Nelson wrote in to tell us a little about WaKi SNAP!, a new game now available in the iTunes App Store:
WaKi SNAP! was created as our first project for the iPhone and we wanted to create something that used the touch capabilities of the iPhone in an innovative and immersive way…basically, something that allows two players to both enjoy the game on the one phone at the same time, which is different to the majority of the games out there.
We wanted to make something that was fun, simple to play, and almost universally known by both children and adults. The challenge was also to keep the interface as clean and minimalist as possible so that there was little clutter and the main focus was on displaying the graphics of the cards in as large a size as possible. Thus, WaKi SNAP! was born!
If you check it out, be sure to let us know what you think!
Mark wrote in to tell us about Arcade Hoops, and was gracious enough to share some great info:
I think one interesting thing about the game is its back story. It was developed by Garry Kitchen and David Crane. David was a co-founder of Activision and Garry co-founded Absolute Entertainment. These guys worked together on some famous old school games like Donkey Kong for Atari, Pitfall and Decathlon.
They’ve decided to put these skills to work in a very new medium, and I hope you’ll be impressed with the results.
The other story is the quality of the game and the intensity of the game play. You can look at virtually any review online, either on the iTunes site or off- they are all glowing. People are really amazed that this game is available for $1.99. I think it’s because of the soundtrack, the 3D imagery, and the speed of the game play - plus some extra touches like a trash-talking jumbotron.
Developer Gonzalo Oxenford wrote in to let us know the story behind Truco, a South American card game for the iPhone. These are the types of developers that make us so excited about the future of the platform!
Since we decided to start making iPhone Apps, we realized that we had to take a lot of care in the interface design, and graphic arts. We think this new platform is an amazing approach to virtual reality, and that’s what we’ve been doing while designing Truco.
If you take a look at the card games now at the App store, you will see that not even the one made by Apple takes care of that. The wood textures, the card size, the beauty of the cards. All other card games have so small cards, that makes you think you are playing an 8 bit game. And you are not supposed to, since these games are running inside of one of the most advanced mobile OS on Earth.
It’s very important for the user to feel the cards, to move them. Cards must be big enough so you can appreciate the beautiful illustrations on them. And this is what the real Truco player loves.
Other interesting aspect of the game is the AI (artificial intelligence) it has. The game of Truco is actually played by tricking your opponent. The AI we developed can make things like raising the stakes and bluffing which can put pressure on you, and might cause you to fold. So we let the user to choose the computer skill level, making it easier or harder to play…
Truco can also be played in multiplayer mode via Wi-Fi. It takes advantage of Bonjour, Apple’s technology that lets two devices communicate in a local network with zero configuration. Truco just sees other Truco installed in your friend’s iPhone and they arrange a multiplayer game automatically, it’s so beautiful how it works.
Odasoft is a 3 people company. Tons of years playing video games have help us a lot. We work at our homes during our free time. We are Mac users and nerds. And we just invested our small tiny savings on this project. We love what we do, and that’s the key that let us wake up sunday mornings at 7 AM to start working on this, while most people keep sleeping…
Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, is quoted in the WSJ as being bullish on iPhone and iPod Touch gaming:
“I think the iPhone and iPod touch may emerge as really viable devices in the mobile games market this holiday season.”
His VP of iPhone and iPod marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiak, meanwhile, spoke with T3 recently about his views on the iPhone and iPod Touch in the gaming space, wrapping up strongly with:
“if you squint your eyes you can see a future where you say it’s amazing the things you’ll see as far as gameplay, and we know from working with these developers and the things they tell us they’re working on, especially original content ideas, I think they’re going to blow everyone away. Because again the computer power and the 3D graphic power here [iPod Touch] is significantly greater than what you have here [picks up Nintendo DS]. So this allows people to do significantly higher quality games. And the Touch is always in your pocket, whereas you can’t always carry some other games consoles.”
So while cut and paste and turn-by-turn may still be complicated, Apple may actually be putting some muscle behind gaming this time — something they’ve never historically done well on the Mac.
Still at issue, however, is whether low price points and an unwillingness among some consumers to pay for premium apps will drive the bigger developers away (thanks Julien for the tip!). Dieter and I would happily pay $20 for Jobs of War or Grand Theft Auto: Cupertino Vice, but with people complaining about $1.99 puzzlers, we may never see the Mario or Halo of the iPhone. (You get what you pay for is a cliche for a reason?)
What do you think? Does iPhone gaming have a bright future? Would you pay for premium play? And are you ready to ditch your Nintendo DS or Sony PSP yet?
The realtechVR team has released their first iPhone game, Laserlink:
Become the Master of the lasers with LaserLink, and recover every diamonds in each level. Create junctions to allow generating a laser between two points of connection of color in order to recover the diamonds ones.
If you’re interested in puzzlers, let us know what you think!
[The Lightning Reviews are over, but from their ashes rise... the Forum Reviews! TiPb has assembled a crack team of App-aficionados, and every week we'll be bringing you a few of their very best reviews right here on the blog. And be sure to check out TiPb's iPhone App Store Forum for even more!]
Brian passed on this tip from Kevin Doel. Looks like Tetris is being ever-zealous in broadly defending their “look and feel” trademarks:
Phunkware’s Shaker game is being pulled from the market in about 5 hours. The
Tetris Company contacted Apple claiming the game is too close to Tetris for comfort.
If this is legit, and you read this post in time, and the FREE game at all interests you, walk — don’t run — to the App Store and grab Shaker now!
With all the hubbub surrounding the App Store these days, the blogophiles among us may forget that, for casual users, everything is pretty sweet. Browse. Tap. Download. Launch. For mobile gaming fans this is especially true. Check out the Top Apps list, and you’ll routinely see games hogging most of the spots. Don’t think this has escaped attention either. Says Block Breaker Deluxe (available via the iTunes App Store) developer Gameloft:
With some competitors due out next year, Apple is looking to capitalize on their virtual monopoly of these types of games, and with the success of their iphone games so far, they look certain to sustain a strong share of the market for smartphone games for some time to come.
As if to prove their point, Block Breaker Deluxe looks to be a bright, innovative take on the classic genre, and will no doubt appeal to the casual gaming audience the iPhone (and Apple) is hitting so well with as of late.
Whether the push from Android Market eventually forces Apple to change their current developer relations process or not, in the gaming space at least, everything on the iPhone is apps!
For the last two weeks we here at TiPb have been taking a deeper look into Apple’s “Game On” push.
Can anyone really doubt Steve Jobs is trying to make the iPhone/iPod Touch into the next big portable gaming device? Stop and think about it, he took the idea of a portable MP3 player and made it into a device that has dominated the music business ever since. Now, according to Jobsy, “you could make a pretty good argument [the iPhone is] the best portable device for playing games on.”
Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Mobile Strategy at Jupitermedia’s MobileDevicesToday.com, chimed in:
The not-so-subtle message was, ‘If you’re thinking about buying something like a PSP or a DS, maybe you want to think again because we’ve got this cool device that does all your mobile stuff and, by the way, is a pretty excellent game platform as well’
Steve Palley, Editorial Guru for Vivendi Games Mobile said:
The iPhone is going to make the mobile games industry into everything we always wanted it to be but failed to achieve.
Even Nintendo’s Denise Kaigler, VP of Corporate Affairs spoke out regarding the iPhone:
Any time you have a new company enter an industry, it’s always good for the consumer. It gives them choices and we welcome that. But we have found over the last 20 years, despite all the choices consumers have had, that the Nintendo devices have enjoyed a great deal of success.
I really can not argue with Nintendo’s comment. Nintendo is the king of the hill in the handheld gaming industry. Many have tried to overtake them, all failing. Here’s what I’m thinking, though, Apple may not be the top dog at the moment but by the time the next iPhone is released, Jobsy might just be saying “I told you so!”. Give the App Store a year to grow, software developers time to get the most out of the hardware, etc… And then lets see how things start to shake out. What are you guys and gals thinking?
(Not one, but two premiere game reviews on TiPb today. If you haven’t already checked out the review of The Force Unleashed for the iPhone, go get your Star Wars on)
Given all the hype these past couple of weeks — heck, these past couple of years — you probably don’t need much introduction to Spore, so we’ll keep it quick. Spore is a game about evolution that works via a little intelligent design: you start out as a helpless, single-cell organism and work your way up the food chain. On the console and PC versions of the game, this eventually leads you to intergalactic conquest.
In Spore Origins for the iPhone ($9.99 at iTunes), that process is scaled back quite a bit. Over the course of 30 levels you stay pretty much at the single-cell level, adding various eyeballs, feelers, spikes, and the like as you tilt your way through the primordial sea, gobbling up smaller creatures and avoiding the larger ones.
We at TiPb have been waiting for Spore ever since it was announced. Heck, we were hoping it would come to the iPhone well before that. Does it live up to our expectations? Read on…
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The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
