Size matters, apparently.
After watching yesterday’s Apple Event, I immediately cinched up my Robe of Maximum Focus and settled into the Thinking Chair to come up with a clever, funny, and insightful take on yesterday’s reveal of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch. After several hours of reading Wikipedia articles about Batman and watching videos of plane crashes on YouTube, I decided to just steal somebody else’s take instead.
I got in touch with some of Pocket Tactics‘ favourite game developers to ask them what they thought about Apple’s showcase yesterday. Tech pundits and games writers are all well and fine, but I thought you would appreciate hearing from the folks who are actually going to be making (or not) the games you’ll be playing on these new devices.
After the jump, a recap of what Apple showed off yesterday, and reactions from some of the top developers working in mobile: chief Coding Monkey Martin Pittenauer, Rebuild creator Sarah Northway, Canabalt maker Adam Saltsman, Inkle‘s Joseph Humfrey, and many more.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
The new usual suspects.
Maybe the best thing Apple’s got going for it right now is Tim Cook. The CEO who inherited Steve Jobs’ role doesn’t possess any of that legend’s nerd swagger, but he replaces that with an almost folksy, aw-shucks charm. He said PR-scripted lines like “We are pleased to announce the biggest advancement in iPhone!” with a hint of something like embarrassment, as though he was uncomfortable with bragging. The audience would applaud and he’d clap along too, not sure what else to do with his hands. I like him.
Anyway. The big deal with iPhone 6 is that it’s going to be bigger than any previous generation of iPhones at 4.7 inches, which is almost exactly the height of a Pop-Tart. And just to really bake that noodle there’s also an iPhone 6 Plus, which is a 5.5-incher that will double as a cricket bat in a pinch.
Sarah Northway is generally pleased about the development, though she suggests the inspiration comes from somewhere beyond Cupertino. “I’m happy to see Apple finally admitting Android’s been right about bigger phones, and kudos for going right the heck past them to a 5.5-inch monster.”
Paint it Back creator Edward Brown is glad to see new screen sizes, but it’s complicated. “[The new form factor is] both exciting and terrifying — exciting because my next game was likely going to be iPad-only due to screen size limitations, but the new larger iPhones may be able to fit everything comfortably.”
What’s the terrifying bit? “New screen sizes means new screen resolutions, so you gotta test out your ‘old’ game on these new devices and possibly have to do significant re-engineering to get them to look good. If you don’t, you might get ravaged by the public. I remember seeing one-star reviews of games that didn’t contain retina graphics for the first iPhone that had a retina screen. Some of those reviews were within the first couple of weeks the device became available.”
Vainglory from California studio Super Evil Megacorp was used to show off Apple’s new Metal gaming development tools. This trailer is supposed to be ironic, right? Please tell me it’s ironic.
Pip Veale from wargaming house Slitherine is similarly concerned. “The new iPhone 6 (especially the Plus) could well be a viable form factor for meatier strategy games. But the proliferation of screen resolutions is a little irritating. It will be interesting to see what ability there is to prevent app purchase on specific hardware or screen sizes.”
Not everybody is worried about the new array of screens to support (“We have been working on getting Carcassonne ready for displays of various sizes for a while, and we look forward to yet another Carcassonne form factor,” Coding Monkeys‘ Martin Pittenauer told me) but it was a common concern in my conversations. One of the reasons for developing for iOS over Android that game developers have been citing for years is the relatively straight-forward set of hardware specs to work towards — there’s definitely fear among the developers I talked to that Apple’s ecosystem is headed towards a more Android-like fragmentation. But it’s not just about screen sizes.
Out There developer Michael Peiffert is probably the most bearish on the new devices, and he’s most worried about what’s under the hood — the new 64-bit A8 chip that Apple says is 50 times faster than the silicon in the original iPhone. “Honestly, iPhones and iPad get even more overpowered each year,” Peiffert says. “But do we need so much power for mobile games?”
Peiffert thinks that the current state of the App Store, with its emphasis on free or cheap games is fundamentally incompatible with high-priced development. “It’s important to keep in mind that AAA graphics ask AAA budgets. Even if mobile game price tags are on the rise, they are still tiny compared to PC, consoles and handhelds. Which brings to the table the question of profitability. From a user point of view, next-gen graphics are not the primary reason why they buy mobile games.”
Peiffert wonders if this over-the-top graphics power isn’t a telltale for something else. “We can speculate that they are sending a message to developers that something bigger has yet to come. Something like a Apple-branded home console, maybe? I would gladly like to see that happen in the coming years. Or sooner.”
Apple Watch
Irri-wristable?
So the phone is bigger, faster, etc — but still just another phone. The “one more thing” surprise (or not) at the end of the event was Apple Watch, a wrist-mounted touchscreen computer that Apple was at great pains to describe as not just a tiny iPhone, but rather a device with a completely reinvented OS.
The Watch will have its own App Store and apps developed for it will be able to take advantage of barometric-sensing altitude meters for precise activity tracking, a heartbeat sensor, and and a buzzing haptic feedback generator.
Ian Gregory from Ravenmark makers Witching Hour Studios and I had the same first thought. “I wanna do a Dick Tracy game now.” Indeed.
There was some skepticism about the Watch from our panel, but also a lot of ideas flowing — the Watch definitely inspired people right away. “While the Watch’s screen seems too small to make games on it (I mean, more sophisticated than Snake), I would rather see it as the iPhone’s companion,” Peiffert said. “For example, in a strategy game, you order your troops to walk toward an objective on your phone. Then, you can track their progress in real-time on the Watch through a minimalistic interface. You may get a notification later on the Watch as your valiant soldiers get attacked, giving you the chance to react accordingly without even pulling your phone from your pocket.” That would certainly make Crusader Kings II fun to play on the slowest time setting.
First Strike developer Jeremy Spillman had a similar notion. “Without knowing the exact specs and capabilities of the watch, it opens up wonderful new possibilities for turn based games. Not having to get your phone out to react to an opponent’s move would make taking turns during the day so much more fluent. And if all fails I can at least now fulfill my childhood dream of making a Knight Rider game where you can talk to KITT.”
Inkle‘s Joseph Humfrey sees a lot of potential in the force sensor that the Watch uses to differentiate between a soft tap and a harder one. “The force-sensor built into the screen could be an interesting addition if (or more likely, when) they bring it to future iPads and iPhones. Getting the extra dimension on the touchscreen could enable improvements in user interface, possibly subtle, but great nonetheless. An obvious example is to allow analogue acceleration in racing games.”
And Sarah Northway wanted to be a naysayer but was immediately riffing on game ideas. “I can’t say I’m super excited to own or wear the Apple Watch… but it did get me thinking about games I could make for it. It has a vibration interface to indicate whether you need to turn left or right while navigating in maps — could I use that to make you feel like you’re touched by an unseen force, then use the accelerometer to feel when you jerk your hand away? The always-present quality of a watch on your wrist could be useful for games that play out in real time or real space. Games that you can’t escape, you’re always playing… where you can receive notifications via subtle vibration and respond just by moving your hand?”
iOS 8
Let’s get ready to bundle.
For some devs, new Apple hardware and OS announcements don’t feel like Christmas as much as they do the first day of school. “My main response to almost the whole thing is just a vague sense of inconsequential dread,” says Finji’s Adam Saltsman. “Oh great, we need to update a bunch of three-year-old games or else they won’t get rotation in the best-of for not natively supporting some new resolution or OS feature or something? I’m basically a grumpy old man now, huh?”
But for Slitherine’s Marco Minoli, iOS 8 has one big feature that your wallet may be happy about. “What is very interesting though is the addition of a new bundling system for Apps, which allows to sell up to 10 games together. That could potentially be a game changer for the iTunes store.”
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