Video Game Character of the Month
March 2018
Characters of One-Touch Games
One-Touch Games
Characters of One-Touch Games
One-Touch Games
Overview:
Tap, tap, tap. Swipe, swipe, swipe. Restart, restart, restart. Delete game, move on to next one. This is generally how it works in the world of One-Touch games, a new breed of games made for phones and short attention spans. Ideal for a bus journey or when waiting for the headteacher, these games are made to be easy to learn but challenging to master, ideally so you can restart a lot and watch more adverts. This means the games have to have easily recognisable controls and characters with about as much personality as the aforementioned headteacher to allow you to relax and play without thought. However, I believe these characters deserve a special place in our gaming history, being halfway between mascots and grunts, and as such deserve this award.
Here's some information of these One-Touch Characters:
They are often customizable
They have been in thousands of games
They are predominately in the mobile game genre
They are slowly taking over the gaming industry
They are masters of the easy-to-learn, hard-to-master genre
They often involve keeping a character moving so as to avoid obstacles such as pipes
They can also involve firing characters to destroy objects or match them with other objects (such as bubbles)
Their games can be played almost anywhere
They can have power-ups
They've been around since the beginning of gaming - think Atari Breakout (although the arcade platform minimized its portability)
Once one succeeds, thousands of clones appear within minutes - some are good, some are terrible
Origin of Characters of One-Touch Games:
The origin of One-Touch Characters is one that is linked to the formation of gaming with many arcade games at least resembling the One-Touch formula. Take Space Invaders for example, yes you might have had to move the joystick left and right but in reality its only one real movement (and if touchscreen had been around back then, then it would certainly be One-Touch and Drag). Most simple but enjoyable games feature the One-Touch system so that they are easy-to-learn but hard-to-master and so endlessly repeatable as you get just that little bit better each time.
Evolution of One-Touch Games:
One-Touch games really took off as a genre with the arrival of smartphones and mobile gaming because of the added portability and the fact that you can play on your phone for five-minute intervals (consoles/PCs on the other hand require booting up and so a greater commitment). There are thousands of One-Touch games and characters on smartphones and other devices such as the infamous Flappy Bird and ports of the aforementioned Space Invaders and Atari Breakout as well as thousands of clones (I'm looking at you Splashy Fish and Iron Pants). Probably the biggest producer of One-Touch games is Ketchapp, a French publisher that is now owned by Ubisoft as of September 2016. The company was started on March 7 2014 by brothers Antoine and Michel Marcos and first became big with its clone of Gabriele Cirulli's open-source puzzle game 2048. Ketchapp then made a name for itself by cloning existing games and publishing them with adds and in-app purchases (such as Splashy Fish to Flappy Bird). This has resulted in over 137 games being released, and that's only one company. Due to the easily addictive nature of One-Touch games and the prevalence of mobile gaming as well as the ease of which it is to make (or clone) these types of games, One-Touch characters are most likely here to stay.
Games:
There are way too many One-Touch characters to list in this Video Game Character of the Month but a few of the most important ones include:
The Ball from Colour Switch
Flappy Bird
The Ship from Space Invaders
The Paddle from Atari Breakout
The Doodler from Doodle Jump
The Various Angry Birds
That's all on One-Touch characters but, as always, if I've missed anything or made a mistake or you have a suggestion on who should win next month's prestigious Video Game Character of the Month award, then please don't hesitate to comment! I'm afraid it may take more than one touch of the keyboard, however.
Thanks for reading, Satamer
AND
Goodbye for now, Harry
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchapp
And our own knowledge
Tap, tap, tap. Swipe, swipe, swipe. Restart, restart, restart. Delete game, move on to next one. This is generally how it works in the world of One-Touch games, a new breed of games made for phones and short attention spans. Ideal for a bus journey or when waiting for the headteacher, these games are made to be easy to learn but challenging to master, ideally so you can restart a lot and watch more adverts. This means the games have to have easily recognisable controls and characters with about as much personality as the aforementioned headteacher to allow you to relax and play without thought. However, I believe these characters deserve a special place in our gaming history, being halfway between mascots and grunts, and as such deserve this award.
Here's some information of these One-Touch Characters:
They are often customizable
They have been in thousands of games
They are predominately in the mobile game genre
They are slowly taking over the gaming industry
They are masters of the easy-to-learn, hard-to-master genre
They often involve keeping a character moving so as to avoid obstacles such as pipes
They can also involve firing characters to destroy objects or match them with other objects (such as bubbles)
Their games can be played almost anywhere
They can have power-ups
They've been around since the beginning of gaming - think Atari Breakout (although the arcade platform minimized its portability)
Once one succeeds, thousands of clones appear within minutes - some are good, some are terrible
Origin of Characters of One-Touch Games:
The origin of One-Touch Characters is one that is linked to the formation of gaming with many arcade games at least resembling the One-Touch formula. Take Space Invaders for example, yes you might have had to move the joystick left and right but in reality its only one real movement (and if touchscreen had been around back then, then it would certainly be One-Touch and Drag). Most simple but enjoyable games feature the One-Touch system so that they are easy-to-learn but hard-to-master and so endlessly repeatable as you get just that little bit better each time.
Evolution of One-Touch Games:
One-Touch games really took off as a genre with the arrival of smartphones and mobile gaming because of the added portability and the fact that you can play on your phone for five-minute intervals (consoles/PCs on the other hand require booting up and so a greater commitment). There are thousands of One-Touch games and characters on smartphones and other devices such as the infamous Flappy Bird and ports of the aforementioned Space Invaders and Atari Breakout as well as thousands of clones (I'm looking at you Splashy Fish and Iron Pants). Probably the biggest producer of One-Touch games is Ketchapp, a French publisher that is now owned by Ubisoft as of September 2016. The company was started on March 7 2014 by brothers Antoine and Michel Marcos and first became big with its clone of Gabriele Cirulli's open-source puzzle game 2048. Ketchapp then made a name for itself by cloning existing games and publishing them with adds and in-app purchases (such as Splashy Fish to Flappy Bird). This has resulted in over 137 games being released, and that's only one company. Due to the easily addictive nature of One-Touch games and the prevalence of mobile gaming as well as the ease of which it is to make (or clone) these types of games, One-Touch characters are most likely here to stay.
Games:
There are way too many One-Touch characters to list in this Video Game Character of the Month but a few of the most important ones include:
The Ball from Colour Switch
Flappy Bird
The Ship from Space Invaders
The Paddle from Atari Breakout
The Doodler from Doodle Jump
The Various Angry Birds
That's all on One-Touch characters but, as always, if I've missed anything or made a mistake or you have a suggestion on who should win next month's prestigious Video Game Character of the Month award, then please don't hesitate to comment! I'm afraid it may take more than one touch of the keyboard, however.
Thanks for reading, Satamer
AND
Goodbye for now, Harry
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchapp
And our own knowledge
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