Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Save more on your purchases! discount-offer-chevron-icon
Savings automatically calculated. No voucher code required.
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
iPhone Game Blueprints
iPhone Game Blueprints

iPhone Game Blueprints: If you're looking for inspiration for your first or next iPhone game, look no further. This brilliant hands-on guide contains 7 practical projects that cover everything from animation to augmented reality. Game on!

eBook
€8.99 €32.99
Paperback
€41.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Billing Address

Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

iPhone Game Blueprints

Chapter 2. Ergonomics

A good game should not only have a great idea, plot, graphics, and characters, but also good ergonomics. Games are not ordinary applications, they are like racing cars; they work in extreme conditions, they are fast and powerful, and have state of the art programming. Ordinary cars are made for human beings, not for aliens from outer space featuring dozens of tentacles (they can be useful for playing very complex puzzle games!). So a figure of a real human, a player, stays at the forefront when you are planning and developing a game, all his physical characteristics and needs should be taken into consideration.

Portraying the player

Portraying the player

To create a handy game, you need to draw an imaginary portrait of your future player. You can watch your own behavior and observe how your friends and other people play various types of games. Of course, it will be very subjective and an inaccurate image, but the main tendencies can be noticed. Try to only watch the game, never ask to perform playing on purpose, because in such cases people behave very unnaturally trying to be either too critical inventing insignificant claims or too polite sparing their feelings.

It is easy to see that there are two types of game sessions. The first type is about intentional desire to play a specific title: a person plays a game sitting at home in his armchair or sofa. The time spent on the game is pretty long, there are only a few pauses, and the player plays very enthusiastically. A device can be held by hands or be put on a tabletop, or a special stand, since more fingers can be used to control the game. The second type is more...

Ergonomic aspects

To design a product that is comfortable to use, some general guidelines should be followed. They are not complicated and in most cases, they are very obvious and familiar; they can be easily formulated by your own gaming experience. You may recall any solutions you liked from other projects (and not necessarily game products). Additionally, some reverse thinking is required; situations when you felt uncomfortable using a mobile application should be noticed to try avoiding them in your own project. Good ergonomics is pretty transparent and natural for its users. It is pretty inconspicuous and hard to remember actual details about problems rather than overall pleasant experiences. That is why it would be efficient to learn from bad examples by trying to solve ergonomic problems.

Simple rules

Even if you planned a complex gameplay with a lot of shades, always try to start with simple rules. The first levels are the training ones. People usually dislike tutorials, because such...

Minimum screen areas

It is always important to determine the minimum size of an active element for your game. The comfort of playing directly depends on this factor. The average width of an adult human male finger varies from 15 to 20 mm, the average index finger width is 20 mm or 0.75 inch. In ancient times, this size was used as a measurement of length called finger or digit (in Latin digitus means finger). Let's convert finger into pixels, all we need for this is simple math; the digital length of the screen in pixels should be divided into the physical length of the screen in millimeters its size in pixels, so we will get the number of pixels in one millimeter. The conversion is shown as follows:

  • iPhone: 480 px/75 mm is approximately 6.41 pixels per mm (163 ppi)
  • iPhone (Retina): 960 px/75 mm is approximately 12.83 pixels per mm (326 ppi)
  • iPad: 1024 px/197 mm is approximately 5.20 pixels per mm (132 ppi)
  • iPad mini: 1024 px/160 mm is approximately 6.41 pixels per mm (163 ppi)
  • iPad mini...

Using buttons

Buttons are the cornerstone of each interface. The button consists of two layers: an invisible active zone, determining the boundaries of the touch zone attached to the button, and a visual part, that is, the graphic shell. Normally, the shell has visual boundaries to separate the button from the background and to signal that the element is interactive. But that is not obligatory, many modern UIs feature buttons without any frames, by using only text as the visual shell; however, such an approach should be used very carefully.

Tip

Try to avoid using static elements with some ornamentation that look like buttons.

For instance, there are some icons on your menu screen that are buttons, and a few static text descriptions below them, decorated as small wooden plates; a user might get confused, probably he will tap not the icons, but the plates, because they have all the attributes of a button.

Usually, each button has several states: Normal, Focus, Disable, and Pressed. Each of them...

UI elements

You should try to imitate the behavior, but not the exact appearance, of standard UI elements from iOS; it is better to create your own version of controls with ornamentation close to the graphic style of the game. The standard UI components will look a bit silly if you would not have enough imagination, talent, and time to create something customized to support the mood of your game. Another reason is the universality of your title; usually, developers try to port their games on other platforms, where other paradigm designs are afloat. But try to only decorate them a bit, not invent new principles and rules. The player already has some UI experience based on iOS mechanics, so he expects the same paradigm in your game.

All the UI elements are listed by Apple in IOS Human Interface Guidelines in the chapter iOS UI Element Usage Guidelines.

UI elements

There are various fields in the UI that are explained as follows:

  • Text field: This is used by the user to enter some text input. Graphically...

Portraying the player


To create a handy game, you need to draw an imaginary portrait of your future player. You can watch your own behavior and observe how your friends and other people play various types of games. Of course, it will be very subjective and an inaccurate image, but the main tendencies can be noticed. Try to only watch the game, never ask to perform playing on purpose, because in such cases people behave very unnaturally trying to be either too critical inventing insignificant claims or too polite sparing their feelings.

It is easy to see that there are two types of game sessions. The first type is about intentional desire to play a specific title: a person plays a game sitting at home in his armchair or sofa. The time spent on the game is pretty long, there are only a few pauses, and the player plays very enthusiastically. A device can be held by hands or be put on a tabletop, or a special stand, since more fingers can be used to control the game. The second type is more higgledy...

Ergonomic aspects


To design a product that is comfortable to use, some general guidelines should be followed. They are not complicated and in most cases, they are very obvious and familiar; they can be easily formulated by your own gaming experience. You may recall any solutions you liked from other projects (and not necessarily game products). Additionally, some reverse thinking is required; situations when you felt uncomfortable using a mobile application should be noticed to try avoiding them in your own project. Good ergonomics is pretty transparent and natural for its users. It is pretty inconspicuous and hard to remember actual details about problems rather than overall pleasant experiences. That is why it would be efficient to learn from bad examples by trying to solve ergonomic problems.

Simple rules

Even if you planned a complex gameplay with a lot of shades, always try to start with simple rules. The first levels are the training ones. People usually dislike tutorials, because such...

Minimum screen areas


It is always important to determine the minimum size of an active element for your game. The comfort of playing directly depends on this factor. The average width of an adult human male finger varies from 15 to 20 mm, the average index finger width is 20 mm or 0.75 inch. In ancient times, this size was used as a measurement of length called finger or digit (in Latin digitus means finger). Let's convert finger into pixels, all we need for this is simple math; the digital length of the screen in pixels should be divided into the physical length of the screen in millimeters its size in pixels, so we will get the number of pixels in one millimeter. The conversion is shown as follows:

  • iPhone: 480 px/75 mm is approximately 6.41 pixels per mm (163 ppi)

  • iPhone (Retina): 960 px/75 mm is approximately 12.83 pixels per mm (326 ppi)

  • iPad: 1024 px/197 mm is approximately 5.20 pixels per mm (132 ppi)

  • iPad mini: 1024 px/160 mm is approximately 6.41 pixels per mm (163 ppi)

  • iPad mini (Retina...

Using buttons


Buttons are the cornerstone of each interface. The button consists of two layers: an invisible active zone, determining the boundaries of the touch zone attached to the button, and a visual part, that is, the graphic shell. Normally, the shell has visual boundaries to separate the button from the background and to signal that the element is interactive. But that is not obligatory, many modern UIs feature buttons without any frames, by using only text as the visual shell; however, such an approach should be used very carefully.

Tip

Try to avoid using static elements with some ornamentation that look like buttons.

For instance, there are some icons on your menu screen that are buttons, and a few static text descriptions below them, decorated as small wooden plates; a user might get confused, probably he will tap not the icons, but the plates, because they have all the attributes of a button.

Usually, each button has several states: Normal, Focus, Disable, and Pressed. Each of them...

UI elements


You should try to imitate the behavior, but not the exact appearance, of standard UI elements from iOS; it is better to create your own version of controls with ornamentation close to the graphic style of the game. The standard UI components will look a bit silly if you would not have enough imagination, talent, and time to create something customized to support the mood of your game. Another reason is the universality of your title; usually, developers try to port their games on other platforms, where other paradigm designs are afloat. But try to only decorate them a bit, not invent new principles and rules. The player already has some UI experience based on iOS mechanics, so he expects the same paradigm in your game.

All the UI elements are listed by Apple in IOS Human Interface Guidelines in the chapter iOS UI Element Usage Guidelines.

There are various fields in the UI that are explained as follows:

  • Text field: This is used by the user to enter some text input. Graphically...

Accessible games


In the year 2008, the Information Solutions Group (visit their website at http://www.infosolutionsgroup.com), on behalf of PopCap Games conducted a special research. According to it, 20.5 percent of casual video game players have a physical, mental, or developmental disability. Thus a lot of people dedicated to games have disabilities in different forms. A good game developer should pay attention to their needs. First of all, there are a lot of people with visual perception disorders; it could be concluded that these types of people don't play video games, but that's not the case. They like to play, just like other ordinary people do. According to study of the Information Solutions Group, they even play more frequently, for longer periods of time. The following is an interesting quote from the survey about such players:

"They also report that they experience more significant benefits from playing and view their game-playing activity as a more important factor in their lives...

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Seven step by step game projects for you to build
  • Cover all aspects from graphics to game ergonomics
  • Tips and tricks for all of your iPhone programming

Description

Designing and selling games on the iOS platform has become a phenomenon ever since the introduction of the App Store. With mobile gaming taking the World by storm, users are indulging in all different types of games. iPhone Game Blueprints is a hands on guide to both inspire and help developers, graphic designers, and game enthusiasts to create their own games for iOS devices. Taking a selection of iPhone game "styles" we will learn how to set the foundation and essential functionality for each game. Including thorough explanations of popular games such as puzzles, arcades, and adventures, as well as useful theoretical and technical concepts. iPhone Game Blueprints is your complete guide to creating great iPhone games, from a simple gesture game to a classic shoot 'em up. iPhone Game Blueprints guides you through the universe of mobile games, starting with the overall information about game ideas, ergonomic aspects, and much more. Then it switches to a description of each particular game type, presenting ready-to-use ideas and applications. This book will take you through a selection of iPhone game styles and show how to create the foundation and essential functionality for a game of that genre.The examples in this book are only the beginning. Including a deluge of practical tips, focusing on the best approach to game design, not forgetting to mention the pitfalls. iPhone Game Blueprints will give you the blueprints of several mobile game's essentials cores. Whether you're just getting started with gaming, or want to try a whole different genre of game, these blueprints are everything you need.

Who is this book for?

This book is for graphic designers, developers, illustrators, and simple enthusiasts, who dream about the creation of mobile games or who have already worked in that domain, but need some additional inspiration and knowledge. This book can be considered as an illustrated handbook, worth having in your game development studio. It can work as a “paper art-director” for your project.

What you will learn

  • Prepare game graphics for various types of screen resolutions for iOS devices
  • Design games keeping in mind people with disabilities: players with color blindness, perception problems.
  • Learn the principles of animation, creating walking cycles and other types of motion
  • Decorate and design a game world and game levels, making them truly alive
  • Create a digital board game, creating a dedicated card deck of your own, planning rules and rewards.
  • Create an action game and platform arcade, with a focus on main character and game world design
  • Explore augmented reality building games, which use both the virtual and real world in their gameplay

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Dec 26, 2013
Length: 358 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849690270
Vendor :
Apple
Languages :
Tools :

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Billing Address

Product Details

Publication date : Dec 26, 2013
Length: 358 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849690270
Vendor :
Apple
Languages :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
€18.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
€189.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just €5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
€264.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just €5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total 125.97
Mobile Game Design Essentials
€41.99
iOS Game Programming Cookbook
€41.99
iPhone Game Blueprints
€41.99
Total 125.97 Stars icon
Banner background image

Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. Starting the Game Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Ergonomics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Gesture Games Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Card and Board Games Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Puzzles Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Platformer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Adventure Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Action Games Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Games with Reality Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3
(3 Ratings)
5 star 66.7%
4 star 0%
3 star 33.3%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
L. R. Apr 04, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Despite of the book title this is a book to everyone that is interested in the game's creative process and not only on the iPhone game development. This book has not programming code instead it has a lot of information about the creative process and the information could be employed to every game development framework.This book takes you on the path of the inner creative steps that every professional game must take before start programming. So, it is very helpful to everyone that wants to develop a game but cannot figure out how to start it.As a special mention I would like to remark that the ergonomic chapter contains an accessible games section that for me is one of the best sections of this book because it covers a lot of features that a game designer must consider to make their game accessible for people with disabilities, for example people with color blindness, photosensitive epilepsy, handedness, cognitive and communication dysfunctions among others. This is one of the reasons for me to get this book because it takes very seriously this aspect that other specialized books do not consider.According to each chapter:The book begins with a sound introduction to the initial concepts as the fact that a game is a manner of telling a story and requires defining characters, personalities, world features and levels. Then it introduces some technical creative features as the game naming, the manner of work with the game graphics and character animation. It explains how a game must define their own personality using their own icons, images and characters as a trademark. Also it makes evident the different features that a game must have to be attractive for example the use of trophies, a good marketing using well designed banners, screenshots and game play videos.The ergonomics chapter explains how to adapt the games to the player comfort. It makes evident the basic rules, how to consider the number of clicks required to achieve a task, where and how to put the pause, continue and control buttons, when and how to perform the auto saving tasks, how to correctly manage the health regeneration of the character's player, how to display the different levels landscapes and how to manage the level difficulty, finally how to manage correctly the sound and music. This chapter also explains how to deal with the different screen sizes, where to place the buttons considering the comfort of the user fingers and the best practices to place the UI elements.The gesture games chapter, this book introduces you to the basics of this kind of addictive games, how to elaborate the concept, how to adapt a game idea to this kind of games. It explains how to manage the gestures features, the intuition and light responses. Finally it creates a game example following the common steps and explaining it step by step.The Card and Board Games chapter explains the human games fundaments, how they were conceived and which features make them an attractive and addictive game. It depicts how this kind of games has evolved along the history, and how the elements and actors can be modified in order to achieve a different game outcome. This chapter finalizes explaining the step by step creative process of a card game.The Puzzles chapter depicts the nature of this kind of games. This chapter explains the connection nature of this game and how to create them using different ideas and types of features as the words, mathematics, tile-matching, match-tree, etc. It also introduces a lot of design suggestion considering puzzle type mixtures for example a tile shooter among other options.This is done in order to create original puzzle games. It also covers graphic and playability aspects. It ends with a step-by-step creation process of a puzzle game.The platformer chapter covers a domain of avatar-like dynamic games because the user-game character interaction that enable the user to employ their game character as a game avatar. Therefore this chapter explains how this kind of game are produced considering the game idea, the plot, how to set the game controls, design the screen layout, how to create a character according to the human natural perception, the character and environment animation, how to make the character walk, jump, shoot, etc and how to make the environment and enemies react with the interaction considering physics. The final part of the chapter explains how to create a plat former game.The adventure chapter introduces the concept of an adventure game, in other words, a selectable-path history that enables you to have different ways to perform the adventure. It explains the different kinds of adventure games. Also explains how to build an adventure game using different approaches as the conversation trees, phrases and dialogs. It finalizes creating an adventure game example through a step by step process.The action games chapter starts introducing the shooting game types and then explains the creative process to build a similar game. It details the features that an action game requires. It also considers the graphic problems and the mobile devices low processing power.The games with reality chapter covers the augmented reality games it makes a state of the art of such a kind of games. Therefore it shows several examples of existing games and the open possibilities for this still unexplored games domain.In conclusion this book focalizes mostly on the creative step by step process than in technical or programming features. It presents several game creation process examples along the book that enable the reader to clearly understand how to do it before start programming.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Mar 14, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book should have been called something like, "Loads of great game art examples, how to design a mobile game of almost any type, animation, game design, human interaction and perception and a bit of iPhone stuff as well"Chapter 6 alone was worth the price of the book. With a detailed break down on how to design game characters. How do you make them cute, scary, etc. And more interestingly, why do our brains perceive them as such? If you are serious about design or you just want to constantly improve your apps, on any platform then this book and its sources will help you build an enormous todo list.If you want to make games, need ideas, want to improve your artwork then get this.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jacob Nicolai Rohde Dec 01, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Ok, first off. I love this book. It is impossible to read this book and not be inspired to make games.But there is one huge problem with this book. And it is a big issue. Especially since this is a book. You know, full of sentences. In English.The author clearly is not a native English speaker. The book is so badly written that half of the sentences make no sense and need to be deciphered to get any meaning out of them what so ever.How a publisher can send a book like this to market is beyond me. Where was the editor? Asleep? Fired? Dead? I don't know, but I do know he didn't read this book. Actually i find it a scandal on the part of the Publisher Packt!When that is said and done, Igor obviosly knows his stuff, and if you are willing to accept English grammar that is...well really bad, go buy this book.Bad grammar and sentence construction apart, this is a great book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

How do I buy and download an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Where there is an eBook version of a title available, you can buy it from the book details for that title. Add either the standalone eBook or the eBook and print book bundle to your shopping cart. Your eBook will show in your cart as a product on its own. After completing checkout and payment in the normal way, you will receive your receipt on the screen containing a link to a personalised PDF download file. This link will remain active for 30 days. You can download backup copies of the file by logging in to your account at any time.

If you already have Adobe reader installed, then clicking on the link will download and open the PDF file directly. If you don't, then save the PDF file on your machine and download the Reader to view it.

Please Note: Packt eBooks are non-returnable and non-refundable.

Packt eBook and Licensing When you buy an eBook from Packt Publishing, completing your purchase means you accept the terms of our licence agreement. Please read the full text of the agreement. In it we have tried to balance the need for the ebook to be usable for you the reader with our needs to protect the rights of us as Publishers and of our authors. In summary, the agreement says:

  • You may make copies of your eBook for your own use onto any machine
  • You may not pass copies of the eBook on to anyone else
How can I make a purchase on your website? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

If you want to purchase a video course, eBook or Bundle (Print+eBook) please follow below steps:

  1. Register on our website using your email address and the password.
  2. Search for the title by name or ISBN using the search option.
  3. Select the title you want to purchase.
  4. Choose the format you wish to purchase the title in; if you order the Print Book, you get a free eBook copy of the same title. 
  5. Proceed with the checkout process (payment to be made using Credit Card, Debit Cart, or PayPal)
Where can I access support around an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
  • If you experience a problem with using or installing Adobe Reader, the contact Adobe directly.
  • To view the errata for the book, see www.packtpub.com/support and view the pages for the title you have.
  • To view your account details or to download a new copy of the book go to www.packtpub.com/account
  • To contact us directly if a problem is not resolved, use www.packtpub.com/contact-us
What eBook formats do Packt support? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Our eBooks are currently available in a variety of formats such as PDF and ePubs. In the future, this may well change with trends and development in technology, but please note that our PDFs are not Adobe eBook Reader format, which has greater restrictions on security.

You will need to use Adobe Reader v9 or later in order to read Packt's PDF eBooks.

What are the benefits of eBooks? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
  • You can get the information you need immediately
  • You can easily take them with you on a laptop
  • You can download them an unlimited number of times
  • You can print them out
  • They are copy-paste enabled
  • They are searchable
  • There is no password protection
  • They are lower price than print
  • They save resources and space
What is an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Packt eBooks are a complete electronic version of the print edition, available in PDF and ePub formats. Every piece of content down to the page numbering is the same. Because we save the costs of printing and shipping the book to you, we are able to offer eBooks at a lower cost than print editions.

When you have purchased an eBook, simply login to your account and click on the link in Your Download Area. We recommend you saving the file to your hard drive before opening it.

For optimal viewing of our eBooks, we recommend you download and install the free Adobe Reader version 9.