The pickings for multiplayer Android games are still slim, but the beefier processing power of the Nexus One and Motorola Droid hardware might push developers in the right direction.
In the meantime, we’ve highlighted some interesting and fun implementations of social gaming for Android devices that you can snag from the Market for free, right now. These offerings illustrate some directions in which mobile multiplayer gaming may be headed.
Sketch Online
Think quick-draw Pictionary in a handheld chat room. Sketch Online is a great execution of a highly social game.
Create a screen name, add a photo of yourself, and jump into any number of game rooms divied by language and topic (animals, objects, etc.) If your device has a keyboard, unpack it quickly, because the guessing is fast and furious.
Watch as the other players draw live on the screen and do your best to guess what the image is. Incorrect guesses (and other chatter) pop into the chat window. A correct guess scores points for you and the sketcher, and the answer is hidden from other players while the round is still on.
As the turns rotate, it will soon be up to you to quickly sketch the word that appears. You can alter your brush size, choose a color, eraser, and even clear the board and start over if you’re on the wrong track. Sweep your finger over the canvas to draw. If a word is too hard, you can opt to use one of your limited skips.
Sketch Online is not only fun and easy to play (even over 3G, despite recommendations to use WiFi), but the social aspect is well implemented. Player profiles can contain biographic info and multiple photos, and there’s even a separate chat room where players can hang out. I was pleasantly surprised by how much good-natured banter flowed in each game room, and how much information players included in their profiles — all signs that a solid community is forming around this app.
Cestos
Cestos is another unique multiplayer game. Players control multiple marbles and determine their direction and velocity on each turn. Once all players have locked in their trajectories, the marbles are let loose simultaneously. The goal is to avoid falling through pits and being blown up by hidden land mines, depending on which map you’re playing.
The game is easy to learn and has some good strategic depth, as you must anticipate where your opponent will shoot his marbles, and aim to bombard or avoid accordingly.
Socially speaking, there are a few options. Your marble avatar is customizable (with unlockable items from the game) and there is a chat lobby where you can ‘friend’ players whom you plan to pwn regularly. The app has a lot of fans, and there are always players online to compete with
Parallel Kingdom
Parallel Kingdom, which has been available on Android and the iPhone for some time, gives new meaning to persistent multiplayer online gaming.
The game world is overlaid on a real-time view of Google Maps. Your position on the map is determined by your mobile signal or GPS, and game events (such as encountering other players, battling monsters) happen in real time at your location.
There is a small radius within which your character can venture from the comfort of your couch. But if you want to further explore the “world,” and meet other players, you’ll have to physically get out and go there. As you delve a bit further into the game, you’ll uncover other methods of virtual travel, most of which are connected to the ways in which other players stake out territory.
The game has a lot of depth, as players can explore, collect items, even claim territory and found cities. It’s a mobile MMORPG with an augmented reality twist that takes some commitment to learn, navigate, and enjoy. But the payoff, especially for future, more graphically-rich AR and location-based games is huge.
Here’s the trailer for the newest iteration of the game, “Age of Emergance.” Though the video is arguably more “epic” than the game may warrant, it illustrates a lot of Parallel Kingdom’s interesting features.
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