AppTalk: iPad Thoughts From Seven iPhone Developers
by Staff Writer
February 3, 2010
Namco Networks couldn't be more thrilled with the announcement of the iPad. Apple has created a product that will significantly expand the gaming canvas for which we play, draw, read, etc. With the increased processing power and wider display, the iPad opens up new mediums for entertainment, including the expansion of gaming. In fact, before the iPad was rumored and announced, my Apple Games group had been thinking up cool games Namco could make that would take advantage of a larger screen and how that would work and feel with single and multiple players. Now that Apple has made their announcement, we're moving forward with our concepts and plans. We are also updating our back catalog of games like PAC-MAN, Ms. PAC-MAN, and others to take advantage of the new device capabilities but also update them with new OS and social gaming features. Our latest releases, such as Garters & Ghouls, Ace Combat and Isaac Newton's Gravity would look stunning on the iPad. Namco will continue to innovate games and maximize our reach to players who love to play or games at any place and time.
Noah Bordner - Mika Mobile (Zombieville USA & OMG Pirates!)
Of course we'd like to make sure our current and future apps will all run natively on the larger screen. Handling the new resolution shouldn't be too big of a deal, but for games like Zombieville and OMG Pirates! which utilize on-screen "buttons" it's hard to say what the implications will be. I can picture alternative ways of positioning things like buttons and joysticks in a way that might work, but it really depends on the feel of the device - how broad the margins are on the outside of the screen, the weight, etc. I'm just gonna have to hold one in my hands before I know for sure what will work comfortably and what won't.
While I can certainly picture games that would work only on an iPad due to the larger screen space (an RTS comes to mind) I don't think we'll be pursuing that avenue. The installed userbase of the iPhone and iPod Touch is just too enormous to neglect. Ideally, an app will work natively on both, automatically detecting the device type and adjusting accordingly. It remains to be seen if that's the route developers at large will take, or if they will instead choose to release a separate app altogether. Personally I think a single universal app is the way to go, since its simpler for the consumer and easier for me to maintain via updates.
Anders Hejdenberg 1337 Game Design (Dark Nebula)
The iPad is definitely an interesting device that I’d love to make games for, but I’m waiting to see just how big the market will be for it. It is just recently that we have been able to make a profit from Dark Nebula, so it would be a bit too risky for us at this time to develop something exclusively for it without first seeing some initial sales numbers from other developers. But I really hope it does well, because we have lots of ideas on interesting games for it.
Tak Fung - Mr FungFung (MiniSquadron)
MS on iPad:
OK, so MS as it is, is a hand held game. Without actually holding the iPad and seeing how that feels, my intuition is that it is not suited to it. However I have ideas and plans to redesign the game to be more suited to the iPad - it will still have the pace and the identity of MiniSquadron, but the game mechanics will be adjusted to suit the device to get MAX FUN OH YEAH. The improved CPU will help me do some tricks and fun things too I hope. Due to the fact MS is a pretty hardcore gamer's game, the approach to the iPad will be fairly different at first.
Future of FungFung and iPad?:
The iPad is definitely something to play with and develop for, if only for the reason that the cost of entry is so low - I already have the core code base to do things on it immediately, it would be a bit silly to not try some things out. Currently, I am trying to finish up on Project FvD, designed specifically for the iPod/iPhone. It’s a wild departure from MiniSquadron and I honestly can't wait to show people to see what they think! It's also a good test of my capabilities outside of a traditional "hardcore gamer's game". There is also a new MiniSquadron app with more levels and planes coming out. Sorry it's taken so long guys but quality takes time (when you have less money anyway!).
Beyond that, I will definitely be bringing MiniSquadron in some form to other devices with iPad a strong possibility. I will also be using my guesses of what the target market is and seeing if any of my mental ideas are suited for development for it. But for the moment, I am concentrating on FvD and pushing out the extended MiniSquadron - to once more give a bit more quality in the iPod and iPhone games market! Yeah!!
Anders Mårtensson - Illusion Labs (Labyrinth 2, Touchgrind, Sway)
The iPad seems to be fantastic and we look forward a great deal to holding one in our hands. We have already played with the idea of playing our games on other devices. Back in April last year we ran our games on a 32" touchscreen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RljkmXP-JX4), and also now recently on an Apple Cinema display with an accelerometer attached to it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcUemyDOhhU). It was great fun and we saw the potential right away.
Many say that they will not buy one because there is no need, or a laptop is so much better -- they said the same about the iPod when it came out. Initially Apple fans and the very tech savvy will buy one. Eventually the less tech savvy will discover that they don't really need a laptop and that the much easier to use iPad will be sufficient to surf the web, book tickets, watch TV-series, look at photos, pay your bills, find recipes etc.
We are already working on enhanced versions of our games, starting with Labyrinth 2 and then probably Touchgrind as well. Those two can take advantage the most of the bigger screen estate; Labyrinth 2 can utilize bigger levels which will allow greater freedom in designing levels, and in Touchgrind we can finally zoom out to see more of the skate park and also keep the board the same size to keep it controllable.
We haven't decided how to release these improved versions. The big problem is the 10 Mb limit. Releasing the new versions as universal binaries (iPod+iPhone+iPad) will make them a lot bigger than 10 Mb -- just adding new startup screens will make it 2 Mb bigger, and then all textures must come in twice the size and all menu graphics needs to be redrawn as well. The vast majority of downloaded games are on the go with no access to WIFI, so business wise it makes sense to keep the games below 10 Mb. However, we don't want our existing customers to pay twice, so it's a dilemma. One simple and good solution is if Apple would let us upload two binaries; the consumers can pay once and consume twice, the iPhone version will be less than 10 Mb, and there's no need for the consumer to download and install the extra Mb not needed.
Already new ideas keep popping up in our heads that may only work on the iPad, but we haven't decided anything regarding new games. I doubt anyone will abandon the iPhone/iPod market as there are 70 million of them out there, and 0 iPads. Expect to see some cool stuff from Illusion Labs pretty soon.
Vladimir Roth - Qwiboo (Aqua Globs)
We are very excited about the iPad, not just as a developers but as a pure end users as well. For me personally I think the iPad is a device that will change my life and the way I get through the day in the same way the iPhone did.
We already downloaded the SDK and tried running Aqua Globs which works without problem. The thing I was interested in the most was the 2x zoom function of the device and how our game is going to look like in that mode. Unfortunately the result is quite bad and the game really needs high-res graphics to look nice full screen on iPad.
iPad brings many issues, but good stuff as well.
First of the issue is the time needed to produce graphics for an iPad game which will be many times longer than for an iPhone game. Another problem is that the ratio of the iPad screen is different from the iPhone which means you can't just upscale graphics but some clipping will occur as well. Things would be so much easier if the iPad screen resolution is exactly 2x the resolution of an iPhone screen. Next issue we realized will be the size of the app. If building universal game/application supposed to run on both devices (iPad/iPhone) the size of the resulting game will be way over 10MB making it impossible to download over air to your iPhone. We hope Apple will address this issue soon otherwise we will be forced to sell separate versions of our games.
The new screen size is a good thing as well. One of our unannounced games which is currently in development has a real problem with the space on the iPhone screen and is really pushing the limits, but will have enough breathing room on the iPad allowing us to incorporate even more elements into the game which we needed to drop for the iPhone version. I'm sure we will witness new types of games emerging on iPad which just were not working on the small iPhone screen. I can't wait to paly some proper strategy game on iPad! :) Our plan is to focus on both platforms in the future as they will serve different audiences and provide us with wider range of options when designing our games and apps.
To answer your question about Aqua Globs I must say we are not planing a special version for iPad in the near future. The reason for that is that we are currently working on two new games (one of them is announced puzzle game Astrobot http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=38830, and the other one unnanounced strategy which we aim to port to iPad as well) and don't have any time left currently to optimize Aqua Globs for iPad.
You can see the Aqua Globs on the iPad simulator on a screens here:
http://www.qwiboo.com/aquaglobs/images/AquaGlobs_iPad_02.jpg
http://www.qwiboo.com/aquaglobs/images/AquaGlobs_iPad_01.jpg
Reto Senn - BitForge (Orbital)
Even though the OS of the iPad is the same that's powering the iPhone, the device has to be seen as something new. It's bigger, it's quite heavy. So people will not be holding the device the same way they hold an iPhone. That influences the way a game will be controlled. Also the situation where the device will be used is different. People won't just take the device out of the pocket to waste some time or to get short information bits. So iPad Software in general can be richer, deeper.
Regarding our games:
Even though the game fits the iPad very well already, we'll do an iPad specific version of Orbital, dubbed Orbital HD - with high resolution textures and a revamped User Interface that takes advantage of the bigger Screen and increases Usability. It's going to look gorgeous that much i can promise :-). The two player mode has been designed so that people can put the device on a table and play against each other. It's really like one of those Arcade-Table games. We are not going to change the gameplay, as we feel it's perfectly balanced right now. iPad players will have the advantage of higher precision in Orbital.
For other games, we're certainly doing iPad Builds to take advantage of the higher resolution. Pixel Doubling is a nice feature so you can use the software you already own, but it's not the best way to do it.
Your colleagues from slidetoplay had a hands on with Orbital on the iPad (with Video): http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/ipad-games-hands-on-preview
***Hopefully you enjoyed this, and be sure to stay tuned the rest of the week. No doubt the iPad would be better with these minds creating software for it.
