Handheld vs. Home Console Game Design
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Talking about what it means for a game to be "perfect for Switch" or "perfect for Steam Deck" and the idea of designing games specifically for portable consoles.
Twitter: / jiikae
Website: jiikae.com - เกม
![[Live] ศึกมหึมันส์มวยไทยสังเวียนเดือด เวทีมวยชั่วคราวสวนสยาม | จันทร์ 30 กันยายน 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pM1k6f7JXUc/mqdefault.jpg)
another example of form factor specific design is with fire emblem. the ds and 3ds titles let you just hover over a character on a tile to pull up their stats and inventory on the second screen without cluttering the battlefield screen, or forcing you to open up a separate menu that'd cover it up entirely. really great ui that gives you lots of info without being overwhelming.
Love this example. With tactics games specifically. This REALLY speeds things up. Its super easy to take a lot of those second screen features for granted, they feel so elegant and natural that you can forget how big of a deal they are
I love portable gaming, but I think what is also important to portable design is the speed how you can save, quit, and exit. Not just getting into the game.
Some console/PC games at least in the past made it kinda difficult. I remember being a kid telling my mom, "I can't quit yet, please let me quit then I can do X" luckily my mom was patient and now she got into games, she gets it, lol.
But now as an adult, I do find myself in a care taker position often. If a game is going to make it slow to save, quit, and exit, I'm less likely to play it. Hitman WOA was great because I could get out of it really quick, same thing with Celeste.
Yes agreed. I think when there isn’t a high risk of losing significant progress, its way easier to jump into a game in a portable situation
Back in the GBA days, it was great that a selection of games had a quick save feature that let you make a temporary save wherever you were and pick back up next time you played.
Thankfully most gaming devices since then simply inherently let you suspend whatever software you're running, so a quick save is largely redundant, but when you're sharing the hardware or need to turn it off it would be nice to still have that feature in more games.
Great video! My first console was a Game Boy Pocket and I've been working in the industry for 14 years so this is something I have been thinking about for a long time.
To me the main thing that defines handheld game design is that you’re able to make meaningful progress by playing in short sessions. You could still play them for hours if you want, but the game will give you frequent opportunities to stop and save.
The Super Mario 3D Land devs put this into words: “And so we thought about someone getting on a train and going for a couple of stations and then getting off, and decided that should be the length of time it takes to play one stage. Whether they get all the way through to the end of the stage successfully, or whether they get a Game Over, we want the playtime to fit within that interval.”
This started going away when better sleep functions were introduced, then the Switch (and discontinuation od the 3DS) fully blurred the line and now. Now handheld PCs are replacing dedicated handheld consoles and running full fredged AAA games so many don’t seem to take into consideration shorter game sessions, which is unfortunate.
There are mobile games that can be played in shorter sessions but the majority of them use questionable and intrusive business practices so I wouldn't recommend them.
Thank you! And you bring up a great point about how sleep mode has kind of blurred the lines even more between console and handheld experiences. And I do agree that its unfortunate, because I do still think that being able to make meaningful progress on a handheld game improves the experience. Whether I’m able to pick where I left off or not.
@@jiikae Me too, which is why I've been going back to play older handheld games. There were still so many gems I hadn't played yet!
The touch-first aspect of most phone games and micro-transaction hell definitely kept games-on-my-phone from becoming the game-changing moment for me that i thought it would be when the iPhone was introduced. I didn’t realize how SNES had me so needing the tactile to feel connected there. Some genres that use the touch well worked (Plants vs Zombies) but i never ventured out more because touching glass never felt right in the first or third person adventures i was used to
Yeah I don't want gacha games to become the only portable games in the future.
I feel like less physically intensive games work better on portable. Stuff like strategy, puzzles and the like. You can absolutely play intensive games, but it's harder to do "the lean" when you're not in front of a big screen.
Ok I’m REALLY glad you said this because I was actually going to put this in the video but I cut it at the last minute because of games like Wario Ware. But I definitely agree that less physically intensive games are ideal for handheld more often than not. Keeping the screen from shaking too much is important!
i remember seeing an picture of dragon quest for 3DS vs dragon quest for consoles, one of the differences was in the chracter design, the buttons on the tshirt of a character were way bigger on 3DS.
its not just about the 3DS having an lower resolution, when you are using an small screen you need stuff to be big in order to see then.
i hope that developers understand those small details and make games specifically tailored to the steam deck and that gamers are able to notice those design considerations, people nowadays only talk about the same "6 games", play the same type of games on portable consoles/pcs and on living room consoles/pcs, only talk about graphics and resolution, instead of focusing on those little details and other big details like an gameplay original, unique or specifically tailored for an device.
we need more games like cut the rope and angry birds on mobile phones, we need more games that take the FOV into account on portable pcs (field of views), games that take advantage of things like accelerometer, gyroscope, trackpads etc.
Incredible reply. I definitely wanna see more games that are tailor made for their hardware!!
mobile games are still so far from their full potential
@jiikae On one hand, I've always loved Nintendo's handheld for their unique features, and the games that take advantage of them. On the other hand, I feel the whole appeal of the Steam Deck was being able to take your PC games on the go, or continue them on the main PC. I'm not sure how much demand there would be for Steam Deck-exclusive games.
What I would love to see though are games that detect whether you're playing on the Steam Deck and automatically adjust the size of certain UI elements or the camera distance to make things more readable.
I like switch and steam deck, but I miss the psp 1000-3000 and the ds/lite/dsi days. I see my switch and deck as a lay in bed or lay on couch at home kind of portable while the other handhelds I mentioned are pocketable, on the go devices. Feels better to play on a psp sitting in a waiting room at the clinic or waiting in line at the bank than lugging around a fanny pack or backpack for my deck.
100% same. I still bring my 3DS on some trips. This current era of handhelds does not feel "on-the-go" in the same way.
Someone needs to make a true handheld console again that has smaller scale games on it thathas a similar farm factor to the 3DS.
I understand that. That's why I bought a switch lite
Foldable screen tech keeps advancing in a way that makes this seem inevitable. If you could collapse a switch in half, how much thinner would it need to hit the sweet spot? I could imagine them using this fold in gameplay somehow too, designing some games to work half open like a DS and some flat like standard and a few that ask you to bend it open and more open while tilting
One of my favorite ones is Monster Hunter Rise showing you the monster immediately, rather than having to find its trail like in World. Getting you straight to the action.
I love MHR! And yeah the differences between Monster Hunter Rise and World are super interesting. Makes me wonder if they plan on keeping both styles
Your owl is basically a permanent 'wave at the blimp'. Less immersive in the world building sense but it respects your time as a gamer.
I think after the 3DS true handheld gaming has completely dissapeared. Yeah we have the Switch but Switch games are basically consoles games that you can play in handheld mode. Something completely different.
Etrian Odyssey is the epitome of form factor specific design. I do adore the Switch releases of the original territory, but the game really does lose something from not having a second screen dedicated solely to drawing and referencing your floor map.
Like, they've clearly done A Lot to make Etrian work on a single screen, including an option to just have a map screen side-by-side with the game screen, but everything they do is clearly a retrofit of design considerations made for considerably different hardware and all.
Etrian Odyssey is a huge example. Strange Journey was co-developed by Etrian Odyssey devs too!
Also did not know they added the side by side option in the newer games. Thats interesting actually
@@jiikae oh yeah, it's the Strange Journey stuff that made me think about this, because SJ is very much built off of those games (and The Dark Spire); and while I'd like for Redux to get a port to PC or Switch or something so more people can play it, I worry I'd be left feeling like it was missing "something".
There are a great many (3)DS games that don't work outside of their original hardware for this reason. Capcom tried, but the Mega Man ZX games just straight up stumble because of this!
@@Tudsworth so it turns out Nintendo gimmicks does serves purpose in era where almost all modern AAA games are lacking creativity Nintendo's gimmicks does push them in the right direction I really hope Nintendo bring back clamshell duel screen with Nintendo switch 2
I might be too biased for this question, simply because I've been a fan of portable gaming since the Game Boy, and I am super glad that systems like the Switch (and the damn steam deck) exist.
I'm also glad, in the case of the Switch, that there is a sleep function, so i can easily suspend my game and pick up where i left off when i'm done taking care of business IRL...as opposed to wandering around for minutes to hours looking for a save point, trying to get to a save point that's JUST beyond a boss battle, or worse yet: having to shut the game off and start *_all over again_* because save points (including passwords) didn't exist when this game was made!!!
Sleep mode has definitely been a game changer!
quality vid. the idea of people missing nintendo's dedicated handhelds despite the switch being hybrid is an idea that i've been seeing around lately and though i sort of get it didn't really click for me until i watched this video
Another factor for me is usually genre of game, a good example being visual novels, those games are purely text and characters stills. Sure you CAN play those on a PS5 on a big TV, but IMO they feel alot more at home on a switch laying in bed or reading a bit on the bus.
I know busy work got brought up in the video with side quests and stuff, but I kinda like most JRPGS on switch because I can grind items, levels or side quests portable then if I know I wanna progress the story I can play on the big TV. Plus with alot of JRPGS being vibrant, colorful anime artstyles having them on the smaller screen is still easy to see.
Then on the flipside a game like Cyberpunk I def want to play on the big screen tv because of the more realistic artstyle, how insanely detailed everything is and feeling alot of that would get lost if I played on the steam deck
Pure visual novels may actually be the peak example of “pick up and play”, the same appeal as reading a book and can make meaningful progress in every session!
Shoutout to Ryoko! I was just thinking about this topic since I've been playing a lot of Switch in handheld mode lately
I always gotta find a way to sneak Tenchi into the convo somehow 🤝
2:43 What's crazy about all of this is that when the Game Boy came out, it was marketed like a portable NES (except with a monochrome screen)
That is one interesting piece in all of this. I think in terms of marketing. Portable consoles have always been trying to SELL you on the idea of playing a home console thing on the go. I think the distinction here though is marketing vs. actuality. The PSP is where I think the full promise of a home console on the go was actually realized. Before it was mainly just attempts with a lot of compromises.
@@jiikae I don't see it that way, honestly. Sure they had their compromises, but they were pretty freaking close at times. Like I said, the Game Boy was a portable monochrome NES (before the Game Boy color came out); The Game Boy Advance was a portable SNES with a few extra 32-bit bells and whistles (fully 3D Need for Speed Underground, but graphically worse than the PS1); The Nintendo DS was a portable N64 who was design was inspired by the dual screen Game-n-Watch; The PSP was a portable PS2; The 3DS was damn near a portable GameCube; And the PS Vita was damn near a portable PS3! And I personally feel like the Switch is graphically a couple steps below the generation 8 consoles, But definitely more powerful than generation 7.
@@jiikae If any portable consoles had crazy compromises, they were the Atari Lynx; The Sega Game Gear, which was basically a portable, gas guzzling Sega Master System; The Sega nomad, which was a portable Sega Genesis that was also a gas guzzler; and the Turbo Grafx Express, also a gas guzzler.
VERY great points and I understand your perspective! I guess it all depends on how you personally view what compromise means at certain points in time
Very true that DS was a portable N64. But the context of that is that the current generation of gaming at that time was far removed from N64 so there was still a “separation” there in terms of how people viewed handhelds vs home consoles. So while I agree that the compromises weren’t always that significant. I’m speaking more to the perception of handhelds during those eras.
Street Fighter 2 may have been on Game Boy for example. But no one viewed that as the “real” version of the game basically. There were only a few cases before PSP gen where the handheld version of something was seen as close enough or equivalent to the type of home console experience you’d get within the same gen (e.g. Tetris)
Will also add that Game Boy, NES era is very tricky because gaming hadn’t evolved enough for there to be much technical distinction between what you’d get on a portable and a console (i.e. 3D wasn’t much of a thing yet)
I was thinking about the Etrian Odyssey maps before even clicking
Love how you talked about the psp and pick up and play. I was really thinking about those elements when playing the Crisis Core remaster, even though the port is pretty and controls well on a controller the mission design feels so specific to portable design, especially catering to a metropolitan audience. A lot of These levels and stages feel like they were made specifically for train rides 😂
You’re the second person to say this. I only played a bit of Crisis Core when it originally came out on PSP. So it is fascinating to hear how a handheld designed game may not translate well to home console
Playdate is a perfect example of tons of "Form Factor Specific Design".
Oh you are right actually!!!! MAJOR example when talking about recent times.
I love that the Switch lets me take my console games on the go, but I also can't help missing some of the more specific portable hardware features that the Switch could have included but didn't. This is a little off topic, but I miss streetpass and the encouragement to go out and take your console with you. I have a lot of fond memories from Find Mii and how much it made me aware of the people I passed in the street. I never noticed them, I never connected with them, but in a small way we still became part of each others' lives.
It was always interesting to see how many fighting games ended up doing so well on handheld consoles despite the limitations from an input standpoint. I think something being made for handheld feels more designed around that pick up and play nature more than anything. Get in and the game is going asap which tend to be where the best handheld games live.
Really am interested to see the dichotomy between something like SMRPG and PMTTYD (console games) vs M&L:B (handheld game) on the Switch.
DEFINITELY. Super Street Fighter 4 on 3DS even saw some decent success. The pick up and play nature of fighting games lend to that very well.
I see you with that thumbnail man. Love the little touches with editing, the touch grass joke lol.
My favorite example of how the DS utilizes its two screens is what strategy rpgs like devil survivor and fire emblem did with them. Normally when you check an enemy's stats, gear and skills in an srpg you have to literally select them and look at their individual stat screen but with the ds, you can just instantly see it on the other screen when your cursor goes over them just like you can with your own units. Makes the UI so much more seamless and faster to go through, especially with difficult games where you'll find yourself checking on what enemies have a lot like in fire emblem fates conquest.
100% agreed. I think with the DS in general so many games used the second screen in that way that a lot of people started to take it for granted but it genuinely does change the flow of certain games in a major way
#Blankycore
Boktai mentioned! I've been playing handhelds since the OG Gameboy!
Two aspects I enjoyed about the DS era (also present in a few 3DS games) are games that utilize both screens or have the system held sideways! Big Bang Mini and Rhythm Heaven are great respective examples.
I'm happy that some Switch games still do the latter to an extent. I only play my Switch in Handheld mode.
Yes! The DS era was such an interesting time for handheld gaming. The sideways style that some games used was super experimental and cool. Also I LOVED Rhythm Heaven, game actually made me laugh lol
Another DS game I loved that made perfect use of the hardware was a puzzle game called Meteos! Talk about a fast paced puzzle game! And the rules were easy for me to pick up, because it was quite similare to Panel De Pon (Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle League). The only wrinkle was you can only move pieces up and down. There were controller options if u were missing ur stylus, but without it, the game is a LOT slower!
@@esmooth919 I LOVE Meteos! Yes, and I also love how the game's sound effects are in sync with the music of each planet.
@@spectrumbots4268 i love that, too! It was like you was making beats with the game!
Great video!
I'll be honest I dislike when games are designed in a pick-up and play fashion, Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild suffer from this (too many moons and short shrines respectively), you just need to compare to Super Mario Galaxy and earlier 3D Zelda games, missions were meatier and dungeons longer.
If you want crazier examples, Majora's Mask and Silent Hill 4 are games that suffer from a pick-up and play approach,
Majora's Mask 3D showcased a lack of gravitas and difficulty when you can permanently save at owl statues instead of the Song of Time being the only way.
Silent Hill 4 wasn't remastered or altered, yet, but if you could save anywhere the game would be ruined,
the tension needs to build up until the point you can finally save at home.
this video kicked ass. Loving playing my steam deck at lunch at work and the fact that nowadays we literally have console quality on the go and so many options of how to play on the go is great. Love how even streaming device like the playstation portal let you add more functionality to your console so you don't have to rebuild your library on steam and that now your desktop and your on the go play sessions are one in the same. Also the fact more and more games are targeting systems like the steam deck or have gameplay loops that benifit from that form factor is sick. feels like what the ps vita wanted to do but without the limitations of its tech. Rip vita loved that thing. Also totally agree with your point about how the ds and 3ds 2nd screen added so much more functionality based on that systems desing. Sad to see it go but love the current state of handheld gaming. curious to know if you've seen any of the emulator set ups people have made with foldable phones to recerate the form factor of the ds and 3ds systems?
Thank you! And No I haven’t seen the foldable setups but that sounds VERY interesting actually
@@jiikae they look really cool and apperntly the ds emulators on android are decent. Only thing is I don't think it's worth a phone that cost nearly 2 grand here in Europe 🤣
No way, unrelated to your video but your thumbnail was of an anime I used to see on TV as a kid... I've never recalled what it was called and couldn't describe or name the characters so it's been bugging me on and off for about 2 decades now. I finally can answer it...Tenchi Muyo
Thanks!
LOL I’m glad! I love Tenchi!!
the beyoncé and usher bits got me LOL
GLAD 😂😂
Concise, well scripted, and extremely informative. Thank you for the amazing video
I like to use the Steam deck gyro like a mouse for counter strike. I also use the touchpad for deawing and tactil games.
8:10 this reminds me of when kojima tested death stranding on the steam deck, anyways we're reaching a plateau in term of performance at the same power consumption, steam deck will pronably be the last gen of handheld, the consoles included like ps56, xsx 2 and switch 3. The next trend will be vr.
Crazy this video hits my algorithm cuz I was talking to the homies about how in modern day, playing PS2/Gamecube era games on a handheld feels right at home, because those are the standard and design of games that would be handheld games today. Like Jak 2 for example feels dated compared to console action games today, but if you put it in the lense of a handheld game, it feels advanced enough to be perfect.
I like handheld gaming because of how experimental the games can be, even if you need to add extra hardware; companies can afford to do weird things, like you mentioned with boktai
Came for the Ryoko image and stayed for the convo. Solid stuff
I think one of the examples of Portable game design that really hit me recently was the Crisis core remake they made last year. I played the original on PSP and it was there I only kind of noticed how quick everything was, story wise and the extra side missions but I only really realized how good it felt on a handheld form factor when I playing the Remake version on my PC because I noticed that somewhere it felt a bit wrong playing it here. I had associated sitting down on my PC or my console with longer play sessions compared to how I viewed playing on my handhelds. Which is kind of the way I feel about something like Shantae where I only really wanna play a bit before stopping because playing for long sessions feels more tiring than it would be.
Also on the topic of the clarity work that goes into the consideration of handheld screens, I think that’s one of the reasons why when things are so 4K and high fidelity on consoles, it makes it hard for me to notice things with my decaying eyesight.
Yo, love your twitter.
Didn't knew you had YT too
Oh hey! Yeah I just started using TH-cam recently. Welcome and thanks!!!
Well done. Subscribed!
3:55 can it run DOOM tho?
When I was younger I preferred handhelds. As an adult I realize that was partially the ADHD/arcadey design philosophies. I still play "handheld" games but prefer the format of a desk or TV. I'll always like handhelds, but even with Switch I play more in TV mode.
splendid
Etrian Odyssey is a great example of form factor specific game design. The games came out for the DS and 3DS. The first three games can be digitally purchased for the nintendo switch (in America). Everyone was thinking how the heck was the game going to work without a second screen. The major component of the games is drawing the labyrinths you are exploring with the stylus.
Great video. I play a little bit of everything on switch but when it comes to a short gameplay session on the go, I stick with something like Smash or a Kirby game that I can get in and out of pretty quickly.
#blankiegaming
CURL UP
I love this kind of design focused content! I hope you make more
Will do!!! And thank you!!
i finally got a PSP in the mail and this video came up. neat!!
!!!!! Enjoy!!! That system has a lot to offer!!!!
BBL PS3 is a brand new sequence of words 😂
That thing was THICK LOL
That Usher Joke😆🤣
LOL. My intrusive thoughts won 😂
Dog
I love this video
But man,
You are gonna wanna play the DS version of Strange Journey
My friend told me it was WAYYYY worse
and that's their GOAT game
Mileage my vary. I know a lot of people don’t like the new art in Strange Journey Redux. But then some people prefer the quality of life changes like being able to sprint. All depends on what you prefer!
thanks for making this video, im tired of people not covering stuff like that.
Found your channel and Subscribed. Your explanations were so on point about the differences in game design. Off topic and I hope you don't take this the wrong way - I think the clips with your face on them should have Camera zoom in/Movements and PNG pictures to add more flair to your point of views. Still a great a video though!
Hey thank you!!
And no problem at all. Your suggestion is actually really helpful and productive!!!
I just discovered your channel and I've been enjoying your videos. Subscribed!
Appreciate you!!!!
Damn, why I haven't discovered this channel earlier??? I really dig your simple, yet informative approach to the topic of the video. I'll might as well check out some of your previous videos, and will looking forward for your next ones.
Edit: it would also worth to mention, that publishers used to task another developer teams to make separate, unique versions of the game, designed for portable systems. For example - while Treyarch was making brand new, the first open world super hero game from scratch, that is Spider-Man 2 movie tie in game for six gen home consoles, Various Vision was tasked by Activision to make make a simpler version of the game for the PSP, using tons of assets already done and used in previous Treyarch Spider-Man game.
Thanks! And I actually didn't know this! But it definitely doesn't surprise me that portable versions were "mandated" in that way!
Pretty informative video, good stuff
THANK YOU
Excellent video
Appreciate you watching!!!
Dude you make videos too?
Yes indeed!
@@jiikae I enjoyed your points on twitter glad you're doing video as well
PSP to me was like a handheld PS2. If the DS had been like the PSP then Super Mario 64 would have looked and played better. PSP even had a control stick.
DEFINITELY
Hm
That's a fallacy. In truth, any game design works for portable devices, especially the new ones.
The portable design might take into consideration the battery lifetime so players can achieve something in the game before the battery dies, but games no longer have mandatory checkpoints.
We can also just plug them anywhere now, and have extra portable batteries to recharge the devices on the run.
To be honest. That's a valid perspective too! Also why I pointed out how some developers don't think it's necessary to take into consideration at all. And I personally avoid certain games in portable contexts for some of the reasons listed. But yeah, the video isn't meant to be an objective truth. Just meant to offer different perspectives on it!