GDC 10: Windows 7 Mobile is game-focused, ready

2:00 PM on 03.11.2010   |   Dale North

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I know that we finally got to see a bit of what Microsoft had up their sleeves for mobile gaming at the recent Mobile Congress. I'd guess that anyone even remotely interested sat up and took notice of the changes Windows 7 Mobile would bring to your pocket. Today I got a better look at how gaming is going to work on the platform.

Everything from the slick W7M interface to the Xbox Live integration impressed in this meeting with Charlie Kindel, program manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience, and Michael Klucher, lead program manager at XNA Game Studio. What's most exciting is how Microsoft has enabled game developers to easily bring quality connected experiences to W7M. It's apparent that Microsoft cares about having quality games on Windows 7 Mobile, and they're going out of their way to make this happen.

On a Windows 7 Mobile phone there's an Xbox Live tile. By touching that, you'll be able to see all the games you've purchased on the service on your phone. I'm glad that Microsoft is going with what they're calling a managed collection of games. They're working with several game developers to create a managed portfolio of high quality games that will be featured within the Windows 7 Mobile interface.

There's a games hub that does quite a bit more than simply launching your games collection. A section has news about games, including editorial content on offered and owned games. There's Xbox Live integration that gives you access to everything form to your avatar to Gamerscore and Achievements. All the social networking aspects are also built in. Notices and game invites seem to be easily manageable.  I saw an example based on a checkers game. There were multiple sessions in varying states. By clicking on any of them, the player could continue the next move and then send their status back to their opponent. The player would receive notifications on new turns and challenges within the interface.

The games I saw were prototypes, but they did a pretty good job of showing where Microsoft is headed with mobile gaming. XNA Game Studio 4.0's power was shown off a bit in a couple of these games. The goal with these examples was to demonstrate what is possible with the platform. A game named Harvest, created by Luma Arcade, was developed in only three weeks. This was a full 3D fighting adventure with impressive visuals and destructible terrain, all controlled by touch. Within the game, I saw an example of an Achievement notification. A horizontal bar dropped over the game from the top, coming with the same Achievement sound effect you'd expect to hear on your Xbox 360. Of course, your Achievements on your phone will add to your overall Gamerscore that you've already started on your Xbox 360. 

Gravity Bear and Mythos Labs put together a game called Battle Punks. This example showed off some of the casual gaming options for the platform, including Facebook integration. Simple character customization came complete with Achievements. This game had two 3D characters battling by screen tapping.

Portability was demonstrated in a very simple platformer. I was able to see the same game experience running on the Xbox 360, PC and a Windows 7 Mobile phone. The Xbox 360 and PC version were identical. On the phone, the look was similar, but the game was presented upright, in a portrait mode. This changed the landscape a bit, though you could easily see that it is a related experience. The control also changed, using the phone input options.

It's nice to see how much of a focus Microsoft has placed on gaming for Windows 7. Later this year we'll get our first taste of finished W7M games from publishers like EA, PopCap, Konami and others. We'll be looking forward to seeing some of these titles in the near future.