Hello,
I was always wondering can a 2d infinite runner game be made for pc. For example, tiny wings.(

I have not found much 2d infinite runners for pc. Why is that? Secondly, will 2d infinite runner be a enjoyed in consoles or pc?

"Can" as in "there are tools capable of doing it and PC's capable of running it"? Of course!

"Can" as "is it possible for a company to get that one game I like and make it for PC"? Well... it depends, but the developer has the final word.

Maybe you can't find those kind of games on PC because compared to other genres there are just a few. In any mobile store you can find a new flappy birds clone every day and you don't see the same with other genres.

I guess the main genres on PC and consoles are First and Third Person games, Plataformers and Puzzle/Casual games, and I guess the main reason is that in a console or PC you have this factors:

• You have more options for input: with a joystick or keyboard+mouse you can have easily 10 buttons to use and like 20 combinations without interfering with the game's screen, and you can use both hands almost every time. In a phone you have a max of 5 "touches" (which means 5 parts of the screen could be clickable, so you'll probably see buttons taking up space) and most of the times you're on the bus using one hand to not fall. This highly restricts the type of games you can do and the popularity of games that don't consider those limitations.
• It's easier to get immersed: thinking of playing a survival horror while waiting for a friend in a restaurant just sounds wrong.
• There's a really different target: Of course you can find people that play on mobile and consoles and PC, but the mobile market points to more casual players that maybe don't even like games with a story or "complex" controls.
• Monetization: Mobile games are usually free with In App Purchase, and the game is designed around that in a lot of cases. I think it just doesn't work that well on PC's and consoles, so those ports might not even be considered. This is related to the target audience.

Those things make runners and other "one tap" games popular on mobile and not so popular in the other platforms. And with all that in mind, I think that runners can be enjoyable (BitTrip Runner is great!) but you should add more than one button for the controls or more depth.

"Can" as in "there are tools capable of doing it and PC's capable of running it"? Of course!

"Can" as "is it possible for a company to get that one game I like and make it for PC"? Well... it depends, but the developer has the final word.

Maybe you can't find those kind of games on PC because compared to other genres there are just a few. In any mobile store you can find a new flappy birds clone every day and you don't see the same with other genres.

I guess the main genres on PC and consoles are First and Third Person games, Plataformers and Puzzle/Casual games, and I guess the main reason is that in a console or PC you have this factors:

• You have more options for input: with a joystick or keyboard+mouse you can have easily 10 buttons to use and like 20 combinations without interfering with the game's screen, and you can use both hands almost every time. In a phone you have a max of 5 "touches" (which means 5 parts of the screen could be clickable, so you'll probably see buttons taking up space) and most of the times you're on the bus using one hand to not fall. This highly restricts the type of games you can do and the popularity of games that don't consider those limitations.
• It's easier to get immersed: thinking of playing a survival horror while waiting for a friend in a restaurant just sounds wrong.
• There's a really different target: Of course you can find people that play on mobile and consoles and PC, but the mobile market points to more casual players that maybe don't even like games with a story or "complex" controls.
• Monetization: Mobile games are usually free with In App Purchase, and the game is designed around that in a lot of cases. I think it just doesn't work that well on PC's and consoles, so those ports might not even be considered. This is related to the target audience.

Those things make runners and other "one tap" games popular on mobile and not so popular in the other platforms. And with all that in mind, I think that runners can be enjoyable (BitTrip Runner is great!) but you should add more than one button for the controls or more depth.

Wow thanks for the answer. Explains a lot.

Runners tend to be pick up and play simplistic, because when one is on a mobile, usually its just to kill time in between other events. Waiting in line, on the bus, etc. So the appeal of a runner is it's simple and easy to pick up and stop playing. A desktop PC, on the other hand, one has to sit down, turn it on, etc, so it's more of a conscious decision to go sit down and play a game as the designated activity, instead of something to kill time.

Runners tend to be pick up and play simplistic, because when one is on a mobile, usually its just to kill time in between other events. Waiting in line, on the bus, etc. So the appeal of a runner is it's simple and easy to pick up and stop playing. A desktop PC, on the other hand, one has to sit down, turn it on, etc, so it's more of a conscious decision to go sit down and play a game as the designated activity, instead of something to kill time.

Lets say that theoretically a game developer wants to make a 2d infinite runner for a console or pc. What would the said game developer tweak with the game to make it suitable for pc or console?

In my opinion, maybe making it more story driven or making the game have more control based on what DiegoSLTS mentioned.

I think that the deadlight by tequilla works is a natural progession of runner genre that works really well on console. Obviously it has platform and combat sections but for the most part it is left to right tap the button at the right moment to jump / slide

I think that the deadlight by tequilla works is a natural progession of runner genre that works really well on console. Obviously it has platform and combat sections but for the most part it is left to right tap the button at the right moment to jump / slide

If I am not wrong, Deadlight is more of a platformer + sidescroller. The game is awesome though. I played the game in pc and enjoyed it.

Buster2000, on 13 Aug 2014 - 1:39 PM, said:

I think that the deadlight by tequilla works is a natural progession of runner genre that works really well on console. Obviously it has platform and combat sections but for the most part it is left to right tap the button at the right moment to jump / slide



If I am not wrong, Deadlight is more of a platformer + sidescroller. The game is awesome though. I played the game in pc and enjoyed it.

You are not wrong. It is a platformer + sidescroller but there are many sections (even some complete levels) where it is just a runner with well timed jumps (if you don't make the jumps or if you stop you die). This is why I see it as a natural progression of a mobile runner game onto a desktop / console. Or if you look at it the other way an infinete runner mobile game is a sidescrolling platform with most of the complexity removed to make it perfect for touch screen devices.

If you had Jetpack Joyride on a console it would just be boring but for a mobile its perfect. If you wanted to bring it to desktop / console then you would need to add some more platformy elements and other features to make it more fun for longer gaming sessions.