Recently, mobile Social Netwrok Game(SNGs) including characters have emerged in the game market. Basically, it is based on not only the mobile environment and technology but also the form and concept of SNG. Most characters of mobile SNG take characters which have the role of avatar or non-player character. This kind of characters allows own their characteristic to create and design them based on the mobile and SNG system. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to analyze character design with the elements of mobile graphic such as visual, sound, motion and so on. Then we would discuss the features of character design for mobile SNG and comment the limits and consideration for effective design. For this research, the first of all we would discuss the concept and theory of mobile SNG and the design elements for the game characters by the publications, including thesis, articles, and books. Seondly, this paper will be focused on character examples in 20 mobile SNGs which are selected in top selling and analyze them. Finally, we would discuss the characteristics of mobile SNG character and the methods of possibilities and considerations for effective design.

On July 30, 2012, Kakao Talk of Kakao Co., Ltd has pioneered a mobile platform SNG market for the first time in the country along with the launch of ‘Kakao Game Center’. While Kakao Talk has released a puzzle game called ‘Anipang’ at the time of launching the Kakao Game Center, it has recorded a DAU value exceeding 8 million at the most by dominating the domestic mobile game market for smart phones right after being released. However, a sudden decrease of DAU was shown starting September 4th which is not even two month after being released and the defection of DAU continues to occur. This is a condition which is different from the Facebook SNG which is a computer platform based SNG where the DAU is steadily maintained until now. This study attempts to analyze the cause of such conditions through the comparison between Facebook SNG and Kakao Talk SNG representing each of computer platform based SNG and mobile platform based SNG to present an important reference point for the game creators who are preparing for the participation of mobile platform based SNG industry in the future through this analysis.