Swipe This!: The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design

Developer Interview 3: Erin Reynolds

Developer profile: Erin Reynolds has worked with Disney interactive and mobile studios designing Nintendo DS titles. She is currently working with USC’s prestigious interactive media department on an unannounced project.

Current project: Nevermind (TBD)

Company website: http://www.nevermindgame.com/

Previous titles: Ultimate Band DS (Nintendo DS)

Erin, thanks for taking the time to talk with Swipe This! What excites you about designing games for touchscreens and tablets?

What excited me both then and to this day is the fact that touchscreen games offer developers a whole new array of tools in creating novel and engaging experiences for their players. The “traditional” video game has been fine-tuned to find effective and entertaining ways to leverage the controller-and-screen interface that has been the de facto standard up until recently. However, with this constraint now removed, we can break those rules and, in many ways, have the freedom to redefine what user interaction can be within virtual environments.

What are some of your favorite touchscreen/tablet games?

Having played so many touchscreen-centric games that I loved, it’s a bit of a difficult task to narrow it down to just a few. However, one that I think leveraged the touchscreen especially well (and in a way that couldn’t be replicated by any “standard” interface) was the 5th Cell/THQ ...