5 Types of Games We'd Love to See on an Apple Watch

When the Apple Watch was announced, its creators touted its potential for expanding communication, health tracking, navigation and more. But what wasn't mentioned was its potential impact on gaming.

Gaming may not be an obvious vertical for wearables due to the small screen size, but there are certainly fun ideas that the always-with-you technology presents. And while we know Apple's smartwatch is already entering a crowded field of similar devices, its announcement Tuesday was one many in the tech community had been anticipating for years and will undoubtedly signal an uptick in app development.

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So what kinds of games could an Apple Watch, or any smartwatch owner, enjoy? We brainstormed some of the best possible ideas that would work within the hardware's restrictions. Hope you're listening, game creators.

1. NFC-based games that react when another user is nearby

With the Apple Watch's added near-field communication, there are plenty of options for communication between watch owners, or even NFC-enabled spots. This idea is admittedly cribbed from Nintendo, simply because the 3DS handheld has done a dynamite job of giving players multiple positive experiences when they pass near another 3DS user, even if they aren't aware of it.

Nintendo has done this both with 3DS Streetpass games, where encountering other players helps you fill in a puzzle with pieces they provide, or with features in specific titles. Passing by another player who also owned Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds deposited their shadow in your game world, and winning a battle against them gave you loot.

Imagine a game where your carefully leveled warrior battled any other Apple Watch warrior it came into contact with, and you could see how they did at the end of the day. Or a game that gave you new levels based on how many other users you encountered that day. These make up just the tip of the iceberg, but the addition of NFC can add a lot of creative opportunities for gaming.

2. Don't you miss your virtual pets of the 1990s?

Back in the 1990s, Tamagotchis, Neopets and all their ilk ruled our lives, with their need to be fed, inoculated and cleaned up after constantly. Though Tamagotchi has had a resurgence as an app, it's natural home is easily a smartwatch, where it can be attended to more quickly. And though the Apple Watch has a much more advanced screen than the pixelated LCD screen, it certainly couldn't hurt to leave these monsters with the same boxy charm.

The digital crown, visible here, acts as a control for apps so users can scroll and zoom.

3. Simple games that utilize the Digital Crown

As Apple's team demonstrated on stage, having to access the touch screen a lot is difficult on a watch face because your fingers obscure your view. So it added a Digital Crown to allow users to scroll and zoom through information. That means the games can't rely too much on touch controls, and instead need to utilize the crown's rotation for activities. So something simple with one-touch controls would be perfect.

Good examples would be side-scrolling endless runners such as Jetpack Joyride or Canabalt, or even the simple madness of a game such as Flappy Bird. As long as the mechanics are simple, the wearable appeal of a short game that can be picked up and put away during downtime is an obvious one.

4. Gamification of your activity

Gamification is a term that is beyond overused, but with the robust fitness tracking on the Apple Watch, it might experience a new life. For some, exercising toward a goal or purpose tracked in a game is bigger motivation, especially if it's more creative than just adding points to a number. Look at the mobile app Zombies, Run!, which gamifies running by implying you'll have to go just a bit faster to escape the flesh-eating hordes chasing you.

If running while wearing your Apple Watch unlocked new worlds to explore in a game, or new equipment, it could be more motivational. What about a game where climbing more stairs than your friends meant your virtual army was able to overtake theirs? There are a lot of creative potential applications, especially when you tie to the experience to the phone.

5. Managing your mobile games

Anyone who has played a freemium game such as FarmVille or Clash of Clans knows how those games operate. Instead of putting in money, they ask for your time. A lot of time, since you have to constantly check in, or risk missing the benefit of your newly generated energy critical for completing tasks. Freemium games only allow a certain number of actions before you're "tired", and players must wait for their energy to replenish or purchase more.

So for those sucked deep into the free-to-play spiral, a quick way to interface with game via your Apple Watch might save time, especially if they can queue up tasks on their wrist instead of pulling out a phone. And then nobody can judge you for still playing Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.

Got any game ideas we missed? Share them in the comments below.

Apple’s NFC Payments Play Could Make Its Wearable A Computing Friction Killer

Apple could be gearing up to make its so-called ‘iWatch’ a payment device powered by NFC, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. But including near-field communications tech in the iWatch (and the iPhone 6, too, if the report is correct) will open the door for much more than just payments, and could make the wearable an authentication device that finally convinces the consumer market wrist-based computing is something to get excited about.

WSJ says that the watch using NFC is a signal that it will factor significantly into its mobile payments play, which is rumored to be introduced at next week’s event. Watchers have long pegged Apple as readying a mobile payments program, that would let them pay for goods and other things using their existing iTunes Store accounts, and now that functionality is also apparently going to come to their wearable alongside its introduction with the new iPhone next week.

Other details revealed in the new report reflect earlier suggestions that the watch will have two different screen-sizes, and a curved LED display, along with a bevy of sensors to track a user’s health and activity. In a separate report, the New York Times claims that the new iWatch will be able to track footsteps and heartrate, with much higher accuracy than the current crop of devices. It will have a flexible display panel, they say, and use wireless charging. It’ll work with HealthKit and use Handoff to let it resume activities begun on iOS and OS X devices, and vice versa, and both phones and iWatch will use NFC.

With multiple sources agreeing on these basic facts, the potential for Apple’s wearable starts to take shape. Earlier, I’d struggled with finding a good reason to justify their entrance to this market. A payments component goes some way to help it make sense, and Apple has reportedly worked with credit card companies to ensure low fees for its use, but just the inclusion of NFC and the potential for a wearable as a convenience device that offers true cross-platform communication is a bigger selling point.

Imagine an iWatch that is a true companion, speaking to Mac and iOS devices as an assurance that a user is who they say it is – without the need for arduous processes like manual entry of passwords. That’s a big step up in terms of providing genuine convenience. Other gadgets like the Bionym Nymi authenticator band look to provide this kind of persistent identification, but Apple could achieve much of the same thing with its own wearable, removing steps and reducing friction from processes ranging from payments, to controlling a smart home (via its new HomeKit features for iOS 8), to surfacing loyalty cards and tickets via PassBook.

An iWatch with the same basic feature set as Android Wear isn’t exciting, even if it does share ties with iOS devices like the iPhone. What is exciting, in terms of the potential of a wearable to finally achieve mass market adoption, is companion hardware that makes the experience of using all other computing devices, including emerging categories like connected home gadgets, easier. As it stands, most wearables introduce a degree of complication; if Apple can simplify, as it has a habit of doing, instead of asking users to learn and make a habit out of something new, it should have a winner on its hands.