I stumbled on two powerpoints on Designing Mobile Games, one by Greg Costikyan and the other by David MacQueen that give tips on mobile games design without forgetting the technical constraints . A few bullets I found compealing:

• Game design has two main components: UI specification and gameplay algorithm specifications
• Game Design is about action. Not necessarily fast action, but the player takes actions to affect the game state
• Media assets are the “nounsâ€? of the game—allowable actions are the “verbsâ€?
• UI allows you to trigger the verbs. In a mobile game, ideally 1 key = 1 verb
• Doom has only 8 (left, right, ahead, back, jump, shoot, switch weapons, pick up)
• Types of Challenges are: physical, mental, and oppenents
• Categories of pleasure: sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, masochism.
• Constraints do not limit creativity; they spur it
• Multiplayer games differ: players provide the challenge, replayability is vital, handling player drops gracefully, player matching, short play sessions
• Approaches in dealing with latency: Turn-based games (round robin or simultaneous movement), act-whenever, slow update games, shared solitaire games, mask latency with game fantasy, untie game outcomes from specific play configuration

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