So I got an iPod Touch…
Originally I was thinking…
But then gradually I became…
and then I got persuaded to TA a game development course involving it, so I kinda had to be…
…the guy on the right, obviously.
So here are my semi-coherent ramblings about it, so far.
Man, Warren Ellis got me so excited for this. In an oblique way, he referred to Clay Shirky’s famous statement “Anything that ships without a mouse is broken,” except he said that it’s now a touch screen. Unfortunately, I have to disagree. The iPod touch is too small and fiddly to take full advantage of the touchscreen. Maybe if it were square, 3” x 3”, then I could use it. But right now my original-Xbox-controller-loving are just too darn big and American to use it comfortably, and this is coming from the same man who wrote most of his finals on an Asus eeepc 700 one semester. In portrait mode it’s too narrow, and in widescreen mode it’s too short, and I’m only talking about browsing the internet. Now, apps seem to have it down-they make their interfaces streamline, tabbed, whatever, it works. But games have limited degrees of success. The Megaman 2 port is displayed in a tiny box inside a game-gear-esque UI, with screen buttons. The gamespeed is questionable, and the controls could be charitably called awkward. The Brothers In Arms game is full 3d, and good-looking, too, but the controls are once again very meh. Even though they allow three different schemes, the platform just does not cater to aiming up and down with any degree of success. I think Doom’s going to be a smash hit here, because it isn’t hampered too badly by a lack of z-axis. I’ll buy it, I know that much. So, what does this mean for designers? First, the touchscreen can’t replace a mouse. It functions much more like one of those little nipple-pointers that used to come on IBM laptops, before the dreaded coming of the touchpad (an interface which I STILL think nobody has gotten right, but that’s another story). You can’t play a modern 3D FPS with a nipple-pointer (I think they’re called trackpoints, actually, so I’ll say that), and you shouldn’t have to. So nix precision of looking/aiming. Second, realtime 3D graphics are still a bit choppy and laggy. So nix realtime in general. In fact, when I was playing BIA, the first thought that came to mind was “Hey, I would LOVE to play Valkyria Chronicles / Operation Darkness on this.” 3D turn-based games are, I think, the preferred niche here. Perhaps even weirder ones, too, like Metal Gear Acid. Card games would work well, rhythm games are a shoe-in… I haven’t seen how well a 2D shooter would function, yet. R-Type clones or anything requiring precision is out, though. Perhaps R-Type Command, the strategy cousin? One thing’s for sure: When I end up making my games for the touch and iPhone, I’m going turn-based. No other acceptable way.
FAKE EDIT, further reflections after playing I Dig It, ASwarm Lite, and AlienInvader: I Dig It was not to my taste, although well-executed, and I ADORED ASwarm and AlienInvader. 2D Shooters are very much the sweet spot, here, and the motion controls even work! Precision of movement is possible as long as the touchscreen is constrained to a single dimension.
UniWar, while not free, is a competent execution the general idea I had. It could use some help, though.
