An Ethereal New Tablet Game Inspired By Pop-Up Books And Traditional Japanese Art

Tablet devices in particular present an exciting opportunity for independent developers to create the kinds of games that haven’t yet been possible on other devices. The iOS game boom bought quick-hit casual games to millions of people who’d never played games before, but as Android joins the fray and the marketplace swells and saturates with choices -- and lots of look-alikes -- the next wave of game designers are looking at how polished, higher-end and unique game experiences can help them stand out.

The tablet has some of the breadth and built-in awareness of smartphones, but the larger screen is more than just a size increase, from a game design perspective. Not only does it allow more vivid art to shine, but the intimacy of the lap-based screen can provide more tactile experiences, often designed for two hands instead of just one.

The economics of mobile games are shifting, too -- prevailing wisdom so far has led to most games being free, with some paid elements. But if about 80 percent of mobile games are free, that means 20 percent are premium, costing a dollar or two, which means less competition in the paid category currently when it comes to games with higher budgets, or with the art and design to be visible and competitive.

Some of the most interesting prototypes and game demos I’ve had in recent months have been from indies developing for tablet devices; the game development landscape is a massive and constant competition for attention, but I’ve been most impressed by small teams pushing the envelope with relatively-limited resources.

Often, these new studios are founded by talent with years of experience in traditional development; that’s the case with UK-based Nyamyam, co-founded by Jennifer Schneidereit, who worked with Tokyo-based Acquire before joining long-standing UK-based studio Rare to work on Microsoft’s Kinect Sports games. There, she met her co-founder, former Rare director of gameplay Phil Tossell, and the pair established Nyamnyam in 2010.

Now joined by artist Ryo Agarie, a colleague who worked on Xbox Live’s pervasive Avatars, the three have set to work on Tengami, a fascinating game inspired by traditional Japanese art that sees the iPad take the role of a stunning, touchable pop-up book.

Schneidereit says she’s been inspired by her experience working in Japan, and her desire to communicate her love of traditional Japanese art to other Westerners. Another major influence on the team is the growing interactivity of reading in the mobile space, that sees increasing interactivity being applied to books, and apps that aim to make decision-based interactive experiences out of traditionally-static reading.

Most importantly, a game set in a pop-up book isn’t something anyone’s broadly seen attempted before, in a climate where inventive concepts are crucial to success on the mobile marketplace. The team’s first step was actually to comb bookstores for hundreds of real-world pop-up books, and guides for how to make pop-up and papercraft, until they found one that explained the synchronization of fold systems in a way that truly showed them how to build what they wanted.

The team built its own intensive technology that ultimately emulated the physics of complex pop-ups in lifelike ways that the player could open, close and interact with in order to guide a character through a world of cherry trees, subtle colors and lovely, minimalist textures. Schneidereit says the Tengami team particularly wanted to avoid the child-like aesthetic common to other games about paper crafting or real-world storybooks, and even experimenting with the patterned aesthetic of origami paper made the game look overstimulating.

The team found what it was looking for in Japanese catalogs that had endless ranges of delicate, rice paper-like tones -- with textures and colors available on CDs that came with the catalogs, so they could be imported directly into the studio’s tech.

“It’s a calm, quiet and meditative game, and it’s very safe, as in it has a mystery aspect to it, yet we don’t want the player to fear for their life,” Schneidereit tells me. “It’s about the atmosphere, and figuring out what the narrative is. There’s definitely a puzzle aspect to it, but we’re not trying to have the puzzles be super-difficult. That’s always the balance.”

Striking that delicate balance between storytelling and puzzles is what it takes to capture, challenge and surprise a new audience of gamers that may be recently acclimated to and excited about playing on touch devices, but who are ready for a more inventive experience than tapping for points.

Nyamyam plans to release Tengami later this summer -- with a PC and Mac release in the works later -- but its early showings have gotten people excited: it was an official selection for Japan’s indie festival Sense of Wonder Night in 2012, and a finalist for the major annual IndieCade festival.

Photos courtesy of Nyamyam.

@leighalexander