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The Official iPhone/iPod Touch Gaming Thread

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McBacon said:
SkyForce is free today

sky-force-1.jpg

kick ass! cool little Raiden clone. Thanks for the heads up.
 
dock, I'm having some issues with Tumbledrop. The first medium level crashes whenever I fail. I have to quit out to the OS menu. 32GB 3G iTouch.
 
Quick question. Don't know if it has been asked before and if so I do apologize but I am really desperate about this.

Basically, I don't have enough money to buy an iPhone or iPod Touch but would really like to play Mass Effect Galaxy. Is there any other option like a Windows emulator for the hardware?

Thanks
 
masterkajo said:
Quick question. Don't know if it has been asked before and if so I do apologize but I am really desperate about this.

Basically, I don't have enough money to buy an iPhone or iPod Touch but would really like to play Mass Effect Galaxy. Is there any other option like a Windows emulator for the hardware?

Thanks
No I don't think so but the game is horrible anyway.
 
HBP said:
No I don't think so but the game is horrible anyway.

Seconded, re: ME: Galaxy. I really wanted to like it - if it had just been a branching text adventure with the quality of ME's writing, I'd have been really happy - but both the structure of the text and the writing weren't anywhere near the quality of the console games, and the combat itself was, IMO, completely uncompelling.

:(

seppo
 
Chinatown Wars you say?

I have like 3 games I haven't even touched.
Can't justify spending a tenner on that when chances are I won't even play it for a couple months.
 
Yeah I don't see this as undermining either. "Serious" players (who want the more enjoyable experience) will be happy to pay more for a version that's not touchscreen-controlled. Even if the controls aren't bad, there's nothing they can do (in a port like this) to convince anyone that the touch controls are equal, never mind superior, to joypad controls.

As an indie dev I am glad they put it out at $10, and hope that they don't drop the price for a long time (if ever) on such a high-profile game. When you see Konami and Namco and their ilk promoting well-known IP at less than $5 (it is quite common) it makes it harder for smaller devs to make a convincing argument of anything they are trying to sell, quality notwithstanding.

It will be interesting to see how successful this is - and if we ever see a dedicated iPhone GTA game (not a port, but totally original) and how much that would cost. I know, not very likely.
 
Costanza said:
10 bucks compared to 40 for the exact same game.
Oh, I was confused because they way you said it implied the price was separate from the reason they 'undermined' the PSP version. You said, "I knew it would cost less even though (as in 'although' implying 'in addition to') undermining the PSP version.

I was confused.
 
Downloading GTA now, though I already have like five other games on my Touch that I haven't even started yet lolz.
 
The more enjoyable experience FOR ME is having this awesome game, that I've yet to get very far into, in my pocket at all times. I never fucking take my DS/PSP anywhere.
 
wondermega said:
Yeah I don't see this as undermining either. "Serious" players (who want the more enjoyable experience) will be happy to pay more for a version that's not touchscreen-controlled. Even if the controls aren't bad, there's nothing they can do (in a port like this) to convince anyone that the touch controls are equal, never mind superior, to joypad controls.
Except this was originally a touch screen game. Not entirely, but some compromises had to be made for the PSP version when it was ported, making the iphone version likely closer to the DS original. I'll probably buy it, though wait on a sale/drop. $7 is all I'm asking here.
 
Gta is up in the US...someone let us know how it is since there's no demo.
 
Costanza said:
The more enjoyable experience FOR ME is having this awesome game, that I've yet to get very far into, in my pocket at all times. I never fucking take my DS/PSP anywhere.

Get a PSPGo, then you'll take that everywhere :P

But I do wish the iPhone version was at least $12 - if we could get a series of high quality games from big publishers going at higher price points, we could maybe change the darn iPhone mindset of "$10 is a ripoff, no matter how good the game is", and then we might start getting more real games.
 
Weenerz said:
Is there a website that lists what the "free for today" games are? I missed out on SkyForce and it looks pretty good.

Been playing sky force. It's pretty good. nothing mind-blowing, but solid. What it really does is give me vibes of the kinds of games I played on my first game console - the original gameboy.

Ah, those were good times. I had a bunch of illegal games (I didn't know at the time, they were those 31 in 1 game carts from China), and I just played what I could get. Some of the games were very basic, but man, that's all I had, an I loved them. Memories.

Anyway, Appshopper routinely updates price changes. What you might want to do is join app shopper and get it to notify you of games you're interested in, or just watch it every now and again. Some of those apps might help you too.
 
Dreamwriter said:
Get a PSPGo, then you'll take that everywhere :P

But I do wish the iPhone version was at least $12 - if we could get a series of high quality games from big publishers going at higher price points, we could maybe change the darn iPhone mindset of "$10 is a ripoff, no matter how good the game is", and then we might start getting more real games.

I just wish people weren't dismissing some of the more 'pick up and play' titles as not 'real games'.
 
wondermega said:
As an indie dev I am glad they put it out at $10.

Gotta say, I'm in the camp that wished they put this out at a higher price tag. As a developer who has put a lot of effort into his next project I was looking for GTA to break the mold and be priced at $20+. The only way this market is going to be able to deliver quality experiences is by allowing for apps to be priced modestly.

Development of a six month project which takes three developers to create needs to return, at the minimum, 150k. If that's not possible then, sadly, the iPhone is going to be relegated to the games that are clogging the market now.
 
mrWalrus said:
Gotta say, I'm in the camp that wished they put this out at a higher price tag. As a developer who has put a lot of effort into his next project I was looking for GTA to break the mold and be priced at $20+. The only way this market is going to be able to deliver quality experiences is by allowing for apps to be priced modestly.

Development of a six month project which takes three developers to create needs to return, at the minimum, 150k. If that's not possible then, sadly, the iPhone is going to be relegated to the games that are clogging the market now.

Unfortuantely, it looks like this will never happen. Unless they introduce a 'premium' games section, but I doubt that will happen.

The tablet could be a saviour, as the devices grow more powerful, so too will the sophistication, and hence the games that are available. The hope is in the next generation of hardware advances.
 
If the bigger titles with bigger prices do happen, I think it'll be a tough sell seeing how the market already has instilled a common price point thought from the customers... sadly.
 
Weenerz said:
Is there a website that lists what the "free for today" games are? I missed out on SkyForce and it looks pretty good.
This thread is pretty good but i also have touch arcade and slide to play in google reader.
 
RelentlessRolento said:
If the bigger titles with bigger prices do happen, I think it'll be a tough sell seeing how the market already has instilled a common price point thought from the customers... sadly.
Honestly, I'm not in the market for larger titles on the iphone. Keep those for consoles. All those portable games trying to be like console ones is what put me off the PSP to begin with. Even the more ambitious iphone games I like I don't end up playing because they just demand too much attention.
 
Aaron said:
Honestly, I'm not in the market for larger titles on the iphone. Keep those for consoles. All those portable games trying to be like console ones is what put me off the PSP to begin with. Even the more ambitious iphone games I like I don't end up playing because they just demand too much attention.

totally understandable but I'd at least like at least one or two large games on my iphone/itouch. I'd play the small stuff in between the full game.
 
RelentlessRolento said:
totally understandable but I'd at least like at least one or two large games on my iphone/itouch. I'd play the small stuff in between the full game.
There are large games on the iphone right now though. Battle of Wesnoth, Undercroft, Civilization Revolution, C&C: Red Alert, all that easily run you fifteen hours or more. I haven't finished Dungeon Hunter yet, but I'm assuming its at least ten. Those are just from games I own (and never play).
 
Aaron said:
Honestly, I'm not in the market for larger titles on the iphone. Keep those for consoles. All those portable games trying to be like console ones is what put me off the PSP to begin with. Even the more ambitious iphone games I like I don't end up playing because they just demand too much attention.

I hear that. The best comment I heard about the mobile game market came from Patcher, of all people. He said iPhone games are essentially competing with boredom. Those small moments of time people have between doing x and y.

As a developer my stance is that games of substance, casual or no, still take time and talent to create.

Case and point GTA: Chinatown Wars.
Original code aside, I'm sure just porting this to the iPhone cost more than a couple coders several man months of time. Burn rate for employees in the games industry is typically around 10k a month. The burn rate should cover all costs associated with said employee; salary, health care, office space, computer, etc. Add in that for a game of this size I'm sure more than a handful of testers were needed + the marketing budget.

That means, to even expect a return on the investment of porting GTA: Chinatown Wars to the device Take2/Rockstar needs to sell $300,000 gross, or roughly 55k copies at $10 (minus Apple's 30% take and taxes).

Now subtract the fact that a good portion of the market even interested in the game is going to pirate it, and you have quite a hill to climb. Just for reference, by our count, Synth Racing has been pirated at a rate of just under 9 to 1 over its six months in the market. All arguments of piracy aside, it does eat in to the market. By our estimates, based on our tracking method, 35% of pirates played the game three times, or more. So we'll equate that percentage of the 9 to 1 to missed sales, which is still several times more than we sold.

Personally, I'm trying to sustain a living off the platform. The economics of the situation dictate that if developers can't make a living developing for the device they're going to leave the market. Meaning, price is the great determinant, especially as far as indie developers go.

Edit:
I didn't mean to infer GTA was an indie or casual game, but the cost of porting does run in line with what it costs to make a small game.
 
mrWalrus said:
Edit:
I didn't mean to infer GTA was an indie or casual game, but the cost of porting does run in line with what it costs to make a small game.
Technically, GTA is a casual game :P
 
Don't get me wrong - just the same, I'd prefer to see GTA priced @ $20 (at least) as well. I'm sure Rockstar went back and forth about it for a minute as well. But they've triple-dipped this title by now, it's never been a blast-off success for them sales-wise - they may be ballsy, but not that much! I haven't played the game but people mention it's a straight port (no new content). If they had added anything then maybe they'd have felt more confident to at least get in the neighborhood of $15.

Memory is a little mushy, but I think Sega set the standard when they released the first Monkey Ball on this platform way back for $9.99, and since then it's been a steady drip downwards.

I wouldn't be completely surprised to see a new generation of higher-quality titles specifically aiming for the $20 market at some point, but until then I'd suspect all the big publishers are going to treat this mobile-casual market as experimental and go with the flow.

And for us little guys at the very bottom, the best we can do is try to consistently release the best quality software possible, not devalue it by charging complete peanuts (that, or seek alternative monetization methods) and build up our fanbase while it's still early enough to do so. The battle is just beginning :)
 
Any impressions of Chinatown Wars yet? How does it compare to the other versions? How are the controls? 75 kr for a portable GTA game is mighty tempting!
 
BeeDog said:
Any impressions of Chinatown Wars yet? How does it compare to the other versions? How are the controls? 75 kr for a portable GTA game is mighty tempting!

I've clocked about half an hour, so perhaps I can give some quickly impressions:

Graphically, it's amazingly smooth. On par with the footage I've seen of the PSP version. My only problem has been that since I tend to keep my iPhone at near minimum brightness, I occasionally can't see much of anything. Easily fixed, though.

Control wise - the virtual buttons work pretty well. When you're on foot, there's an analog control stick on the left and three buttons (punch/kick/jump) on the right. Driving gives you a set of left/right buttons on the left and gas/brake/shoot on the right. Contextual buttons appear when you near things (the in/out of car button is center bottom, searching dumpsters or talking to drug dealers is a little notification popup). Interface wise, it's very close to the DS version - the GPS is really easy to use, as is most of the stuff in the hideout. All the mini games from the DS version are there.

Load times are pretty good. From springboard to being inside the apartment, I clocked it at 9 seconds on my 3GS. I'm still trying to suss out how the save system works exactly - it looks like it's auto-saving after mission completion, but if you have to drop out of the app mid-mission it looks like you'll lose your progress.

So based on about an hour of play, it's got the performance of the PSP version with the control benefits of the DS version. Easily worth $10 given how much the PSP version costs.
 
K2Valor said:
What would you guys vote on as the best racing game for iPhone?

For "real racing" I would go with... Real Racing.

But I had loads of fun with Jet Car Stunts, although it is not technically racing.
 
cjelly said:
Asphalt 5, IMO.
A5 starts off well but then turns into shit, uncontrollable fast cars and boost spamming. I am all for arcade and I did love the game for the first few hours but now it's a mess of glitches at super speeds. Might as well ride the wall around sharp corners as it's faster then slowing down or drifting.
 
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