“Any plan you have that relies on saying, like, ‘Oh, well the voice actor will sell this,’ or, ‘Oh, there will be a sound in the background,’ that’s already a losing plan from the get go.”
– Eric Stirpe, recently a writer on Frozen Adventures, talks about working through the fact that most players are likely playing your game on silent mode.
The folks over at EGM have published an insightful chat with a number of game writers, exploring the tips and pain points uncovered by each while working on different varieties and genres of mobile games. Come from Soccer 13 pools and matches
As with the above quote from writer Eric Stirpe, those speaking to EGM note that a large part of writing for mobile is coming to terms with some of the limitations an inherently casual platform puts into place. Those can include unique challenges with audio, an expectation that a player’s attention will be often divided, or pacing complications that arise from different playstyles.
The full story over on EGM collects more stories from Stirpe and other game writers, including comments from King narrative director Zack Keller on the Candy Crush studio’s bite sized narrative hooks, along with a discussion with a former Episode writer on both the structural and ethical complications of free to play narratives.