Foob said:
Im gonna pass on Ravensword. I'm pretty much done with games that try to bring a console-esque experience to the platform; I much prefer the quick jump-in-jump-out puzzle games
I've been thinking a lot about this recently. Played a few games on the iPhone that try to emulate the console experience, and every time, I either get stifled by the controls, or by the amount of time required to make any headway. For instance, I've played Zenonia twice. Once when I first downloaded it, then I started a new game two months later the next time I picked it up, and I'm going to have to start it again if I ever bother playing it again.
On the other hand, with a game like Doodle Jump, I can just jump in, get an entire game session in, feel like I've accomplished something, and I'm no worse for wear.
Now, does that mean that every game needs to be like Doodle Jump? Absolutely not. I certainly hope not, at any rate - not because I don't like Doodle Jump, but because I think there really is room for more involved experience on the iPhone that don't feel "bogged down" by consol-y-ness. But the key in there is to make sure that players:
1.) Can have a satisfying experience in a very short time
2.) That the game will account for "degradation of mastery" when someone doesn't pick it up for a month at a stretch
3.) That the game is very good at keeping the player's goals accessible and easy to understand
With a game like Taxiball, I think the only thing that we failed to do well (of the items in that list) was 2. With Word Ace & Card Ace, 1 is challenging because it's an online game, but otherwise, I think we did a lot better. While we're still working on updates for WA/CA (launching two games on three platforms that are owned by three different companies that are all constantly updating their platforms has made developing the updates a little harder than we'd originally anticipated), the next game we're working on tries to bridge that gap - to make something that's satisfying in very short bursts, is a social experience, but still has that more satisfying longer-term arc & depth.
What I want, ideally - and I have little idea how to actually do this - is to get the character depth of Uncharted 2 into a game that you can interact with for only a few minutes at a stretch. I think it's maybe impossible, but it's something that's rolling around in the back of my brain. Yeah, it's not on an iPhone game note, but if you haven't played Uncharted 2, it's one of the finest games ever made.
seppo
We spend real money on games/apps and usually GAFers are brutally honest.
Won't be trying it again, either.
