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The Official iPhone/iPod Touch Gaming Thread

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I am going to wait for impressions, the video didn't look all that great to me, plus I can't stop playing Civilization!
 
greenjerk said:
can we seriously start a support group for the app store? I'm getting quite the backlog and spending more than i ever thought i would! :lol
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It is starting to get out of control for me again. I was really proud over the last few months that I had slowed down a lot on my purchases. But lately there have been a lot of games I've been interested in.
 
Stoney Mason said:
Edit: I see people are now beating me to the punch in my chosen posting format.

<Cries tear of sadness>
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Just to encroach:

George Broussard said:
Originally Posted by minameismud
George: my requests for the update:
1. some visual representation (an actual numeric counter pls) of the ammo left for the current gun. sucks to be taking down baddies and all of a sudden you're tryin to give them the boot. doesn't work (might be better with the controls fix), and you die.
Already on my update list and I noticed this as well. Will probably put some number either down by the weapon or under the health bar or something.

Quote:
3. confirmation on resetting the controls to the defaults. (if you hadn't gathered, i'm also a developer, tho of business apps for m$'s .net platform.) confirm dialogs are useful.

Yeah, also with "quit" in the pause menu. I don't know why there aren't Y/N confirms on destructive choices, but there will be.
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and
George Broussard said:
The controls are the #1 issue to me and I'd like that addressed immediately. I'm getting an update later this afternoon to check out, and I expect it'll take a couple of days to nail down, then hopefully submitted.

The plan is to basically get out an immediate update to address the analog controls, so we can shave off as many days as possible. We can slip as much into update one as possible, but I'd like to not lose a week due to doing too much, too soon, as every day the controls aren't addressed, people get angry.

Will definitely be posting a list and road map of feature changes per version and my intent is to have at least two fairly immediate updates, the first one being analog controls + a few minor things, and the second one addressing design things like ammo counters on screen, but still coming in days vs weeks, hopefully.
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Ok I just checked out the video of Wolfenstein RPG and I don't understand why this is not on the german store. There ar eno swastikas and the game has pretty much no violence. I mea even Duke 3D has been released here. This is bullshit :(
 
Xater said:
Yeah I am also really disappointed. Does the game even include swastikas?
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Guess we will never find out -.-
Hope they will still release a censored version or something...
 
jonnybryce said:
Is the gameplay strictly creating a web to eat bugs over and over? Seems like a cool idea that doesn't have much depth or length.
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There's more to it than that. There are some bugs you have to herd towards the web so you can ensnare them. Others you have to knock them around a bit to daze them, and then you catch them in the air on your way to a web. And then there are the hornets, you can't eat them, they are only there for the take down!
 
Xater said:
Ok I just checked out the video of Wolfenstein RPG and I don't understand why this is not on the german store. There ar eno swastikas and the game has pretty much no violence. I mea even Duke 3D has been released here. This is bullshit :(
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I don't think it's about Swastikas - isn't the whole Nazi thing in general kind of a no go zone? Is Wolfenstein Classic on the German Store?
 
mrkgoo said:
Just to encroach:



and
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Good thing he is being so reactive. Obviously the better thing would have been to get it right first but what's done is done and its a good sign they want to try to fix the situation as much as they can.

A lot of devs never fix their issues on the iphone so I'm glad to see the effort and plans at least.


Honestly I would have had pulled it and just release it later. It's only going to start piling up negative reviews in its current state.
 
mrkgoo said:
Is Wolfenstein Classic on the German Store?
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No...but it still doesnt make sense, since there a dozen of WWII Shhoter which are being released in germany on other plattforms.
 
mrkgoo said:
I don't think it's about Swastikas - isn't the whole Nazi thing in general kind of a no go zone? Is Wolfenstein Classic on the German Store?
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No that's not the problem. Only the swastikas could prevent a release because it's against the law to have them in a game. For that reason Wolf classic can't be released here.

Believe me, we have plenty of games to kill Nazis.

Edit: or someone fucked up. Someone saw Wolfenstein and just thought that this can not be released. :lol
 
Stoney Mason said:
Good thing he is being so reactive. Obviously the better thing would have been to get it right first but what's done is done and its a good sign they want to try to fix the situation as much as they can.

A lot of devs never fix their issues on the iphone so I'm glad to see the effort and plans at least.


Honestly I would have had pulled it and just release it later. It's only going to start piling up negative reviews in its current state.
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Yah.

I really wonder what the issue was. It sounds like he had a vision of what it was supposed to be, but the developers released a different version. Maybe he was an overseer or consultant, or had last say. He claims a communication issue was the problem, but communication results in a bunch of poor design choices?

I imagine it was something like they sent him a build to make final suggestions, and he either did, or gave a no go, but they submitted. I'm not really sure what to make of it.
 
Xater said:
No that's not the problem. Only the swastikas could prevent a release because it's against the law to have them in a game. For that reason Wolf classic can't be released here.

Believe me, we have plenty of games to kill Nazis.
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Oh, ok. Who knows, maybe Swastikas are in the game later. Did Wolfenstein 3D have Swastikas?

Maybe because this game is making light of the situation by creating a more fantastical atmosphere (zombies, etc). I'm not sure what the situation is in Germany regarding WWII history, but my understanding was that it was totally open and honest. Maybe the Wolfenstein games are a bit too ...uh... historically inaccurate.
 
mrkgoo said:
Oh, ok. Who knows, maybe Swastikas are in the game later. Did Wolfenstein 3D have Swastikas?

Maybe because this game is making light of the situation by creating a more fantastical atmosphere (zombies, etc). I'm not sure what the situation is in Germany regarding WWII history, but my understanding was that it was totally open and honest. Maybe the Wolfenstein games are a bit too ...uh... historically inaccurate.
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Wolf 3D has swastikas that's why it's not released. We have RTCW and the new Wolfenstein will also be released here. There basically is no reason to not release it...
 
radiantdreamer said:
Weird, I searched the app store and can't find any matches on MemoryInfo or FreeMemory. not available in my region?

Anyone got itunes links?
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Search for Recession Apps (the developer), that is how I found them
 
I'm currently 22nd in the world on the deep :lol my friends might as well give up. don't think I will break it to them yet cos it'd crush their spirit. maybe I should push into the top 10 and let them see me when they submit their score :D I wasn't far off.
 
Stoney Mason said:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24068
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Thanks for posting- he sounds like he's pretty excited. iDevice gaming business is pretty fascinating... who knows what will happen next.

link said:
One feature that has never been on any version of Civ Rev that we're potentially talking about is hotseat, where I do a turn, I give you the phone, and you do a turn.
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This sounds like a really easy way to get a very tired arm after passing around an iPhone for 6+ hours. :lol
 
Union Carbine said:
Well, there goes my lunch money: picked up Spider, TimeLoop, and Wolf RPG. I'm beginning to think I've got a problem. I think I need a twelve step program. :D
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Let's form AAA, Apple Appstore Anonymous.

edit: Just bought Wolfenstein RPG - haven't even synced CivREv, nor played past stage 4 of Lion Prides, nor past stage 5 of Timeloop, nor played Monkey Island yet.

Double edit: Maybe I have to do my old trick and pull a sickie to play all these games.
 
My god, I come here looking for some extra confirmation of awesomeness before buying Spider, now I learn Wolf RPG is out as well? I have to buy both... Its a good thing I started my job today, my poor wallet can't take this abuse any more.
 
Shamelessly stolen from something awful but there is a good reason Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is so polished. The company Tiger Style have actual designers.

Randy Smith (Lead on Thief: Deadly Shadows, co-designer of the Cradle, designer of Return to the Haunted Cathedral,) and David Kalina (Thief: Deadly Shadows) are part of the company and Randy Smith helped design this game.

[Interview] David Kalina of Tiger Style Games

Chris Burke

tigerstyle

A few months ago we came across a surprising little iPhone game by the name of Spider. In it, you use your eight-legged-platforming-prowess to scale walls, spin webs, snack on bugs – y’know, the usual bad-ass spider stuff. I got a chance to talk with David Kalina, Co-Owner and Lead Programmer at Tiger Style Games and an industry veteran (Splinter Cell, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Thief), about Spider and why he made the jump from big-budget studios to indie games.

The game’s premise is about as simple as I’ve just explained: you’re a spider, go nuts! But Tiger Style games has managed to build some depth, as well as instant fun, into that seemingly basic package. Flicking your finger against the iPhone’s screen causes the spider to spring across the room with pinpoint precision. Building a web, which you can walk around on and use to capture prey, is as simple as connecting dots. Combine these solid platforming mechanics with hand-drawn art and a helping of online features and you’ve got a promising game.


GD: So what’s Spider in a nutshell?

Kalina: Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is a unique action / adventure game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You draw webs with your finger, trap bugs and eat them, and explore an abandoned mansion, uncovering its secrets.

GD: What drove you to make the game in the first place?

Kalina: We threw around a ton of concepts in the very early days. Ideas are cheap; picking the right idea for our goals as a developer is hard. It was very important to us to find something that was unique for the platform, had strong personality, and was possible to build with a small team in a short period of time.

The initial concept was just a couple of sentences. Our friend and contributor Jon Whitmore gave us this:

“You are a spider, and you spin your web with your finger on the screen. You have to eat the flies.”

As we filtered through the many, many possibilities for our first game, we started developing a few of the simple concepts into more elaborate game design treatments. The initial game design treatment for Spider was actually quite different from the game it turned into, but it helped us get focused on something attainable and got us excited about the possibility of making a Spider game.

GD: How long has it been in development?

Kalina: From the first line of code to our submission to Apple, the entire game’s development took exactly 8 months.


GD: One thing that stands out about Spider is its physics. How did you capture that feeling of spring-loaded energy?

Kalina: Getting the physical motion of the spider right was one of the hardest and most important problems we had to solve for this game. The main challenge wasn’t really technical — Spider actually has a very simple physical model. The challenge came from developing a control scheme that is completely native to the touchscreen and getting it to “feel right” for everyone.

If you tell a group of people who have never seen the game before that they need to “swipe to jump” you’re going to get a wide range of actual input. Some people will swipe their finger quickly and aggressively, some will move slower and more tentatively. Ultimately, this one action has to work reliably for everybody who plays — it’s the most important, most common action in the game, and it had to be fun and accessible.

The real trick was playtesting early (our first internal build was sent out back in February) and iterating often. In earlier builds, playtesters had a lot of trouble controlling the Spider’s jumps. We took that information, simplified the way it worked, and kept tuning and tweaking it until people started getting it immediately.

Quality animation also makes a big difference in the feel of the Spider. We were lucky to have a really great animator named Jen Cha working on the Spider with us; her contributions really impact the look and feel of the game.


GD: What kinds of features does Spider offer, aside from the core game?

Kalina: Spider does feature online leaderboards for each of the four game modes (Adventure, Feeding Frenzy, Hunger, and Precision). We also have integrated Facebook Connect into our leaderboard system. If you sign into Facebook through Spider, you can compare your high scores directly with your friends’ high scores. It’s super sweet to see your friends’ faces inside the app, and it’s fun to compete against their best performances.

In some ways, the game has a casual feel; it’s fun to just drop in and build webs and explore. But there is also a lot of content to satisfy more hardcore gamers. In addition to the 4 distinct game modes, we have 24 achievements to unlock and 12 secret areas to discover across 28 levels. Spider has plenty of content to keep you engaged for hours.

GD: So when can we download Spider, and for how much?

Kalina: If all goes well, we hope to be in the App Store in mid-August for $2.99

(Edit: Spider is available for download from the Apple Store as of today 8/10)

As well as launching their new game, Tiger Style Games has been busy launching itself as a studio.

GD: Having worked at big-budget studios like Midway, Ion Storm, and UbiSoft, what brought you to indie games?

tigerstyle2Kalina: Randy Smith and I found ourselves looking for an inspiring opportunity at the same time, and the traditional AAA development jobs were starting to lose their lustre. We had both worked on projects for over 3 years that never saw the light of day. The iPhone market offered a clear opportunity for a small group to quickly make something exciting and different. Both Randy and I have 10+ years experience in the industry and it just felt like the right time to take the plunge and try to do it our own way.

On top of that, we both love our iPhones and believe that they have tremendous power as a gaming platform. It is a space in the gaming universe where an independent developer can take some real creative risks and still have a shot at success.

Being fully independent has incredible perks (creative freedom, flexibility of hours and lifestyle, working from home / anywhere) but is also risky and challenging. We could get rich or we could end up penniless, but either way we will have made games that we are passionate about.

GD: What’s the present for Tiger Style Games, and what’s next?

Kalina: We are currently moving into full-time promotion mode for Spider. Most importantly, we are working on putting together a video trailer, which will hopefully be available within the week. As a fully independent developer, we need to go out and talk to everybody ourselves and try to build up some excitement for our game. After the game is released, we plan to do an update and a lite version.

We are also super excited to start working on Game #2. We intend to leverage our experience on the platform and the technology we’ve built to take on new creative challenges. Our second game will hopefully be very different from Spider, but like Spider, our goal is to continue making stuff that is different from everything else available in the App Store.
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http://gamingdead.com/2009/08/interview-david-kalina-tiger-style/
 
datamage said:
Need impressions on Wolf RPG damnit! ;)

(Already bought Spider and Civ Rev today...)
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It's really good! Man spider is going to have to wait. Civ, timeloop, duke, monkey island and wolf rpg are all too much at once.
 
Since there have been a lot of big releases lately some games have a tendency to get crowded out and I'd like to make sure that doesn't happen to Gomi

Stoney Mason said:
Availability post.


Gomi


Itunes Link
Review
Video
Soundtrack
Impressions Thread

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Pros: Many levels, achievements, and minigames; unique art style; emotionally resonant music and missions
Cons: Slow to start; some stages play very similarly
Bottom Line: Although it takes some time to ramp up, Gomi has a stirring aesthetic, solid mechanics, and many hours of content. It's the complete package.
Score:4 out of 4

To describe Gomi as a combination of Rolando and Katamari Damacy does a disservice to Gomi's unique qualities. Yes, Gomi is a blob that you roll by tilting your iDevice, and he does devour larger and larger objects as your progress through each stage. But we discovered, to our great shock, other notable influences: the gravity-defying physics of Super Mario Galaxy, the emotional resonance of Okami, and a stunning soundtrack that to our ears sounded similar to the work of synthesizer maestro Vangelis.

Your Gomi is a brightly-colored blob (you can alter its shape and hue by unlocking new looks throughout the game) who serves as a sort of organic recycling center. Trash goes in, including beach balls, toxic waste, and spacemen, and colorful flowers pop out. Your goals vary slightly in each stage, but generally they involve rolling at a slow, patient pace, leaping to stick to new areas, and collecting enough trash to move on to the next stage.

While these basic tasks can feel a little dull at first, the game opens up wildly later on to include special abilities, like blowing up your Gomi like a puffer fish to move faster and pick up bigger objects. Plus, at the end of each of eight worlds, you'll face off against a unique boss, which can involve new objectives like saving baby seals or body slamming the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek.

Gomi is as eclectic as we'd hope a game could be. The visual style matches the recent cult favorite Enviro-Bear 2010, but Gomi plays much, much better. The background characters are drawn with a childlike messiness, like the Sheriff in the Adult Swim cartoon Squidbillies. Plus, the game even conveys a deeply touching environmental message towards the end, as cheerful tones become somber, and the black and yellow beach balls, it's revealed, are radioactive warning signs turned slightly to the side.

All this, in a game ostensibly about a rolling shape with two facial expressions: joy and surprise. Having spent over seven hours beating the game's 40+ levels, joy and surprise are on our faces too. Even after completing this epic campaign, we're only 25% done with the game— the rest requires us to revisit each level for dozens of unique achievements, including time limits, combo strings and high scores. Plus, Gomi contains eight unlockable minigames that would be separate paid downloads in any other game.

It's rare to find a game that successfully brings together multiple influences and creates an amazing new experience. Although the various, recognizable aspects of Gomi (like rolling and platforming) will appeal to those who love other games, Gomi could easily form its own dedicated fanbase as well. Our hats are off to Bovinedragon for combining stellar sound, gameplay and graphics into an engaging and entertaining adventure.
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http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/gomi-review
 
Just woke up and bought Wolf 3D and Spider. This is going to be an expensive iTunes bill!

Guitar Rock Tour 2, Civ Rev, Duke 3D, Lion Pride, California Gold Rush, Timeloop, Wolfenstein RPG, Spider.. and probably other shit before it comes through. I both love and hate the app store.
 
mrWalrus said:
MemoryInfo is no longer for sale.
Incredible. This was a very useful program.
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I thought it was curious you felt the need to put two links :lol. Anyway, it was a better decision to remove the app rather than take out the feature, as updating it would kill the feature for those who already had it (yeah, you don't have to update, but it's annoying to have to work around that). At least by removing it, the feature is available to those who already downloaded it.

What else does the app do?

It's strange because iStat still offers this feature. I wonder if it just doesn't do it in a similar manner? Maybe iStat just requests more memory, thus getting the system to free it?

Who knows. Maybe it will update soon as well, to have removed the feature (I'd rather they kill it, and make a new gimped iStat in the same vein as MemoryInfo, if that were the case).

I can see why the feature be asked to be removed - it's messing with the running of the system, which could possibly have adverse side-effects. For example, the iPod function runs in background (it's actually what runs when an app plays your music). Freeing memory could interfere with such background processes.
 
I bought Deep pinball based on that post from the last page. It's the first pinball game I've tried, enjoying it so far.

Will also be getting Spider when I get home.

edit: anyone tried Lion Pride yet? Looks like it's getting good reviews on TA, so I'll probably get that too :lol
 
Khanage said:
:lol . I haven't spoilt anything... I haven't completed it yet, and I don't know why the Mansion is empty. It just brought back memories of that time in my life.
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Okay, phew! The game looks great btw.
 
Wolfenstein RPG is pretty neat. In a way I think this sort of turn based game is better than a traditional 3-D take on these franchises on the iphone. I'm surprised we haven't seen more of these style of games on the idevice. Doom RPG done in this style would also be pretty awesome.
 
I made my own game and it just got approved :D

It's not nearly polished as I wanted it to be, but it got to the point that I had to put it out or I'd never do it. It's my first game ever, but it won't be my last :D

I'd guess it's best seen in motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpSzVPzizTg (youtube killed the framerate a bit, but it runs 60fps on a 3g).

It's $0.99

Here's a link: itms://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=326114040&mt=8&s=143441

I'm excited to be getting into game development, and I can't wait to make more stuff.
 
Christopotamus said:
I made my own game and it just got approved :D

It's not nearly polished as I wanted it to be, but it got to the point that I had to put it out or I'd never do it. It's my first game ever, but it won't be my last :D

I'd guess it's best seen in motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpSzVPzizTg (youtube killed the framerate a bit, but it runs 60fps on a 3g).

It's $0.99

Here's a link: itms://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=326114040&mt=8&s=143441

I'm excited to be getting into game development, and I can't wait to make more stuff.
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Congrats :)
 
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