic Citadel with additional anti-aliasing and post-processing effects (not seen on the iPhone version).

According to Tim Sweeney from Epic Games these additional effects were made possible "by the [PSP2]’s multi-core CPU and shader-based multi-core GPU, which delivers roughly four times the performance we’ve seen on other platforms". Could this sway me to finally invest in a PSP? Whatever the answer to that is, mobile graphics developments have just become, as of last week, even more interesting and exciting.