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Mobile World Congress 2012

We are excited to be attending the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona.  As well as soaking in the joys of the beautiful setting, we are looking forward to seeing some great exhibitions and sharing ideas with attendees.

Scribble: are a digital agency based in Brighton.  We enjoy seeking out innovative solutions for our clients and for our own endeavours in the world of apps.   Some of our main interests include creating cross-platform solutions that integrate apps, web and social media, 3D graphics, augmented reality and social media integration.

We love augmented reality and are really excited about what the industry will have to offer in the coming years, so it is nice to see that the conference will be enhanced by a number of augmented reality experiences to show people about the conference and to guide people to different areas.

The conference will host a pretty comprehensive list of players in the mobile world and will include keynotes from Facebook, Google, eBay, GMA, Visa and many many more.  As well as major keynote speakers and exhibitions, the conference has ‘App Planet’ a large section dedicated to mobile apps, where developers, operators, manufacturers and service providers will be exhibiting and sharing knowledge.

This year’s conference will be split up into a number of different ‘zones’, all related to different aspects of the mobile world, here’s what we are most excited about:

Cloud technology has been taking off over the last few years, and with demand for mobile services surging and 4G networks just around the corner, cloud technology is set to become an essential technology in the mobile world, so we will be taking a great interest in the exhibitors on the “Cloud Pavillion”.

We’ll also be checking out m-Commerce developments in the “Mobile Money Pavillion” – the coming years will see many big changes in this area as mobile banking, NFC and the like start to take off.

The “mPowered Brands Zone” will be dedicated to mobile marketing, and we will be interested to see how companies are making use of mobile technology to spread the word about their brands.

We love to share ideas, so please get in touch with us if you’d like to meet up at the conference, we look forward to seeing you there!

If you’d like to meet up at the conference, drop us a line at hello@scribbleuk.com and keep up to date with our tweets @scribbledigital

Check back here soon for our report of the conference!

Here at Scribble, we think games are great.  And of course, one of the things that makes being involved in the smartphone industry fun and exciting is that each of our fancy mobile smartphones is not only internet ready and full of useful tech, but they are also pretty spiffy handheld gaming devices that would give our childhood gaming systems a thrashing!

Smartphones, and in particular the iTunes app store, blew open a whole new market for small-time developers in a gaming industry where most games take millions to develop – harking back to the good old days of bedroom programmers and unique and interesting game concepts.

But games are not just great for fun, they are a great way for brands to promote their products and services.  Games rate highly in terms of engagement for apps: people play games for longer at a time than any other type of app – this is a great opportunity for you to get your message across.

Check out some great stats on mobile gaming put together by Geekaphone.

Today, we would like to focus on a particular category of games: the quick-fire arcade game.  This is our favourite way to play : the kind of simple game you can pick up and play for a minute, or even less.  The key to these kind of games is that they are instantly satisfying, and addictive, enticing you to keep coming back.  But more than just being great fun, there are many reasons that this is a great kind of game to make.

For first time developers, this kind of game makes particular sense.  The classic quick arcade game does not require a large amount of asset generation: rather than spanning multiple ‘levels’ or ‘stages’, quick fire arcade games often take place in one area – perhaps with the possibility of the player getting slightly further each time, or just bettering a high score.  The gameplay is usually simple and repetitive, often involving quick reactions.  This type of game means that the developer does not need to create large amounts of assets, or code governing gameplay.  Instead, they can focus on refining the small number of elements involved in the game.  It also makes it easier for the developer to test and change parts of the game, because there isn’t a huge knock-on effect to other parts of the game that is a risk in larger more complex games.

The key, then, is to make the gameplay simple and repetitive, but still incorporate some way of advancing.  These kind of games often involve trying to beat high scores, getting a little better each time.  A clever mechanic is to incorporate achievements or items which once reached allow the player to get further or get a higher score.  This means that while the game is essentially the same, there is still an incentive for the player to keep coming back.

The ‘feel’ is essential – the playing experience can be very short, but the player must still feel satisfied and want to come back.  This makes the use of sound and graphics very important – but a limited scope means that the developer is more free to refine the little details.

In-app purchases are common in this area – the game will often present you a choice: earn coins to buy items which give you a better chance of beating your highscore… or just buy the items with money and skip the hard work.  If the game has got you hooked in it’s addictive grasp, these little in-app-payments can be very hard to resist sometimes.

The repetitive nature of these kind of games makes them a great opportunity for  getting a brand message across.  If the formula is right, a well designed mini-game can be a perfect way for a brand to get their message out.

We’ve done some painstaking research in this area…. But don’t leave all the hard work up to us, find out for yourself.  Scribble have put together a beautiful list of fiercely fun and addictive arcade games – and the beauty is you only need a few seconds to enjoy these titles, but be warned , you will become hooked!!

There are of course many other games in this area, but we’ve picked out some total classics which are also our favourites.  These are the games that we just keep coming back to no matter how many times we play them!  Click on any of the image banners above to find out more about these fantastically addictive games and  see if you can figure out the perfect ingredients to chucking together the perfect addictive arcade game…  but you’ll have to put the game down at some point if you want to get round to making your own and reaping the rewards!

HTML5 is the new emerging web standard, the technology that brings internet content to the screen.  This is the code that acts as a toolset for developers to design and create web content and applications.  The new standard will address the way the internet has evolved in recent years, giving developers greater control of media and graphics content and a suite of tools to facilitate building services and applications.  HTML5 also makes it easier for developers to work cross-platform, creating content that will work on mobile platforms such as tablets and smartphones as well as on PCs.

It will be some years before HTML5 is completed and fully deployed, but many developers are already starting to use the technology in exciting ways.  We at Scribble are excited about the possibilities offered by HTML5 and potential applications in the future.  So we’ll be keeping an eye on developments and making regular posts to talk about things that get us excited about the future of HTML5.

One of the main views of HTML5 is as a replacement for Flash.  While Flash is a popular choice for interactive and media content on the web, it’s closed nature and search engine unfriendliness has had developers yearning for an alternative for some years.  Apple’s refusal to incorporate Flash compatibility into iOS devices has also added significant pressure for developers to move away from Flash. HTML5 offers media playback, animation, 3d graphics and many more tools for rich-media content.

In fact, HTML5 offers many more tools outside of rich media content and is much much more than an alternative to Flash, but we thought this would be a good place to start.  We’ve picked out a number of beautiful examples of what developers can do using HTML5, and they paint a pretty picture of what we can expect from HTML5 in our web browsers and on our mobile devices in the future.

Click the images to view these beautiful examples of HTML5 in action.  A recently updated version of Chrome is recommended to view these.  Many of these are found on ChromeExperiments.com a site set up by google to showcase the exciting possibilities of HTML5.

WebGL Terrain

Beautiful landscape procedurally drawn in real time.

Endless Forest

An endless generated 3D spooky forest.

3 Dreams of Black

This is what you get when you put HTML5 tools in the hands of amazing artists and animators.  A jaw-dropping journey through a 3D world exploding with life!

8-Bit Colour Cycling

This demo replicates an old-school effect used in the days of 8-bit colour palettes.  This involves ‘colour-cycling’ – automatically shifting specific sets of colours in the palette - to create animation effects.  At the time, this was used as an efficient way to bring movement to images without actually animating multiple frames.  Enjoy this stunningly beautiful set of images steeped in gaming nostalgia!

Arcade Fire – The Wilderness Downtown, Interactive film by Chris Milk

A superb example of innovative and out-of-the-box thinking. Difficult to sum up in words…  as you go through the experience, the browser opens and closes windows, showing you pictures of your home town fed in from Google Maps and depicting flocks of birds that interact with the narrative.  In addition to the beautiful and impressive motion graphics, the experience is thoughtfully designed to instill nostalgia and make you engage with the music.

There are now so many different platforms that a business needs to manage in order to maximise connectivity with their audience, for example: web, TV, advertising, social media, smartphones, tablets, PC, the list goes on.  Managing the content across all of these channels is no easy task, but big brands are realising the importance of an approach that exploits the advantages of each platform.

This approach means that rather than treating each channel individually, with content mirrored across numerous platforms, a ‘big picture’ solution is created, with each platform or device playing a part.  Smartphones are increasingly used for search on-the-go, to enable people to find general or location based information, such as Subway’s use of QR codes and ‘geo-fencing’ to deliver vouchers and offers to consumers when near or close to Subway branches; whereas people will still usually prefer to make actual purchases on a computer.

The popularity of social media and mobile communications has made it more important than ever for brands to be able to react quickly, and to create a two-way relationship with their audience.  Linking to social media allows brands to manage their exposure and interact with customers, and allow customers to express and share their own views.  Big brands are taking a cross-platform approach to revolutionize customer service: ASOS, BT, Tesco and Vodaphone use Twitter and Facebook to interact with consumers, taking pressure away from notoriously irritating phone support.

But it’s not just about having the widest reach; a good cross-platform solution is about using resources efficiently.  At Scribble, we are seeing brands making the jump into the world of apps that want to streamline their approach – consolidating their content across apps, web and social media.  This means that these platforms do not need to be managed individually, saving precious time and resources.

Scribble are always looking for new ways to integrate platforms and create streamlined solutions, whether it is using new technologies or creating effective strategies for managing resources.

1. Dropbox

We couldn’t live without Dropbox in the Scribble office.  For sharing and viewing files on the move it doesn’t get much better.  Available on iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry so none of us miss out.

Download

2. Display Pad

An iPad app which allows the iPad to become a second monitor.  An indespensible tool for our designer Matt giving him extra screen real estate and the ability to see how his designs will work on the iPad screen straight from Photoshop.

Download

3. DesignScene

If you’re like us and are constantly looking for inspiration then you’ll love this app.  The app brings in a feed of images from a myriad relevant sources, from art to architecture, illustration to fashion, photography to typography.  Perfect for getting your creative juices flowing.

Download

4. Radio Soulwax

This app has been keeping us entertained at home and in the office since its release.  From the epic mixes to the inspirational videos, the whole concept is first class and we all can’t wait to see what the Belgian brothers have in store for their next album.

Download