The best of GDC, Apple Watch Glance for devs, and the making of Angry Birds Epic

Last week's top stories

• 5 Mobile games clean up at 2015 IGF Awards

  

  Mobile games did particularly well at this year's Independent Games Festival Awards, which took place on day three of GDC 2015.

  80 Days was first up and scooped the Excellence in Narrative award.

  Metamorphabet - Vectorpark's educational alphabet game on iOS - also gained recognition for the Excellence in Visual Art category, while Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure won Excellence in Audio.

  This year's Nuovo Award went to Nathalie Lawhead's Tetrageddon Games.

  
  

• 4 Saturation of supply is behind mobile's drive to triple-A, says Behaviour VP

  

  We sat down with Jimmy Gendron, Behaviour Interactive's VP of mobile publishing, at GDC 2015 to talk mobile triple-A.

  He said that the mobile games industry needs "more innovative gameplay, quality of execution and less cloning," and it's triple-A games that can deliver this.

  If the industry doesn't start delivering these standard of games, Gendron worries it could be a bumpy ride.

  "What we're seeing in the market is lots of game that are less polished and less complete," he says, "which creates the problem of a crowded market.

  "Soon the barrier to entry is going to be higher. Indie games are going to need to differentiate."

  
  

• 3 Triple-A branding an indie game concept: the Making of Angry Birds Epic

  

  Nearly five months after the global launch of Angry Birds Epic, the game had more than 45 million players and a 4,5 star average rating across app stores, and from 1.5 million players on Google Play alone.

  Ellen Lyse Einarsen, project lead on Angry Birds Epic, walked us through how Rovio made the casual RPG alongside Munich-based developer Chimera Entertainment.

  For example, the team had to figure out how to design a mid-core RPG game for a franchise known for their intuitive and super casual slingshot mechanic. 

  Then there was making sure that the look fit in with the rest of the series, and getting the balance right for both seasoned RPG players and the core Angry Birds fan base.

  
  

• 2 10 ideas for Apple Watch game Glances

  

  Last week Apple lifted the lid on its much-anticipated Apple Watch, announcing its imminent release on 24 April.

  The question then is what does this mean for developers? Since the smartwatch is designed as an extension of the iPhone, how do we go about making games for it?

  The Apple Watch's Glance function could be the key, described as "a browsable collection of timely and contextually relevant moments from the wearer’s favorite apps."

  We put together a list of 10 possible uses of Glance when designing mobile games, including for richer strategy experiences, incorporating fitness, and streamlining in-game chat.

  
  

• 1 7 key trends from GDC 2015

  

  Running from 2 - 6 March, this year's Game Developers Conference was one of the biggest yet with over 26,000 attendees.

  GDC is one of the biggest events in the gaming calendar, and the conversations that take place here under the Moscone Center's roof will colour the months to come.

  We distilled five days of meetings, talks, and presentations from the industry greats down into seven bite sized chunks - mobile flavoured, of course.

  From the future of virtual reality to dire predictions for mid-tier companies - it's all included in our round up.