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Posts tagged with "games"

John Siracusa On Nintendo→

John Siracusa:

But if the time of the game console is not yet at an end (handheld or otherwise), then Nintendo has a lot of work to do. It needs to get better at all of the game-related things that iOS is good at. It needs to produce software that clearly demonstrates the value of its hardware—or, if that’s not possible, then it needs to make new hardware.

Any advice that leads in a different direction is a distraction.

A lot has been written about Nintendo this week, and I feel like several articles and tweets miss the point of understanding Nintendo for what it is: not Apple. Not a software company, not a regular game company, and certainly not a company that likes ceding control of its destiny to others. I think that viewing Nintendo through the lens of Apple and just as another company that could make games for the App Store is the wrong approach.

John understands Nintendo. Here’s an excerpt from my interview with him published earlier this year:

Second, in my own experience with my 8-year-old son, Nintendo games still have an unmatched ability to capture the hearts and minds of kids. My son has been exposed to a ton of iOS games, on the iPod and iPad, plus PS2, PS3, and even PC/Mac games. But he chooses to spend the vast majority of his gaming time on a Nintendo console, playing both “casual” games (Wii Sports, Nintendoland) and long, deep games (Zelda, Mario).

This is not to minimize Nintendo’s woes. The threat from iOS gaming is very real. But it is heartening to know that the things we love about Nintendo are not entirely based on nostalgia.

A common argument that I’ve also read this week is that Nintendo isn’t making good games anymore. My experience mirrors John’s: I know children and teenagers who play iOS games but also own Nintendo consoles to play Mario, Luigi’s Mansion, Fire Emblem, or Mario Kart. There is something about the magic of Nintendo games that is unmatched by the App Store.

Nintendo has work to do – I even said as much in November 2011. Their problems aren’t new but they have been exacerbated by the Wii U’s failure and it’s time to fix them. For instance, refusing to launch a Wii U Ambassador Program is confusing, as Nintendo should cater to its most loyal fanbase, and reward those who bought a Wii U in times of crisis, like they did for the 3DS.

I believe that applying the same standards of the tech industry to Nintendo is a flawed process; Nintendo should face the threat of mobile gaming by being Nintendo at its best. I’d like to see more articles about this, not the App Store.

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The Boy Who Beat Ocarina of Time in 22 Minutes→

This link isn’t strictly about Cosmo Wright’s Ocarina of Time speedrun – which, by the way, is incredible to watch. Make sure to read Computer and Video Games’ feature on it as well.

Rather, I’d like to point out these two tweets by Sonny Fazio in response to Peter Hajas, who originally shared the link to Cosmo Wright’s speedrun last night:

This is an interesting side effect of the App Store that I didn’t think about. Speedruns are an extremely fun-to-watch, but niche use case that, as Fazio notes, are generally facilitated by glitches and bugs in the source code of games. This goes beyond the App Store and extends to games sold on online platforms like Steam and PlayStation Network as well. Because of updates and patches, will it become increasingly difficult – if not impossible – for speedrunners to analyze and play through games in their original form decades from now?

In the video I linked above, for instance, Cosmo explains that a major glitch in Ocarina of Time took 13 years to be discovered and used. That was only possible thanks to the fact that a) Nintendo 64 cartridges are still physically available today and b) Nintendo’s conversion for the Wii’s Virtual Console is a 1:1 port of the original – bugs and glitches included. Can you imagine someone still playing an iOS game in 13 years?

Twenty or thirty years from now, will we see speedruns for iOS, PS3, or Xbox 360 games? Sadly, I think that a mix of retrocompatibility issues, OS and app updates, and lack of physical access to games will hinder speedrunning. Not to mention Apple’s current state of affairs with games and the gaming community.

Overall, Digital preservation is the bigger topic we should be discussing.

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Rymdkapsel

How do I even begin to explain Rymdkapsel?

First there’s the tetris pieces, the various rooms you add on to your ship at any given moment. You can assign these pieces to rooms that create materials, or rooms that create sludge which can be used in a kitchen. These pieces intertwine to create the foundation of your ship, complete with weapons rooms, reactors, and quarters where new minions can be spawned. Vast corridors are needed to connect all of these tetris pieces together, making it necessary to create little microcosms of civilization that live in different sections of your ship.

Next there’s the little pixels, the minions and materials that you’ll watch travel around the ship as they man guns and carry materials to their proper destinations. No single minion is managed individually — they’re just dragged between the available resources on your ship. None of them are individually important, but all of them are equally important. There isn’t necessarily strength in numbers. Do you create a lot of minions and a sprawling city, hoping to complete your defenses on time to protect your civilization? Or do you keep your ship small and narrow, relying on a brave few to explore your surroundings? I chose the former.

Then there’s the enemy. As soon as you begin building you’re attacked and forced to defend yourself. As the game progresses enemies become much more numerous and dangerous. Without the proper defenses you could lose a swath of minions, having to dedicate a significant amount of time into growing sludge and working the kitchens so you can generate more little pixels in their quarters. It’s almost pathetic how helpless they are when they’re exposed.

It’s these enemies that control the pace of the game. You don’t have an infinite amount of time to build your ship and build resources. Instead the enemies come in waves and you must carefully keep an eye on a meter that informs you of when an attack is imminent. Your minions must travel the length of the corridors to reach a weapons room, and if they’re not properly protected the enemy will have their way.

A tutorial is given, but I don’t think the it does the game any justice beyond inviting you into the world. You’re walked through the general concepts of the game as events unfold and things happen, but it’s not until you start experimenting with the pieces that you’ll really begin to understand how all of this stuff fits together. And once you do, you begin to realize that Rymdkapsel is very much like and unlike a lot of our favorite games.

It’s Tetris. It’s an RTS strategy. It’s a tower defense game. It’s a race against the clock. It’s endless. It’s all of these things.

I don’t know how to summarize the game and how it makes me feel. An overreaching atmosphere of tranquility masks impending panic. You want to build quickly to meet objectives, but it’s easy to stretch yourself thin. This is evident when you become aware of how important time and distance are. Rooms have limited space and there has to be a balance when deciding how to expand your ship. Don’t forget that you’ll have to find more resources once your extractors are empty; will you have enough materials to continue on? Your minions are all separate pixels doing their own things, such as building rooms or idling, but they’re managed just like a resource would be. There’s all of this complexity and micromangement but it happens at this macro level and the game is actually really simple. The whole thing works so well and once it clicks you cannot put it down.

Rymdkapsel’s own description as a “meditative space strategy” is perfectly apt. It’s so good. Featured by Apple this week, download Rymdkapsel from the App Store for $3.99.

BioShock Infinite Coming To OS X This Month→

Juli Clover:

BioShock Infinite, the third game in the first-person shooter series, is set to be released for the Mac on August 29 through a collaboration between Aspyr Media, developer Irrational Games, and publisher 2K Games.

Infinite is one of my favorite games of 2013 (so far). The game comes with an incredible storyline and solid action-oriented gameplay – but my favorite part remains Columbia, the city in the sky where the game takes place. Just this week, Irrational Games announced a series of DLCs for the game – the first of which, Clash in the Clouds, should be available by launch day with the Mac version. Eurogamer posted an interview with BioShock creator Ken Levine, who explained the motivation behind Clash in the Clouds and the other DLCs that will follow later this year.

BioShock Infinite will be available through Steam, the Mac App Store, and GameAgent, where pre-orders have started today.

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Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Sales→

Interesting numbers from the developers of one of the most unique iOS games in recent years that was later ported to other platforms. The last chart, iOS revenue by region, shows the importance of Japan, as also outlined by Apple in the Q3 2013 earnings call. I would love to have more details on revenue over time though – such as the impact of making an iPhone version or sales in the first two weeks of Google Play compared to the same period on the App Store.

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EA And The App Store→

Jeffrey Grubb at VentureBeat:

The mobile-based future is here, and publisher Electronic Arts is reaping the rewards. EA reported today that it made more money through Apple’s App Store than any other retail distributor. That includes its own Origin digital-download service.

Here’s the thing: I don’t like EA’s shady practices (especially in Real Racing 3), I think that most In-App Purchase-based games should offer more value, but this is working for EA and others (see: Candy Crush Saga). And who’s to blame: consumers for being too credulous? EA and King? Apple? If anything, shouldn’t we be happy because Apple’s strategy is working out?

I, and thousands of old-school gamers like me, don’t like this modern idea of free-to-play games and nickel-and-diming players. I like to think that, eventually, Apple will start caring about quality games. But it’s when I read stories like EA’s that I conclude that, today, Apple doesn’t want to change In-App Purchases, at all.

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The Potential of iOS 7 Game Controllers

Chris Plante:

If Apple finds a way to standardize traditional controls, every iOS device will become a transportable console. In a year, both iPhones and iPads will approach the processing power of the current-generation devices. Companies will have the ability to port controller-based games for the mobile devices in millions of pockets — an install base far greater than they’ve ever had before.

Today, using Airplay and an Apple TV, players can stream their games from their iOS device to their high-definition television. With controller support, players will be able to play more traditional, non-touch games.

I agree with Chris’ take: the new game controller APIs for developers have great potential, but, ultimately, it’s up to Apple to believe in this opportunity. What’s indisputable is that later this year, when controllers will be released by third-parties, games supporting them will already work with the existing Apple TV’s AirPlay streaming features. It’ll be interesting to see if Apple will publicly acknowledge this new scenario for gamers and Apple TV owners (as Tim Cook often notes, Apple doesn’t advertise the Apple TV aside from a product page on Apple.com).

We’ve already discussed how the potential of dual-screen AirPlay gaming is largely untapped, and I suspect the addition of physical controllers will allow iOS game developers to explore even more possibilities. Essentially, controllers that will attach to iPhones will create a DS-like experience – with the “top screen” being the Apple TV.

Today’s hardware, as recent ports show, isn’t yet capable of handling the same amount of power and definition of modern console games. The App Store needs improvements (especially for curation and discovery), but Apple has the advantage of having a solid platform where free-to-play is an established model and where everyone can develop games (with great new game-related APIs coming in iOS 7) as long as they are registered developers. With 575 million iTunes Store accounts with credit cards on file, Apple also has the largest user base – customers already buying software from the App Store. And, let’s not forget the iPod touch, Apple’s cheapest way into App Store gaming, which recently received an even cheaper option.

On the other hand, in the current state of App Store economics, it’s difficult to imagine how Apple could lure major console publishers to release AAA titles under $30 and that aren’t low-res ports, companion apps, or dumbed-down versions of console/PC games. Does Apple care about having the next Destiny on iOS first? The new Call of Duty? Will future iOS hardware be capable of running those kinds of games? Or is Apple just fine with attacking the market from the low end, taking more time to see how game developers will react to new iOS software and hardware in the next five years?

Will Apple ever develop a culture and appreciation for gaming as a medium, not just an App Store category? While others (namely Microsoft) are trying to add more media and entertainment layers on top of existing game infrastructures, Apple is in the opposite situation – running the largest media store and selling devices that are increasingly used as gaming machines, but that still lack the catalog and support of dedicated home consoles.

As far as third-party developers are concerned, things have changed since 2008. Five years ago, imagining a console hit like Metal Gear Solid 4 on iOS would have been absurd; today, we have a port (albeit low-res) of XCOM eight months after the original release. Compare this example to Metal Gear Solid Touch, “based on” Metal Gear Solid 4 and released nine months after the original game, in 2009. What’s the App Store going to be like in 2018? Can we imagine, two or three years from now, simultaneous and equal releases of AAA games across consoles and iOS? And if so, how will the App Store’s numbers play to Apple’s advantage against Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Valve?

Apple is testing the waters (having to buy separate iOS devices, Apple TV, and third-party game controllers isn’t a simple message) and they seem extremely cautious with their Apple TV strategy, but it does look like some pieces of the gaming puzzle are slowly coming together. We’re seeing more full ports of console games nowadays, alongside, obviously, the brand new iOS gaming experiences that have shaped the modern industry. iOS 7 game controllers will likely make developers more comfortable with the idea of “serious” games on iOS (although Apple wants controllers to be optional…for now), and I’m curious to see which parts of Apple’s grand vision for TV will relate to games, the App Store, and iOS.

Game Controller Support In iOS 7 and 10.9

As first noted by TouchArcade (via Macgasm), the iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 beta seeds released to developers on Monday include support for a new Game Controller framework that will allow games to connect to controllers plugged into iOS devices or communicating wirelessly with them. TouchArcade writes:

So here we have what appears to be a style of game controller that allows you to see the screen of your phone, as well as an entirely standalone controller with what seems to be dual analog sticks. Also, we’ve heard that Apple has reinforced that if your game is going to support a game controller it needs to be totally playable without.

There are a couple of interesting tidbits worth noting with Apple’s strategy on game controllers. As shown in a slide at the end of the keynote, game controllers will be built by hardware partners through the MFi program, which Apple has typically used for electronic accessories and AirPlay audio devices. This means that, rather than announcing its own dedicated game controller, Apple has chosen (for now) to provide a technical specification that other companies will have to follow if they want to get approval and sell controllers carrying the “Made for iPhone” badge.

Interestingly, the SDK addition follows a rumor from March 2013, when PocketGamer claimed that Apple had booked a room at the Game Developers Conference under a pseudonym to talk to developers about an upcoming physical “joypad”. For now, Apple has opted for consistency across different controller models to ensure game developers will only have to learn a single framework that lets the OS automatically take care of capturing profiles from game controllers. In addition, Apple is making the controllers optional: if a game will add support for MFi controllers, it’ll also have to provide standard multi-touch controls that don’t require a hardware controller.

iOS gaming has long been criticized for lacking the precise input of PCs, consoles, and dedicated portable gaming machines. Over the years, a number of third-party solutions aimed at enhancing iOS’ game control mechanics surfaced, but each one of them came with its proprietary SDK that required developers to manually add support for new controllers in their games. A few notable names include iCade Mobile, a hardware controller, and Joypad, an app to turn iPhones into game controllers for other devices. On the accessory side, external attachments like Ten One Design’s Fling tried to turn on-screen controls often used by developers into more tactile experiences.

It’ll be interesting to see how Apple’s officially-sanctioned solution for iOS 7 and 10.9 will be met by hardware companies. Apple’s requirement to make game controller optionals won’t allow game developers to build games exclusively targeting the hardware control system, which could pose a new challenge for game makers already considering truly separate touch and controller mechanics.