Most WAP development focuses on presenting scaled-down web information to the end user. The idea of making games under the format is probably more compelling -- but also much more difficult to pull off. Despite the current technological shortcomings of WAP devices (we're talking about making games for a platform with severely limited capabilities), a few developers are venturing into this niche of WAP design.

"The key thing to understand about WAP is that it is focused on enabling wireless internet access from a very limited medium -- the cellular phone. As such, game design that is currently being done is more like game design 20 years ago," says John Voorhees, the general manager for WAP game portal iWireless Games, which is based in North Carolina. "However, even though the environment only offers opportunity for text and lower-end graphic games, the opportunity to drive significant user penetration is very real. Proof of this can be seen on the internet today. The majority of game players logging on are not playing high-end simulation games or 3D first-person shooters -- they are playing simple parlor games like poker and bingo."

Scotland-based wirelessgames.com, another WAP game portal, sees the same opportunity. Chris Wright, the company's managing director, says that despite its primitive state right now, "WAP will be an evolving standard. The devices will become more complex and more powerful.

"The key thing is that it allows people to interact with a game world (however simple or complex) from any place and at any time," he says. "This connectivity, and the fact that so many people will have this device with them no matter what, makes it an ideal game playing device."

Along with Rob Miracle, a director for IEntertainment Network (iWireless Games' parent company), Wright and Voorhees describe some basic yet important things about designing games -- or similar applications that require interactivity among your end users, and between your host and end users -- under WAP.

Text and turn-based functionality are the main ingredients of WAP game design

What kind of games work best under WAP? This is what those developing games for the format are discovering right now. Or, as Wright puts it: "The type of games that don't work are easier to define than those that do." Obviously, the lack of color resolution displays and, more significantly, local processing on current WAP devices means that fast action and real-time games are not yet possible.

Therefore, it's best to think in terms of making WAP games which rely on nothing but the game play itself without all the flash, such as word-based, "play by email" or turn-based games. "With WAP you can offer some very elegant text-based games such as trivia, role-playing games, stock trading or financial competitions, and fantasy sports tie-ins," says Voorhees.

"It's almost like going back to the 70's," admits Miracle. "You will most likely only be in single-player games because there is no real-time access to relate the other person's move...yet."

While real-time interactivity is out of the question, games can be made for two players but technically in a turn-based format. "We have already developed a number of two-player games, and are about to develop more complex multi-user games," says Wright. Yet developing WAP games even for two players remains a challenge: keeping each player informed of what is happening in the game while one of them is making their move -- and insuring a player can get back into a game if they loose their connection -- needs to be considered in WAP game design.

This multi-player potential will not only be the selling point for WAP but wireless internet gaming in general under other formats, Voorhees believes. Multi-play should be exploited if you're looking into WAP game development. "The capability to offer multi-player WAP gaming will help to foster community amongst wireless phone users," he says. "The environment will not allow a traditional multi-player experience at the level enjoyed by online users. However, the popularity of multi-player games via wireless internet will be huge. The reason is that you are taking a very community-oriented model and adding the convenience of mobility with it. Now teens can play games with their friends anytime, or a father can play a game of checkers with his daughter while sitting in an airport thousands of miles away, etc."

The heart of a WAP game is the host server not the device

The lack of speed and a Java-like language that supports sockets pose limitations for WAP game development. Current WAP models support very limited communications to a host and are pretty much limited to page views. This means that you have to generate a static page and then wait for a response by the user, and these responses can be 30 or more seconds in loading time. Therefore, you have to consider that every exchange between a wireless device and the host server counts as a page view, which can be expensive for the end user under some phone plans.

"WAP devices are best viewed as simple game displays where the game logic and processing happen on the server," Wright says. Think of the server as where your actual game itself -- the programming and play-by-play nuts and bolts -- resides and the end user's device as a mere visual readout, and create your games accordingly.

This leads to the next issue in WAP game design: the limited size, as always, of the screens of WAP devices. You either have to write code specific to each device's display and other capabilities and then output accordingly, or program for the least common denominator. This is not an easy choice, as Miracle describes: "If you choose the first, you fight an uphill battle because new stuff is being added to devices each day and you practically have to write for every device. If you chose the latter, you are very limited in what you can display.

"WAP is based on WML and XML-type page mark-up languages. Now after someone comes up with a Java language for WAP and we get more devices that are graphical in nature then we might see more 'video' games," he says. "But as long as a device-independent programming language doesn't exist, the only way to do more advanced games is in the machine-specific language of the phone. With limited storage and a zillion different code sets, it's a pain to do any real games."

Creating WAP games now is about building its future

"I think there is definitely a more sophisticated gaming experience to be had with future versions of WAP," Voorhees says. As device capability improves and evolves, WAP will undoubtedly enable even greater end-user gaming experiences. Eventually, the wireless web gaming experience may not be that different from the wired one other than the size of the display, he predicts.

A good point to keep in mind is that the wireless experience is not solely limited to WAP -- gaming or otherwise. WAP may have more momentum only because the sheer number of cell phones now compared to that of handheld computing devices, but Voorhees anticipates that the two will converge and the handheld will start to replace notebook and desktop computers. "Eventually we may see WAP disappear or merge with HTML and XML to offer a high-end experience on a small device screen."

So, for right now at this early phase of WAP and the wireless internet, it's not about perfecting wireless game design techniques, technologies or business models -- it's about trial and error. "The key is to get your feet wet now by doing. Design some content, even if it is low-end," Voorhees says. "The real goal now is to learn by doing, to form the partnerships and alliances that will lay the groundwork for future product development and service offerings, and to provide content and services for the growing market of users who do want to access game content via their wireless phones."

Or, as Miracle sums up how to dive into designing WAP games: "Study as much as you can about HDML, WML, etc. and let your imagination flow."

Sidebar Tips from Wireless Developers to Wireless Developers: Developing WAP games -- connecting people is what works Chris Wright joined Digital Bridges as a managing director nearly a year ago, bringing his experience working on network technology for video games (such as Plane Crazy, which was released in the U.S. through Sega, and in Europe through Europress). He recaps some simple ideas to keep in mind if you're interested in developing games under WAP. Games are by their very nature some of the hardest apps to build. You only need to look at the PC industry to see that games are pushing processor, display and sound technologies. There is no denying that WAP is a limited environment. The small display size (roughly 100 by 50 pixels), 1-bit graphics and lack of on-board processing presents a constrained development environment. This type of development is very much client server, which is totally unlike the majority of normal game development. As it stands, WAP covers only browser technology. It will be interesting to see how it might handle local processing on Java and EPOC devices. But no matter when these technologies appear, these devices will always be phones. This means that their ability to connect people is what separates them from dedicated consoles such as the Gameboy. Taking advantage of this is key to developing games for this platform. At Digital Bridges, we built a system that provides information to each user specific to their circumstance at that point. It provides interaction between many users as well as making the interface simple and user friendly. Have a system that can manage large numbers of users. You need to build a system that is capable of handling thousands of simultaneous users. This is vital to any WAP development as the number of devices that might be online at any one time can be huge. This means that enterprise-level technology is a must.