PopCap reveals how to fail at mobile gaming

At London Games Conference today, PopCap senior designer David Bishop listed ten ways to fail at mobile gaming.

1: Blank Android.

"Don’t publish on Android. It is a complete waste of time," he said. "And absolutely don’t bother with Kindle Fire. Nobody will buy it."

2: Ignore Facebook.Nobody does anything on Facebook on their smartphones, so why should you?

3: Ignore the fact that smartphones are smart.

Bishop said: "Forget the fact smartphones knows gamer’s contacts, location and stuff like that."

4: Don’t remember gamers snack on their smartphones. Ignore the fact that players like to play short games on smartphones and gorge on their consoles. It’s not worth it.

5. Replicate console controls on a touch screen.

"Absolutely you should be trying to replicate console controls on a touch screen," continued Bishop. "And make sure you put touch screen controls right in the middle of the screen so people can’t see it."

6: Never, ever update the gameMake sure you all launch with all your features in the game. And never update it. What’s the use of that?

7: Ensure there are tonnes of instructions. Gamers love to read loads of instructions before playing a game. Especially on smartphones.

8: Launch feature-heavy and never update your game.

9: Use the accelerometer ALL THE TIME.

10: Never put analytics in your game.

"And if you do," says Bishop. "Put the wrong analytics in. Or, even better, put every piece of analytics in."