"Most games developers are treating smartphones as an Xbox in your pocket. That's a little boring," said Adrian Hon, CCO of Six To Start in his Game Horizon 2012 talk 'Wearable Computing & Zombie, Run!'.

A neuroscience researcher and co-founder of Moshi Monsters studio Mindy Candy, Hon takes a very different view.

"These are a completely different class of hardware with lots of difference sensors. They are the first step to wearable computing," he argued.

It's a view that's been demonstrated by the studio's debut game Zombie, Run!, not to mention other industry luminaries such as John Carmack and Gabe Newell.

Working up a sweat

Funded by Kickstarter, Zombie, Run! is a mainly audio-based game - for iOS and Android - that's designed for both entry-level and keen runner such as Hon, who enjoys a couple of hours running through London over the weekend.

And it's been a big success.

Despite being priced at $8 (on both platforms), it's done over 100,000 sales and there have been more than one million runs using it.

"People find it a really different type of experience," Hon said.

"It's one that you just couldn't get sitting a home with the biggest TV screen in the world. It's a game in the real world."

As for the future, he says there are opportunities with technology such as augmented reality, but that developers seem to be restricted to remaking existing games.

"Head up displays such as Google Glass will come at some point, but we need to be thinking now about how we're going to use these new classes of device," Hon ended.