PlayStation Mobile Thread of Indie Games, and Apps on Android/Vita

Played some Gun Commando. Would be a good game if they didn't ruined the aiming. How can they not get it right when the game is a FPS? Any news about a patch?
While we are talking about patches. Is the only way to patch a PSM game to redownload it from the store? My Life of Pixels savegame got deleted because of that. Will this happen to any game you patch?

Also bought Switch Galaxy because it is from some ex-Studio Liverpool people. Someone has to support PSM.
If you start a game with a patch while connected to the Internet it should download it before the game starts. Key word there is should.

Patching on PSM is a broken mess.
 
Just read a tweet by Super Icon Ltd about their game flopping on PSM. Sounds like PSM is an utter failure and a lot of people are bailing for iOS. Is there any reason Sony limited the games to Vita/tablets etc? Seems like they had something going with Minis, then changed tack and messed it up.
 
Just read a tweet by Super Icon Ltd about their game flopping on PSM. Sounds like PSM is an utter failure and a lot of people are bailing for iOS. Is there any reason Sony limited the games to Vita/tablets etc? Seems like they had something going with Minis, then changed tack and messed it up.

While PSM is definitely not selling very well, Super Icon released a pretty bad game. It's not common to get back from that, even if they did improve it significantly after the patch. The window for most games to get attention is launch week, and they blew that.
 
No I am not the developer but I am related to the project. We basically helped find a company to port the content to PS Mobile and also handled the localization--although I didn't work on the translation personally.

Yeah, I agree that it is a little bit of a hard sell. Unfortunately there are a few companies in the way and we don't really have much say in how everything is handled.

I forgot my Vita at home but once I get back I am going to check the store page. Hopefully we can convince the actual publisher to make the description clearer.
Just to be clear. Is Forevolution just a port of I wanna be the god of the forest? If that's the case, it would be the first time a PSM version is the cheaper one.
 
PSmobile sould really get its own bubble.....(Remove welcome park)

Couldn't agree more. Welcome Park is on the bottom most page, on the island of useless apps on my Vita.






As a future publisher on the platform, wanted to know, is like 2 bucks seriously the threshold for what you're willing to pay? And.. why?
 
Lack of awareness of what the games even are hurts quite a bit.

The store itself does nothing to help, a few screens, short description, no video, no demo. But a lot of the developers do themselves no favors by not having any internet presence.

If a developer doesn't care enough to have youtube videos, an official website/blog, an attempt to get coverage on the few sites that will actually look at PS Mobile games, why should I just guess the game might be decent and drop any amount of money on it? Especially when half the games are the same price as actual PS Vita games for a PS+ user.
 
Played some Gun Commando. Would be a good game if they didn't ruined the aiming. How can they not get it right when the game is a FPS? Any news about a patch?

Not sure what you mean about ruined aiming? There is a problem when you can see something around a corner of a door but not hit it because the bullet splashes on the wall, but that's not uncommon for ray-cast 3D engines. Have you tried tuning the analog sensitivity? I found this game a little dull for the first few stages (and there's never any hidden stuff to find as far as I can tell,) but once the enemy variety notches up and the levels throw in some key locks, I enjoyed it on that base old-school FPS level.

Where do I jump from to make it to the top left corner pool in Life of Pixel - level: Floating Pools of Death (C64)? I can't figure it out so I stopped playing :(

edit: this level
life-of-pixel.jpg

My method on this Life of Pixel (just 100%ed it last night, and by the way the last stage is a kick in the jock) was to basically map out the level in my head since there are several blind jumps. So, from where you show, jump to the gem and fall down to the pool below. From there, you're going to die a bunch... watch for where the stars are as you are falling to figure out where the block is on the unseen pool below (it's just to the right of the bottommost star, as I remember it.) When you land, jump left to the gem there, then double-jump up to the pool above, collect both those gems, them fall back again to the unseen pool (do you remember where that star was?) and from there climb back up to where you are now. From there, I went all the way to the right and it was fairly easy to drop down onto the platforms below (there is a floating platform but it is small, you may want to 'map' that fall too before you try the trickier one on the left here) and then collect all the easy-to-see gems on the pools to the left. Then backtrack to make your way back to the gate.

Luckily, there's no parallax background on this stage, otherwise I'd consider it a broken level. (The original version of the game was actually harder than the patched on, jumping was less controllable in terms of height so you had to time spikes much better, plus there were gems that I believe were not possible to collect even.)

Good game, I don't like blind falls but if you like old games Life of Pixel is a fair representation of something from yesteryear and also a tribute to classic game platforms.
 
Couldn't agree more. Welcome Park is on the bottom most page, on the island of useless apps on my Vita.






As a future publisher on the platform, wanted to know, is like 2 bucks seriously the threshold for what you're willing to pay? And.. why?

I'm 100% sure they can add another bubble, they did it with email one. And as for your second question I say 1-3 dollars is my threshold but needs to have a decent amount of content and not have a iOS or android version for 0.99.
 
Not sure what you mean about ruined aiming? There is a problem when you can see something around a corner of a door but not hit it because the bullet splashes on the wall, but that's not uncommon for ray-cast 3D engines. Have you tried tuning the analog sensitivity? I found this game a little dull for the first few stages (and there's never any hidden stuff to find as far as I can tell,) but once the enemy variety notches up and the levels throw in some key locks, I enjoyed it on that base old-school FPS level.

There is some momentum in the aiming which will result in overshooting. Even when you stop moving your analog stick the game will aim a little bit further. Turning the sensitivity down turns down the momentum, too, but doesn't fix it.
I turned it down a bit and the momentum still annoys me. If I turn the sensitivity down even more the aiming is way too slow for the gameplay.
 
Services

New Additions and Modifications

Added the following class.
AccountInformation

Basically it will know your PSN ID. Small steps.

I suppose, but what will be the practical use of the game knowing our PSN ID? Basically, what is the use of adding this in instead of just waiting until further integration is in?
 
Improved compatibility and CPU performance on PlayStation(R)Vita.

That is much needed. Glad to see it is there now. Games will need to be recompiled and resubmitted if they want to see performance boosts.
 
So who's playing Out Of Mind? I gave it a play this morning on the trip in to work, it's pretty good, has some fun gimmicks. Cheap too, $1.49
 
I suppose, but what will be the practical use of the game knowing our PSN ID? Basically, what is the use of adding this in instead of just waiting until further integration is in?

One possibility is that they can use the PSN ID for online leaderboards.

Some PS Mobile games (such as a few from FuturLab) already have leaderboards, where you can enter a name of your choice to go with your high score. If the game could recognize your PSN ID, then it could automatically submit that name to the leaderboard.

Improved compatibility and CPU performance on PlayStation(R)Vita.

That is much needed. Glad to see it is there now. Games will need to be recompiled and resubmitted if they want to see performance boosts.

Well, that's good!

I was surprised to read reports that PS Mobile performance had a tendency to suffer on the Vita compared to many Android devices. That always struck me as odd, since the Vita was purported to be one of the lead devices for PSM. I've never noticed any problems on the Vita with any of the 12 PSM games I've tried, but then again I don't have a PS Certified Android device to compare to. In any case, it's a relief to see that they are addressing this issue.
 
So who's playing Out Of Mind? I gave it a play this morning on the trip in to work, it's pretty good, has some fun gimmicks. Cheap too, $1.49

Tempted. Would you recommend it?

I was surprised to read reports that PS Mobile performance had a tendency to suffer on the Vita compared to many Android devices. That always struck me as odd, since the Vita was purported to be one of the lead devices for PSM. I've never noticed any problems on the Vita with any of the 12 PSM games I've tried, but then again I don't have a PS Certified Android device to compare to. In any case, it's a relief to see that they are addressing this issue.

Personally prefer playing them on my Xperia T over my Vita, despite the obvious drawback of lack of buttons. Convenience and they also run better and play better IMO
 
Tempted. Would you recommend it?

Yeah - keeping in mind the price point. I wouldn't want to pay too much more for it, but the price is good and the gameplay has been interesting enough so far that I am planning to play through/100% it.
 
Yeah - keeping in mind the price point. I wouldn't want to pay too much more for it, but the price is good and the gameplay has been interesting enough so far that I am planning to play through/100% it.

Thanks for that - i'll definitely give it a shot :)
 
Personally prefer playing them on my Xperia T over my Vita, despite the obvious drawback of lack of buttons. Convenience and they also run better and play better IMO

It will be interesting to see if the updated SDK makes a big enough difference. The only issue is that older games would need to be recompiled and resubmitted, so this would be dependent on whether developers go through this process.

I'd love it if Sony would get around to certifying more devices for PS Mobile. I've got a couple of Android devices myself (HTC Evo Design 4G and Asus/Google Nexus 7), but neither are certified. I think that the relative lack of certified devices is a huge obstacle for PS Mobile acceptance. Many of the most popular and/or most powerful Android devices aren't on the list. I'm sure more people (consumers and developers) would consider investing in PS Mobile games if they could be assured that the games could be played on a much wider selection of products.
 
@NostaticSoft
Nice performance boost from today's updated PlayStation Mobile SDK. I had my games running well before, but now they run perfectly. #psmdev

this is great news! :D

not sure what to make of the news on PSN integration though... does it mean PSM will finally have its own section on PSN?
 
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Couple of images of the indie platformer "Out Of Mind" which is out today on PlayStation Mobile for $1.49. It plays pretty well, with each level you play a new ability is added, which keeps it interesting. Later you can go back through the levels with your new abilities and collect all of the balloons (secondary objective). Worth a look at the low price point.
 
I think the reason why the Android devices run PS Mobile better than Vita is because they run Android, and the libraries that PS Mobile uses have been on Android for a while and have already been optimised a fair bit. These libraries (e.g. Mono) have been ported straight to Vita hardware by Sony themselves, and they are therefore much less mature and optimised. It was a major complaint early on, and the last revision of the SDK was the first to address that issue.

The last SDK therefore seems a pretty good update. I'm still miffed that I can't try stuff on Vita anymore because I happen to live in a country that isn't officially supported though. :(
 
I think the reason why the Android devices run PS Mobile better than Vita is because they run Android, and the libraries that PS Mobile uses have been on Android for a while and have already been optimised a fair bit. These libraries (e.g. Mono) have been ported straight to Vita hardware by Sony themselves, and they are therefore much less mature and optimised. It was a major complaint early on, and the last revision of the SDK was the first to address that issue.

The last SDK therefore seems a pretty good update. I'm still miffed that I can't try stuff on Vita anymore because I happen to live in a country that isn't officially supported though. :(

use a VPN!
hmm.. I would expect Vita to be the most optimised for PSM.. since there's only one SKU... (Android devices.. are plenty.. each with different configurations :/)
 
Just read a tweet by Super Icon Ltd about their game flopping on PSM. Sounds like PSM is an utter failure and a lot of people are bailing for iOS. Is there any reason Sony limited the games to Vita/tablets etc? Seems like they had something going with Minis, then changed tack and messed it up.

The reason why it's failing is because Sony is limiting PSM to US and England. I've yet to see an answer from Sony explaining why it's "exclusive" to those countries and have been for months.
 
Limiting it to their most major markets isn't the reason it's failing..

As I mentioned in my big write up on the issues of PSM, the SDK is actually available in more markets than the PSM store. Meaning someone can make a game, but not be able to buy it. So yes, there is definitely a problem with availability.
 
The reason why it's failing is because Sony is limiting PSM to US and England. I've yet to see an answer from Sony explaining why it's "exclusive" to those countries and have been for months.

That certainly doesn't help, but realistically, even if it doubles sales, it would still be terrible. And I think it covers the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain (that's what the press release said), which seems to be the bulk of Western Europe in terms of population. (Not to mention Japan and Canada, and I think Hong Kong)

If you aren't seeing games released in those other countries, I think it's because they have to at least have the description in those languages in the store.

I think it suffers from basically all the problems the Minis program did, except it has a much, much smaller userbase - basically Vita owners and people like Carl who have Sony tablets/phones and don't want to play regular Android games for some reason.

I mean, would you play Gun Commando or something like Dead Trigger? I think most Android gamers would pick the latter.
 
I think it suffers from basically all the problems the Minis program did, except it has a much, much smaller userbase - basically Vita owners and people like Carl who have Sony tablets/phones and don't want to play regular Android games for some reason.
I think the pitch was more to developers - picking PSM over Android would bring PSN integration, anti piracy measures, increased visibility and Sony PR support, and a single certified hardware/software platform vs. the fractured Android jungle.

The first one, well, we're just now seeing, second doesn't matter if the platform itself isn't doing well, third one has been true to some degree for the better games, and the final one, well, PSM seems to have its own issues, while increasingly mature Android middleware is easing development there.
 
assuming by the blog, he's referring to the EU one? The NA one never seems to mention PSM.
The EU Blog seems to mention games that have been released via deals with Sony. Dev portal titles are rarely included, see this week and no mention of Out of Mind. Last week only Forevolution was mentioned not sexy seashore or dooxdoo
 
As I mentioned in my big write up on the issues of PSM, the SDK is actually available in more markets than the PSM store. Meaning someone can make a game, but not be able to buy it. So yes, there is definitely a problem with availability.

Sure, that is an issue, but failure imo is low sales, and if you're not selling in your biggest markets, opening it up to New Zealand and Zimbabwe isn't going to change that.
 
So yeah, Out of Mind has quickly become my favourite PSM game so far, and I've purchased quite a few! There's just something about its presentation that really hits all my nostalgia points. Very few retro styled games have been able to do that. It's kind of hard to explain.

But hey, it's also a fun little collect 'em up platformer!

PCEUrYo.png


Oh also, The Sexy Seashore is freakin' awful.
 
Yea Sexy Seashore is terrible. The background/bullets/enemies all blur together.

The only thing I don't like about Out of Mind is the bouncing the character does after a jump
 

Must be rough to have to buy a $1.50 game for review.

It is a serious problem for the platform though. If people releasing games via dev portal have no way to promote their games with review vouchers or give ways.
 
Unity coming to PS Mobile (+PS4 and Vita). I've only really messed about in Unity before I really knew how to code, but this seems like it could be pretty good. Should help drive devs to the platform too, even if it's only iOS ports.

EDIT: The highlighted part is interesting too:
dRlsueu.png

I thought Sony's streaming stuff was just for backwards compatibility on different devices? This suggests it's a new platform of some description (maybe like PSM for home consoles?) Could just be weird wording though.

EDIT2: I see there's already a separate thread.
 
Unity coming to PS Mobile (+PS4 and Vita). I've only really messed about in Unity before I really knew how to code, but this seems like it could be pretty good. Should help drive devs to the platform too, even if it's only iOS ports.

The only problem is that it will still need to use PSM therefore making most Unity stuff unplayable due to limitations (audio in particular and the 96mb memory restriction).

They have a ton of work to do (both Sony's PSM team and Unity) to get this to work and I will believe them when I see a PSM game built in Unity running.
 
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