iPhone/iPod Touch Games Thread

bandidoquest · 2011-04-14T15:42:02.000Z

In other news, The Fish Dies in the End has been featured today on the App Store under the Action and Arcade categories. Here’s hoping that this will help sales :).

Mrenda · 2011-04-14T15:54:41.000Z

Congrats!

Any chance of a bit of history on your endeavour? Where you came from (game making wise,) what inspired you to make a mobile game, that kind of thing?

I genuinely think there are oodles of people starting along the route of game design/programming because of mobile technology. I know that’s what started my latest quest.

bandidoquest · 2011-04-14T17:49:38.000Z

Hey Buceph, thanks a lot!

As for my history, well, I’ve always wanted to develop a game but for a long time whenever I tried to start a project I would just go overboard with features and things like that and then I would abandon it after a few months (I must have at least 10 failed game prototypes on my HD). After a while, once I started working and studying I just kinda forgot the whole thing.

A few months ago I finished my Computer Science degree and I knew that I had 3 months until the beginning of my M.Sc. studies so I decided to use my temporary free time to try and make a game once again. This time I forced myself to actually write a design document for a game that was feasible in the time frame I had. I wanted a game that was simple to play but still offered enough challenge to make it compelling to the more experienced players (judging by the comments here on Qt3 so far I might have made it too simple). The decision to develop for iPhone was pretty straightforward for a variety of reasons: 1) I already wanted to learn Objective-C for awhile 2) I’ve been a PC gamer for my entire life but in the past few years I found myself spending increasingly more time playing on the iPhone and iPad and 3) It just seemed to be the platform where the kind of game I was thinking of making would fit better.

Even though the sales on the launch day were lackluster to say the least, the reception has been really good and I’m actually very proud of the little game I created. I also received some fantastic feedback from players that will surely help me to make it even better on the near future! Most importantly, I had real fun during development and seeing something that a few months ago existed only in my head actually take form has been simply great.

TheJare · 2011-04-14T17:54:33.000Z

bandidoquest:

Even though the sales on the launch day were lackluster to say the least, the reception has been really good and I’m actually very proud of the little game I created. I also received some fantastic feedback from players that will surely help me to make it even better on the near future! Most importantly, I had real fun during development and seeing something that a few months ago existed only in my head actually take form has been simply great.

Let me quote this paragraph before the thread returns to its topic, because it describes something that most devs can relate to. Congrats again!

PeterGinsberg · 2011-04-14T20:38:42.000Z

bandidoquest:

Most importantly, I had real fun during development and seeing something that a few months ago existed only in my head actually take form has been simply great.

I’ve seen you active in the Cocos2d forums, which I’d just like to say is both a fantastic framework for making games and a great community for indie game developers ( http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/ ). There’s nothing else even close for 2d game development on iOS.

Congrats on the New&Noteworthy feature, btw. Tends to give a solid boost to sales and is a great thing for a newly launched app.

If you aren’t aware, appannie is a good place to see your global ranks:
http://www.appannie.com/the-fish-dies-in-the-end/

bandidoquest · 2011-04-14T20:56:22.000Z

Yes, I have to agree with you. Cocos2d is a great framework! Helped me a lot in the making of the game.

Volbard · 2011-04-14T21:57:08.000Z

Nice work bandido!

While we’re slightly off topic, I should plug Airplay SDK. I’m using it to develop an iphone app in c++ on a pc. I’m sure objective C and xCode are great, but I can barely find the start button on a mac, so it’s been really nice to be able to stick with the environment I’m familiar with and the tools I’ve already paid for. Airplay is cross platform, but I don’t have a device testing lab so it’s just iOS for me, works great!

habibi · 2011-04-16T19:22:43.000Z

Will I be charged again for games or apps which I bought and uninstalled from the iPhone? When I revisit the app page in AppStore, it still shows $2.99. I hope I’m not charged $2.99 if I tap it again!

Tracy_Baker · 2011-04-16T19:35:26.000Z

habibi:

Will I be charged again for games or apps which I bought and uninstalled from the iPhone? When I revisit the app page in AppStore, it still shows $2.99. I hope I’m not charged $2.99 if I tap it again!

You can re-download and you’ll just get a little message saying you already bought it. It would be so great if they’d put a “purchased” button instead of the price, but it’s Apple.

You can also download to as many devices as you want as long as they’re all on the same iTunes account. One of the best features of the App Store from a consumer perspective, but it sucks for devs.

habibi · 2011-04-17T00:41:07.000Z

It works. Thanks Tracy.

I think Apple did it on purpose on the showing price instead of ‘purchased’ so that

People hesitate to download on another device
For people with multiple accounts like me, we might accidentally repurchase if we didn’t remember that we login with a different account.

Tracy_Baker · 2011-04-17T06:59:16.000Z

habibi:

It works. Thanks Tracy.

I think Apple did it on purpose on the showing price instead of ‘purchased’ so that

People hesitate to download on another device

For people with multiple accounts like me, we might accidentally repurchase if we didn’t remember that we login with a different account.

I dunno. If they cared about any of that they could have just limited re-downloads, or limited devices per account. My guess is that they figure getting as many people as possible committed to their ecosystem with as few barriers as possible is worth more than the bit of extra money they’d pick up from re-buys.

Adree · 2011-04-17T15:00:22.000Z

Ross Macpherson:

iNetHack seems mostly okay, though it’s really too much of a pain to play on the iPod. That and the fact that NetHack is probably my least favourite well-known roguelike means I haven’t spent much time with it.

The free version of Rogue isn’t worth the money you pay for it, and is saddled with an awful gesture system that seems to willfully misinterpret my actions. Bafflingly but hilariously there’s an easily accessed menu at the bottom of the screen that will let you look up the gesture you want to perform - but won’t just let you press to perform it.

My favourite iPod roguelike is probably Rogue Touch, despite the name sounding like the title of a movie either about the actions of a bad uncle, or perhaps telling the story of a policeman called Jack Touch, who really prefers to handle cases in a fashion determined by himself and unsupported by any officially sanctioned manual of policing. I’ve played two games only, down to about level 14 in one, so it’s early days but I like it. The interface is up to the job, Rogue being a lot simpler than NetHack, and the game plays quickly. On the other hand, it’s not free.

http://appshopper.com/games/powder

The interface is still a bit of a mess but it’s a lot more exciting than 100 Rogues.

Tyjenks · 2011-04-17T16:43:14.000Z

Knizia’s “Money” card game is free. Not the best, but certainly worth $0.00.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2011-04-17T17:23:40.000Z

It turns out that searching the app store for “money” is a bad idea. Searching for “Knizia” without any qualifiers is almost as bad.

Tracy_Baker · 2011-04-17T17:28:50.000Z

Gus_Smedstad:

It turns out that searching the app store for “money” is a bad idea. Searching for “Knizia” without any qualifiers is almost as bad.

App Store

‎Reiner Knizia's Money on the App Store

‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Reiner Knizia's Money. Download Reiner Knizia's Money and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Universal app, and a great game. The AI is pretty good, too.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2011-04-17T17:31:41.000Z

Oh, I found it immediately by combining both search terms, I just found it amusing how many incorrect hits I got from the simpler searches. I have a habit of using as few search terms as possible because all too often something is not named what you think it’s named, so I halfway expected the game didn’t mention Knizia in the title. Which it does.

Tyjenks · 2011-04-17T17:32:01.000Z

I have just typed in “Knizia” in appshopper and “Wanted” most of his games. Appshopper’s search function seems to be even worse.

slantz · 2011-04-17T21:25:36.000Z

Tracy Baker:

I dunno. If they cared about any of that they could have just limited re-downloads, or limited devices per account. My guess is that they figure getting as many people as possible committed to their ecosystem with as few barriers as possible is worth more than the bit of extra money they’d pick up from re-buys.

Agreed.

On iPad, you can see which ones you’ve bought, but not iPod/iPhone. My guess is it’s a software/store limitation they’ll address at some point since it’s on iPad.

Dreamshadow · 2011-04-17T23:17:59.000Z

slantz:

Agreed.

On iPad, you can see which ones you’ve bought, but not iPod/iPhone. My guess is it’s a software/store limitation they’ll address at some point since it’s on iPad.

You can see what’s installed, but if you’ve removed it, the only way to know is to check your account history.

rei · 2011-04-20T19:54:24.000Z

Anyone having problems signing into Game Center?