We arrive at the end of another packed year for mobile games: Nintendo took its first steps outside of its own hardware; virtual reality on smartphones kicked off with the Samsung Gear VR; and Apple launched the Apple Watch and the Apple TV.
Not only that, but a bevy of cracking new mobile games were released this year.
And what all this means is that we have another great chance to ask our Indie Mavens what they made of 2015. And that's exactly what we did:
- "What do you think was the significant mobile games news in 2015, and what was your favourite mobile game of the year?"
From my perspective, the biggest mobile games news of the last 12 months is that the Gear VR is not only decent, but actually great and affordable. That's going to be the biggest shot in the arm for not just mobile VR, but VR and video games as a whole going into 2016.
As for game, my favourite by a long shot was Lara Croft GO. Cos I like itty bitty puzzles, innit.
I think most important was the reduction in prices for SDKs, and all platforms are now more accessible for indies. That helps to teach as well - no need to worry about licenses and stuff.
My favorite game is my game smile emoticon - Royal Heroes. That was a quest with crowdfunding, managing, releasing, and still going on. My first project at so large scale.
The big news for me is how unexciting Apple Watch and Apple TV ended up being. It's a relief to not have two more platforms to support (yet).
My favorite mobile game of 2015 was TouchTone. It hit the sweetspot of puzzliness for me. Not too easy, not too infuriating. Cool theme and story as well.
Also favorite is Does Not Commute. It's a game I wish I thought of, and funnier than expected.
Certainly my favorite game this year has been Shop Heroes. It was the only mobile game I sunk significant time into recently and it has some very satisfying loops.
Probably the announcement of Nintendo working with DeNA. Wonder what that will bring for the future.
I think, though a big news, that a lot of people will be disappointed by Nintendo Mobile games. Most people expect a classic Mario, Zelda or Metroid game on mobile.
What they most likely will get are more platform targeted games that will not cater to the nostalgia a lot of people have for those games. I think it's an super interesting step from such a traditional company but the next year will show how big this news really is.
For my favorite game this year i would like to nominate Super Dangerous Dungeon, a small surprisingly well designed platformer.
What got me was the amazing level design that keep me engaged and also enraged in some of the harder secret levels. I haven't felt such an accomplishment when i finished it in a long time.
Honorable mentions are: Lara Croft GO, Alto's Adventure, MicRogue, Trick Shot, Sage Solitaire, and Downwell.
I tried Gear VR for the first time a few months ago, and I now can't imagine any VR device getting any real success while it has wires attached.
I can't wait to see (more) people jamming with it.
The biggest news is Apple TV and tvOS release. There were a lot of good game releases so it is hard to choose from and Apple did a good job making their best of 2015 choice.
Here is my list of notable games:
- Fallout Shelter
- Agar.io
- Alto's Adventure
- Mr Jump
- Downwell
- PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist
- hocus.
- Green Ninja: Year of the Frog
- Sage Solitaire