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The iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch Gaming |Thread4| NOT Doomed

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nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Can anyone recommend me some excellent platformers ?

Pizza boy seems to be highly rated, anyone played it ?

Also any metal slug style platformers on the store ?

Pizza Boy is INCREDIBLY good.

E: And relatively overlooked, which is disappointing. Definitely worth checking into.
 
I've tried this with my iPhone and iPad and pretty much works like the DS Single-Card Download Play function. The songs start simultaneously at the same time, so that's really good.

ie. Say on Jukebeat, I host the game on a DLC track that I bought on my iPad but I do not have it loaded on my iPhone.

After selecting the song, there's an option to host the game and whomever connects to it, the iPad will share the song to the iPhone for multiplayer purposes. After both devices have the song loaded, they can choose a difficulty they want to play at (both devices don't have to play one difficulty). The scores aren't compared but only just if they clear the song etc.

http://i.imgur.com/L9EYq.png http://i.imgur.com/UGY3n.png
(Taken from my iPhone (client) downloading the song data from the iPad - Mid-game action!)

You can't pause the game during the song, but when the home buttons is pressed, it pretty much goes back to being single-player and the scores are desynched.

Neat - I can see this coming in handy running tournaments, where we used to have to have both players pick the same song on individual iPads then start the song on both at the same time. Does the session persist after the song or does it have to be recreated every time a new song is picked?
 

SeanR1221

Member
Oh man, organ trail is so unforgiving. One moment I'm trading for fuel the next a bandit randomly steals all of it.

What's amazing to me is I almost feel more involved in this than a game like fallout 3. It's incredible what can be done with some text and creepy music.

Achievements are glitched though. I definitely killed zombie Ryan and didn't get anything but I also got the achievement for visiting 50 graves when I've seen maybe 10
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Can anyone recommend me some excellent platformers ?

Pizza boy seems to be highly rated, anyone played it ?

Also any metal slug style platformers on the store ?

pizza boy is shite. I've played a LOT of platformers on iOS and this was one of the worst. It looks like Mario but don't let it fool you. I'd say the best platformers I've played are the League of Evil games, they're great. Bring Me Sandwiches is a very nice little game that kept me hooked all the way through. Swordigo is a nice Zelda 2 inspired action platformer. Mos Speedrun is really good. Kid Vector is made by a gaffer and is also quite neat.

Edit: if you're looking for a Metal Slug game, I hear Metal Slug is quite good.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Pizza Boy is INCREDIBLY good.

E: And relatively overlooked, which is disappointing. Definitely worth checking into.

I enjoyed Pizza Boy. Give it a shot. Reminds me of a Mario-type game in some ways.

No, it's really not good. The controls are horrendous, and the fact that you have NO momentum when jumping is a killer. Air control in an iOS platformer is hard enough, but this game takes the piss. I love me some Mario and was really looking to this game replicating the feel of it, but after falling down my 20th pit I deleted in disgust. Fuck that game.

But then again, I think my quality bar is too high. After all, it's only a buck, rite??? Buy it, let me know what you think.
 

heringer

Member
No, it's really not good. The controls are horrendous, and the fact that you have NO momentum when jumping is a killer. Air control in an iOS platformer is hard enough, but this game takes the piss. I love me some Mario and was really looking to this game replicating the feel of it, but after falling down my 20th pit I deleted in disgust. Fuck that game.

But then again, I think my quality bar is too high. After all, it's only a buck, rite??? Buy it, let me know what you think.

I think you are being a little too harsh. It certainly isn't as good as some people make it to be, but I found it to be fairly enjoyable. Didn't have problems with the controls, my main gripe was with the level design.

I still have to try that Jazz game. I bought it but haven't tried yet. There's also a weird platformer that I also bought but haven't played. It's sorta like Limbo (visually) but I can't recall the name....
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
No, it's really not good. The controls are horrendous, and the fact that you have NO momentum when jumping is a killer. Air control in an iOS platformer is hard enough, but this game takes the piss. I love me some Mario and was really looking to this game replicating the feel of it, but after falling down my 20th pit I deleted in disgust. Fuck that game.

But then again, I think my quality bar is too high. After all, it's only a buck, rite??? Buy it, let me know what you think.

I respectfully disagree with this - I completed everything the game had to offer (all secret levels, got all the letters on every level). On the iPhone AND the iPad (where controls were worse because of screen size), nonetheless. It's incredibly charming and plays very well imho.

E: heringer makes a MUCH more valid point in saying the level design is less than perfect. But if you're just looking for a fun romp (and not a 100% completion), I can't find any reason to slam it.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
I think you are being a little too harsh. It certainly isn't as good as some people make it to be, but I found it to be fairly enjoyable. Didn't have problems with the controls, my main gripe was with the level design.

I still have to try that Jazz game. I bought it but haven't tried yet. There's also a weird platformer that I also bought but haven't played. It's sorta like Limbo (visually) but I can't recall the name....

I am really harsh. I go by the two tier system - it's either awesome or it's shit. There is no middle ground. Especially for platformers with weird jumping! ARGH!
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
I respectfully disagree with this - I completed everything the game had to offer (all secret levels, got all the letters on every level). On the iPhone AND the iPad (where controls were worse because of screen size), nonetheless. It's incredibly charming and plays very well imho.

E: heringer makes a MUCH more valid point in saying the level design is less than perfect. But if you're just looking for a fun romp (and not a 100% completion), I can't find any reason to slam it.

Worse controls on iPad? So you're saying it has those shitty bottom-screen controls? And you're defending it?? I'll add that to my list of hate then. You know what bottom-screen controls tell me? They tell me that the dev has not played the game.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
I swear by League of Evil for iOS platformers. The gaming side will keep raging about how all this shit is impossible on iOS but that game just totally nails it. It's so damn finely tuned. I'm going to get the sequel as soon as I finish the original.

LoE is perfect, and anyone that says otherwise is a dirty communist Pizza Boy fan.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
I swear by League of Evil for iOS platformers. The gaming side will keep raging about how all this shit is impossible on iOS but that game just totally nails it. It's so damn finely tuned. I'm going to get the sequel as soon as I finish the original.

LoE has some of the best controls available for an iOS platformer, I agree.

Worse controls on iPad? So you're saying it has those shitty bottom-screen controls? And you're defending it?? I'll add that to my list of hate then. You know what bottom-screen controls tell me? They tell me that the dev has not played the game.

The game plays fine. I 100% it both my iPhone and my iPad, so no - it's not complete shit like you're saying it is. You're getting a little butt-hurt because some of us DO enjoy an older platformer on the iOS (before something like LoE came around). I'm not saying the controls are perfect, I'm simply saying it's MUCH more playable than you're making it out to be.
 
For anyone I play Happy Street with (I'm Dosuchin), if I turn down your request for an item it's because I either don't have it or I do and I need it for an upgrade. I've got so many letters I just deny them now to get them out of the way. You're welcome to keep bugging me about it until you get it though. :p
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
For anyone I play Happy Street with (I'm Dosuchin), if I turn down your request for an item it's because I either don't have it or I do and I need it for an upgrade. I've got so many letters I just deny them now to get them out of the way. You're welcome to keep bugging me about it until you get it though. :p

How do you even request stuff ..
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Here's a depressing story about Mikengreg, the developers of Solipskier and Gasketball. According to the article they're homeless at the moment because they're just not making the kind of money they needed to get by with their new game.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...how-an-app-with-200000-downloads-led-to-devel

It doesn't surprise me. I mean that in NO negative way - the iOS market is a miserable platform to work with because of the mentality of most of the audience. SO many people wait to get games for free or on sale for $0.99 (because $1.99 -> $0.99 gold I guess). I'm guilty of waiting for sales, but that's only on titles I'm not terribly interested in. If I have ANY interest in a game, I'll pay full price.

It's sad, really.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Sometimes you'll see a "Ask Friend" button under an item. I think it's only for when you have something to upgrade. If you're missing an item that button will be there.

Aaah I'll
Check that out, thanks. Also, I'll ask again, but are there other games like Happy Street out? :p
 
I was wondering if you guys can recommend a Mac game that is similar to Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Broken Sword, etc. Basically mystery/detective games with great characters, storyline, interesting plot/sub-plots, and minimalist gameplay mechanics.

Thanks in advance.
 
It doesn't surprise me. I mean that in NO negative way - the iOS market is a miserable platform to work with because of the mentality of most of the audience. SO many people wait to get games for free or on sale for $0.99 (because $1.99 -> $0.99 gold I guess). I'm guilty of waiting for sales, but that's only on titles I'm not terribly interested in. If I have ANY interest in a game, I'll pay full price.

It's sad, really.

It's definitely something that needs to change but so many people have it in their heads to wait for free or a price drop that I don't know if it can.

As for Gasketball, being iPad only probably doesn't help but with the way the game is I don't think it would work well on a smaller screen.

Aaah I'll
Check that out, thanks. Also, I'll ask again, but are there other games like Happy Street out? :p

There's plenty of freemium games like Happy Street, but Happy Street itself seems pretty unique. I haven't seen anything else like it.

I was wondering if you guys can recommend a Mac game that is similar to Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Broken Sword, etc. Basically mystery/detective games with great characters, storyline, interesting plot/sub-plots, and minimalist gameplay mechanics.

Thanks in advance.

For Mac, I know there's The Secret of Monkey Island and Machinarium. Both adventure games like what you described but they're not really mystery/detective oriented. Broken Sword 1 and 2 are both available for Mac. Oh, I'm pretty sure all of TellTale's stuff is on Mac. The Walking Dead, Sam & Max, Back to the Future, Puzzle Agent 1 and 2. Actually, you should check out the Puzzle Agent games. They are the mystery/detective variety but they have a lot of humor thrown in as well.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
It doesn't surprise me. I mean that in NO negative way - the iOS market is a miserable platform to work with because of the mentality of most of the audience. SO many people wait to get games for free or on sale for $0.99 (because $1.99 -> $0.99 gold I guess). I'm guilty of waiting for sales, but that's only on titles I'm not terribly interested in. If I have ANY interest in a game, I'll pay full price.

It's sad, really.

True, but in this case it seems there is a little bit of an exception, from the linked article:

“A common complaint on the release build of Gasketball was that even our friends couldn’t find out how to buy the game. Obviously that’s a huge problem and we’ve remedied that in this patch update that we just released,” Wohlwend said. “Furthermore, we might need to add advertisements to supplement income, or dream up something completely different. We really want to stick to the ‘free and pay 2.99 to unlock’ model, but if only .5% of users buy our game, we’re going to have to figure something else out. It’s very malleable at this point. Perhaps we’re giving too much away for free, it’s really hard to say until we see more data.”

This was fascinating to me. I had downloaded the game based on the positive word of mouth, and had already enjoyed what felt like a wide amount of content without paying anything. I wasn’t even aware there was anything to pay for to unlock, and when I learned I could buy the game to support the developer I went looking for that option in the game’s menus. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to pay for the game, and I was specifically looking for the menu. There’s nothing shocking about the low amount of paid sales; the value proposition is never made explicit. There was an update available for the game, and after applying it, an “unlock the full game” message was added under the main logo.

So yeah, the lesson seems to be it's best to not make buying the game more difficult than enjoying it!
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
It's definitely something that needs to change but so many people have it in their heads to wait for free or a price drop that I don't know if it can.

As for Gasketball, being iPad only probably doesn't help but with the way the game is I don't think it would work well on a smaller screen.



There's plenty of freemium games like Happy Street, but Happy Street itself seems pretty unique. I haven't seen anything else like it.

Well... I mean, a non-isotropic "streetview" game that has extra elements (like crafting, cooking, etc.) :D so like Happy Street, but not exactly like all the farmville clones or like a pur "clicky" game like Tiny Tower.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Here's a depressing story about Mikengreg, the developers of Solipskier and Gasketball. According to the article they're homeless at the moment because they're just not making the kind of money they needed to get by with their new game.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...how-an-app-with-200000-downloads-led-to-devel

Reading the story, it seems they trusted the public far too much. Although a $2.99 unlock is a little steep perhaps -- actually FUCK that and fuck me, I'm angry at myself for even typing that stupid godamn sentence. It's a fucking pittance. iOS is home to the cheapest, stingiest gamers in the world and it's sad. Waiting for $1 games to go free, umming and ahhing over pennies, it's disgusting, and the development community is as much to blame as the players for pandering to cheap bastards in a way that is totally unsustainable. Ugh.

This golden age of indie development is not here to stay at all :(
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
True, but in this case it seems there is a little bit of an exception, from the linked article:



So yeah, the lesson seems to be it's best to not make buying the game more difficult than enjoying it!

Actually that is an excellent point and has calmed me down a little :p the unlock should be on the front screen every time you log in for sure. It should be easier to buy the game than to play for free IMO.
 

numble

Member
Reading the story, it seems they trusted the public far too much. Although a $2.99 unlock is a little steep perhaps -- actually FUCK that and fuck me, I'm angry at myself for even typing that stupid godamn sentence. It's a fucking pittance. iOS is home to the cheapest, stingiest gamers in the world and it's sad. Waiting for $1 games to go free, umming and ahhing over pennies, it's disgusting, and the development community is as much to blame as the players for pandering to cheap bastards in a way that is totally unsustainable. Ugh.

This golden age of indie development is not here to stay at all :(
Maybe they should've made it easier to unlock and more obvious that an unlock existed.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
True, but in this case it seems there is a little bit of an exception, from the linked article:

So yeah, the lesson seems to be it's best to not make buying the game more difficult than enjoying it!

I meant to comment on this as well - having it on the main menu (like Jedeye Sniv suggested) would help.

Also, yeah - iPad only DOES limit the audience a bit.
 

Wolfie5

Member
Downloaded Toy Defence HD for iPad(full game, don't mix with free version that is limited), which is free at the moment and played for an hour. Pretty fun TD game so far.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!

axxxj

Animator in Waiting
Hey GAF...

I hope this isn't too sneaky, but I wanted to post about Nosy Crow's first game:

The Grunts, Beard Of Bees.

mza_5145508033751307105.320x480-75.jpg


mza_1240766405368225102.320x480-75.jpg


mza_7569588173709172941.320x480-75.jpg


The aim of the game is to drag the Bees onto Mr Grunts face, the more Bees, the bigger the Beard and the higher the points. Get as many as possible before the time runs out...

The game is free and being used to help promote Nosy Crow's new book series The Grunts by Philip Ardagh and illustrated by Axel Scheffler of The Gruffalo fame....

Nosy Crow is a new, independent company, publishing children’s books and apps.
The other two considerably more talented chaps who create these apps are both ex Rare boys like myself. They were both heavily involved in the original Banjo games and the art and code leads for Viva Pinata. We also have the awesome musical talents of Mr Robin Beanland creating the wonderful tunes.

We are currently posting our high scores to twitter with the hashtag of #beardofbees.

To give you guys something to aim for, my high score is 5100, I assure you that isn't easy...
Do you worst....

Anyway I hope this isn't too cheeky posting this in here. Cheers
 

PFD

Member
I was wondering if you guys can recommend a Mac game that is similar to Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Broken Sword, etc. Basically mystery/detective games with great characters, storyline, interesting plot/sub-plots, and minimalist gameplay mechanics.

Thanks in advance.

Ghost Trick

edit: wait you said mac, hmm not sure there.
 

DukeSucks

Member
I got New Star Soccer, and like it enough that I'll probably end up paying to unlock the full game, even though I'm not a big fan of soccer.

Are there any games similar to this but using American Football?
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
I don't enjoy most TD games but Kingdom Rush is so fun, and so polished that you can't help but enjoy every second you spend with the game. First TD game I've finished.

I didn't know you were ever supposed to finish TD games, haha. That being said, I'll check it out. Thanks all!
 
Here's a depressing story about Mikengreg, the developers of Solipskier and Gasketball. According to the article they're homeless at the moment because they're just not making the kind of money they needed to get by with their new game.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...how-an-app-with-200000-downloads-led-to-devel

Thanks for sharing this article, I was soon after guilt-tripped into unlocking the game. They need my $3 more than I do and they definitely made a great game to justify it. Unfortunately it seems they gave away too much for free that people like myself didn't feel the need to unlock it. Hopefully it's another lesson learned for the indie dev community.
 
I can't stop playing 10000000

Going to kill my friend who told me to get it. I HAVE OTHER GAMES TO PLAY
A

I finished it today. Five hours and forty minutes total. I loved every minute of it and can't wait to see what the developer does next.

...but as others have said-when you are done, you are done.
 
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