2.4 Game Scenarios

Although games for use on wireless and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are mainly targeted at a single player and one viewer, designing good iTV games often proves challenging because of TV's communal nature. The hunt for new and ingenious ways to create large audiences for iTV games is already elevating game developers to new heights.

In many scenarios, the viewer tunes to a dedicated games channel and is asked to enter a user - name that identifies the user's game profile. Subsequently, a list of games is presented. Those games are classified according to single-player and multiplayer games. In the game index, each game may have a short preview animation as well as some text describing its rules. When applicable , on selection of a game, the viewer is given the option to resume a saved game. During the game, an option is given to save the game. On completion of a game, the viewer's score is compared to the list of published high scores for that week. In some cases, the viewer may join an ad hoc group of players competing against another group of players. If the score is sufficiently high, the viewer is offered some perks (e.g., air travel miles) or the option of recording his or her score for a small fee.

Checkers and puzzles, pinball and golf, are examples of games that are simple to play using a remote control (see Figure 2.11). These kinds of games are often played impulsively, for example while waiting for a television program to begin or while waiting for a long download. These games could thus fill gaps at times when viewers can't find anything to watch. The threshold to play these games could be designed to be so low that even people not familiar with the subject can participate, for example, by adding hints and advice that can either be presented per viewer's request or appear automatically after some time-out.

Figure 2.11. Sample perk quiz and puzzle application courtesy of Ortikon (www.ortikon.com).

This scenario implies several requirements. The game channel should deliver a data service that presents a game-index application that serves as a dispatcher of the game applications. That dispatcher should probably be maintained by the broadcaster . On termination of a game, an option is given to exit the game and return to the index. Multi-player games may require interaction among several viewers simultaneously receiving a uniform display and whose interactions are time-stamped. In such scenarios, the dispatcher may be complicated.