Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 12:24:24 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Android or iPhone Games...

Started by small_world, October 17, 2010, 10:15:52 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Kind of surprised the 'open' nature and relative paucity of product hasn't attracted more game devs to Droid.

Still Not George

Just not that big a market yet, although it's certainly getting there. I'm in the process of upgrading my phone myself and I'm mildly astonished at how many of the contract phones out there are Android now.

Slaaaaabs

The vast majority of iPad competitors are Android as well, despite it not really being built for it (yet)

The Archos 70 looks mighty tempting as an accompaniment to my "aging" iPhone 3G, getting rave reviews for the combination of feature set and extremely reasonable pricing compared to the iPad and Galaxy Tab.

HappyTree

I just got to the "boomerang bird" stage on Angry Birds. Haven't 3-starred all levels yet. I love the oinking noises.

Mirror's Edge is pretty nifty on the touchscreen, I think it plays better than on the full consoles. Paper Toss is mindless fun for a few minutes, and I just got Monkey Island recently, it passed me by on the PC. It's all right but the control is a little awkward.

NinJump is addictive, and Ninja Free is very polished. But the game I find myself playing most is Doodle Jump.

chocky909

I've just downloaded Squibble on Android after a recommendation. It's looks good and plays well. There's a free lite version. The full version looks a bit expensive at $3.50 though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ciZhwVXmY


Still Not George

Quote from: chocky909 on November 21, 2010, 04:50:11 PMThe full version looks a bit expensive at $3.50 though.

Chocky, there, illustrating why Android doesn't have many games thus far.

edit: Not intended as a dig at you, btw, I agree $3.50 is a bit much considering the usual prices for mobile games. It's just tiny compared to pretty much every other games market in existence.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: The Boston Crab on November 20, 2010, 01:37:35 PM
Kind of surprised the 'open' nature and relative paucity of product hasn't attracted more game devs to Droid.
One of the problems is the amount of different Android hardware - if you look at Angry Birds, for instance, there are 20 handsets that aren't  officially supported. Rovio are working on a new 'lighweight' version so it can run on as many handsets as possible - the alternative is to bring out multiple versions of the same software, which wouldn't be appealing for obvious reasons.

I'd never thought about that. I assumed it was much like a Windows OS runs on any (?) brand of PC.

Probably showing myself up here...

Still Not George

Quote from: The Boston Crab on November 22, 2010, 05:59:45 PM
I'd never thought about that. I assumed it was much like a Windows OS runs on any (?) brand of PC.
Well, there's different Android APIs for each successive version. We're on API 8 now, and there's a certain amount of work involved in making things work with 3-5 in particular (you don't have to care about 1 or 2 apparently).

So the comparison is possibly a game written for Windows 7 failing to run on Windows XP, I suppose.

MojoJojo

Well, the wide variety of hardware android runs on does throw up some issues in addition to the different api versions, doesn't it? When compared to the different amount of hardware you have to support on iOS anyway.  Although I've read some blogs of iphone developers complaining about non-graphic issues between different ipod revisions. Which I guess means you should never underestimate how much of a pain it is to support different hardware. Or how much iOS developers can whine.

Without having actually done it, the obvious problem between hardware is different resolutions/aspect ratios.

The Windows comparison is interesting though... but I can't formulate a proper response at the moment. But basically, Windows provided interoperability only for applications, by providing most of the UI for them. That doesn't work for games, which Windows didn't really support until it was dominant.

chocky909

Quote from: Still Not George on November 21, 2010, 05:17:56 PM
Chocky, there, illustrating why Android doesn't have many games thus far.

edit: Not intended as a dig at you, btw, I agree $3.50 is a bit much considering the usual prices for mobile games. It's just tiny compared to pretty much every other games market in existence.

I have been spoiled by the iPhone app store. £3 is a perfectly reasonable amount to ask for in the real world. I've just got so many great 59p and £1.19 games on my iPhone, comparitively the value is lessened.

HappyTree

I recently went on a free game spree. I find few games worth spending even €0.79 on and if a free version entices me I can always pay for the full version after. But one free game I got on a whim that has held my attention is Badaboo. I think it's a full game too.

It's very simple, you just slide a coloured disc into a group of other coloured discs. Each time you hit one it changes colour. The idea is to end up with them all the same colour as your player disc. It's not as easy as it sounds, it's quite hard to prevent collisions when you don't want to change its colour. But you think it should be very easy, so that draws you into that just one more go feeling. Another plus is that every time you hit a disc it gives this funny "badaboo!" sound. Something to amuse yourself with for a few minutes at least, and it's free.

Still Not George

Quote from: HappyTree on November 24, 2010, 09:24:06 PM
I recently went on a free game spree. I find few games worth spending even €0.79 on
Man, that's depressing.

HappyTree

On the iPod, it's true for me. I have loads of legit Xbox games I bought second hand. I just find the vast majority of iPod games very pointless and lacking in any lasting appeal. I get enough of the experience of playing a golf game for free without spending money to get move levels of the same game I'm already bored with.

There are some exceptions. I played Angry Birds for free and bought it on the strength of the lite version. I bought Monkey Island for about €3 I think. I paid for Mirror's Edge and Doodle Jump and Peggle. I even bought Worms, but wish I hadn't as I find it far too fiddly to control properly on the small screen.

I'd say out of the 120 games I have on the 'pod I paid for about 10 of them, the rest are either full or limited free versions.

Still Not George

Quote from: HappyTree on November 24, 2010, 10:15:50 PM
On the iPod, it's true for me. I have loads of legit Xbox games I bought second hand. I just find the vast majority of iPod games very pointless and lacking in any lasting appeal.
Oh, I agree. It's just... y'know. Free games. Second hand games. It all makes me shed a single emo game dev tear.

Still Not George

Have played Angry Birds. It's Crush the Castle with a reskin. You all lied. Shame on you.

jutl

Quote from: Still Not George on January 09, 2011, 12:22:26 AM
Have played Angry Birds. It's Crush the Castle with a reskin. You all lied. Shame on you.

So you'd attribute Angry Birds enormous success in comparison to Crush the Castle to... different graphics? That seems a little obtuse for a game dev, mate...

Still Not George

Quote from: jutl on January 09, 2011, 01:11:13 AM
So you'd attribute Angry Birds enormous success in comparison to Crush the Castle to... different graphics? That seems a little obtuse for a game dev, mate...

Define "success"? CtC had a buttload of views and countless imitators, much like Canabalt. If you define success by sales, it's a little dubious to compare a paid app with a free Flash game that was being copied on other sites within days of its release.

HappyTree

Oh cool, a rivalry fight!

I love Angry Birds. In the sense that it's fun to play when I'm on the bus and have tired of Iain Lee podcasts. The controls are easy, fluid and intuitive and the graphics are fun, animation is a joy and it has bright colours. Sound is amusing with the piggies grunting in derision.

I played Crush the Castle and it was, well, rubbish. Same concept, I'll admit, but the graphics are poor, animation is clunky and cardboard and there is no fun in actually crushing the castle. Colour palette is drab. Beyond the basic concept there is no comparison.

Also, Angry Birds looks like it should be a cakewalk but, well, maybe I'm crap but I can't 3-star all the levels. My brother's finished it, I am lagging behind. But then he has the benefit of having a 3 year-old son to show him how to play it properly.

Still Not George

Yeah, yeah, blah, blah. I tell you what, I'll reskin Canabalt and release it on the iPhone, everyone will love it!

Still Not George

Oh, and Game Dev Story is a sweet little game. Nothing like actual game development, of course - you make all the money from your own sales, no-one sues anyone, publishers never demand anything, and every game gets finished in its own time, not to mention management just sit there and watch instead of interfering - but it's a very nice little tycoon sim. I've been playing it all night.

jutl

Quote from: Still Not George on January 09, 2011, 01:55:07 AM
Define "success"? CtC had a buttload of views and countless imitators, much like Canabalt. If you define success by sales, it's a little dubious to compare a paid app with a free Flash game that was being copied on other sites within days of its release.

It's true that CtC has been copied a lot, but

(a) it's not original itself,
(b) it does have an iPhone version to compete with Angry Birds
(c) the fact that Angry Birds has been so enormously successful in sales despite the fact that similar games exist just highlights the fact that the differences that exist are extremely operative

I've already pointed out the differences there are beside graphics in this thread.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Still Not George on January 09, 2011, 02:18:19 AM
Oh, and Game Dev Story is a sweet little game. Nothing like actual game development, of course - you make all the money from your own sales, no-one sues anyone, publishers never demand anything, and every game gets finished in its own time, not to mention management just sit there and watch instead of interfering - but it's a very nice little tycoon sim. I've been playing it all night.

Yep, but I recommend you don't read any tips on how to do well. Once you've discovered the secret to that it becomes easy and boring by the 10 year mark.

(It's also a bit annoying value wise, being a straight port of a java mobile game, which means the graphics aren't the right size and the interface is clunky, and it's pretty expensive as these sort of games go on ios. Not saying it's not worth the money, just annoying when compared to the presentation you get many 59p games.)

Still Not George

Got it for a quid during a sale on Android. Know what you mean about tips, though - seriously, why did they spoil it by putting
Spoiler alert
Hackers in? They make it ludicrously easy to nail everything that comes in. Hire 2 or 3 Hackers, change career to Coder and Designer to dodge the Hacker focus penalty, and watch the sales roll in. No challenge at all.
[close]

MojoJojo

Oh, didn't know it was on Android. And
Spoiler alert
I didn't hire any hackers... was going to say how I did do it, but realised that would be a tip, I think
[close]

Still Not George

Nevertheless, I am adding "A Real Game Dev Story" to my "stuff I probably won't ever get around to doing" list.

It'll be exactly like "Game Dev Story", except it will include underpaid testers doing 36 hour shifts on cocaine, fat publisher cunts turning up and telling you everything you've done is shit and you have to do it again with 3 months of development left, games journos who give everything shitty reviews unless you pay them millions via junkets, endless, endless, endless forum wars about each and every single last detail of the game, and at least 2 out of 3 projects you start will never see release.

VegaLA

Quote from: HappyTree on January 09, 2011, 02:02:43 AM
Sound is amusing with the piggies grunting in derision.


When I first heard Angry Birds those sounds reminded me a great deal of Harry Enfield's Aliens.

Spoiler alert
Not be be confused with Scott's/Giger's Aliens.
[close]

Still Not George

Well, our first Android game is ludicrously close to completion now. In fact it'd probably be ready for release now had I not fallen ill today. Only question now is how to let people know the fucking thing exists - the Android market is almost comically poor in terms of letting people know what's out there apart from the top seller lists.

wheatgod

Words With Friends on iPhone is a great Scrabble clone. The games persist, can last days - and you can play something stupid like 20 at a time. Well worth 59p! My name on there is "wheatgod".

HappyTree

I was going to get Scrabble for the iPod but the comments said it cheats and the dictionary is poor. I generally don't like computer Scrabble anyway as it uses all the weird 2-letter words that nobody knows exist.