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'Realm Of The Mad God' On Mobile? It Could Happen

posted July 5th, 2011 6:46 PM EDT by Brad Nicholson in News

Realm of the Mad God is one of the only web-based games I care about. It’s a dual-stick shooter with RPG and MMO trappings. You play as one of several different projectile-slinging, weapon-swinging character classes in a legitimate life or death adventure that revolves around collecting loot and killing monsters. In action, it’s a delicious and chaotic mess of stat bonuses, furious collection, cutesy particle effects, trading, and quest taking.

The thing that I find so remarkable about it is how stripped-down it is. You don’t need to engage with other players, there are no quest givers, and the loot flows like water as you scramble around the world putting beasts and boss monsters on ice. And while perma-death is a mechanic, it doesn’t sour the experience. It enriches it. Your dude matters. He has a life!

You can check out the game in your browser right now and maybe, just maybe, as some point in the future, you’ll be able to check it out on your mobile device.

This very afternoon, I got in touch with Rob and Alex at Wild Shadow, the studio behind the game. There are no short-or-long term plans to bring Realm of the Mad God to mobile, but there’s still a chance it could come to the platform.

“We don't really have an long-term plans for mobiles either -- it's mainly due to the twin-stick interface we're using,” Rob told me. He mentioned that he recently gave a dual-stick shooter a go on his iPad and wasn’t happy with the virtual stick interface. I totally get where he's coming from.

There’s also the issue that Wild Shadow would need to contract a possible port out, but the main problem resides in the controls.

“We’d love to get Realm of the Mad God onto mobiles, if we could find someone willing to do the port who can solve the interface problem,” Rob said before asking if me if I had any ideas on solving the interface issue. I bumbled about and said I would turn the question to you guys instead. So... have any good ideas? I’m desperate to have this game on my iPad or iPhone, so fire away, PLEASE.

[Big thanks to Rock, Paper, Shotgun for turning me on to this game]

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  • http://wondroushippo.com Carter Dotson

    Really, what's so wrong about virtual sticks for touch screens? Plenty of games use of them, and the reason we keep seeing so many dual-stick games? They're probably the best virtual control method out there. iOS gamers can forgive some control inaccuracy because of virtual controls vs. physical ones. So make it happen!

    • Mrsmartiepants

      Swiping works about a billion times better in most cases than virtual sticks. Try some games that utilize that control scheme and tell me virtual shoe horned sticks are better.

  • squarezero

    Here's an easy way to solve the dual-stick problem: come to the realization that you are designing the game for touch-screen gamers. Not PC gamers, not console gamers. We are confortable with dual-stick controls on a screen. Our connection with Meteor Blitz is almost telepathic. We rake up ridiculous scores in Minigore. We find Cave's Mushihimesama Bug Panic a joy to play. Just keep the framerate high and give us some flexibility especially on the iPad. In fact, we'd much rather play DSS on a touch screen than on a PC keyboard (well at least I do).

    This is pretty much the same attitude that ruined 1 Bit Ninja: what could have been a classic game was basically gimped by the developer, purportedly to make it "work on the platform". Never mind the fact that there are plenty of 3 input platformers that work very well on a touch-screen.

    Face it: PC and console gamers are never going to be happy with touch screen controls. But you are not designing the game for them. You are designing it for folks who have been playing iOS games for years. This is not a difficult concept to understand.

    /rant

    • Anonymous

      If you ask me it's the fact 1-bit Ninja's developer realised the shortcomings of the platform that stopped his game being yet another dull, lifeless platformer with "okay" controls and turned it into something different with excellent controls. This is the exact attitude that made 1-bit Ninja a winner.

      • squarezero

        We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one. For me it failed at pretty much every level -- in fact, I found it particularly dull and lifeless, like a filmaker so focused on purity of technique that he forgets about characters, story, etc. The review on Kill Screen (http://killscreendaily.com/articles/reviews/review-1-bit-ninja) pretty much nails it.

        I would say that Diversion does the one button thing with far more inventiveness.

      • squarezero

        That's http://killscreendaily.com/articles/reviews/review-1-bit-ninja

        For some reason discus added the second parenthesis to the URL.

      • Anonymous

        It's certainly a "back to basics" kind of game. I feel as though it's been a long time since that reviewer played Super Mario Land, the game 1-bit Ninja is so obviously based on; there's not a huge amount more to that either. It feels more like he just doesn't "get" the genre the way some people do. Many would look as Space Invaders and think it's boring in that all that happens is different patterns of aliens descend and you move about shooting mindlessly, while others regard it as a staple of classic gaming. Neither opinion is really correct unless the game is genuinely broken, which neither 1-bit Ninja or Space Invaders are.

        I found League of Evil rather lifeless in that it felt like nothing more than a clump of levels nobody can really tell apart from one another and that anybody could have made with a simple editor. Not to mention a time limit thrown in for no reason other to add to the difficulty level (which is still depressingly low bar the last few levels). Nevertheless it's a huge hit among forum members...

      • Caanerud

        I don't understand the love for Diversion (yet). I've played 13 levels and so far it's pretty boring. Hopefully this 'inventiveness' with the level design shows up before the last few levels.

    • Zaccur White

      sorry i disagree with you square i play on all platforms including mobile devices and the wii and i have no problems with the controls on any settings especially the dual virtual sticks i actually favor it over any controls in most cases, a game such as world at war zombies for iPad can only be played through dual sticks for the best experience  

  • http://twitter.com/drelbs drelbs

    Wonder what dual-stick-shooter he played - dual analog sticks are about the best thing in terms of virtual controls that I've played with on iOS...

  • farra

    Why stick with typical virtual sticks? Why not use something like Battleheart's controls? Or maybe a touch-anywhere single virtual stick for movement and some gesture (two finger touch?) for directional fire?

    Devs need to think out of the box more on touch control schemes rather than just slapping virtual sticks and virtual buttons onto everything.

  • Anonymous

    There are many games with tons of different input methods, all which have their own effectiveness. Virtual d-pad, dual stick, and out if the box designs like sword&sworcery or battleheart (thanks farra).

    Regardless, any can work well if implemented right. Although I agree that the controls need to be very precise- but that is entirely possible.. many different games on iOS are examples of this.

  • http://twitter.com/bluntrophy bluntrophy

    hello, bonne et agréable journée

  • http://twitter.com/ezonecom Simon Edis

    Hey Brad - how about reviewing an actual game that is out (hint, hint, our game Diversion), rather than all this speculation on 'maybe released sometime in the future'? 

    • http://twitter.com/riChchestMat Chris Matchett

      This.

      This article seems to be: "I like this game. I spoke to the developers who said it would be nice to put it on mobile." That could be said about many many things. It's not even a "we are currently porting this to iOS". It's meant to be a news page not Twitter.

      • http://toucharcade.com Eli Hodapp

        The goal of TouchArcade is game discovery. This is a really cool web-based game that people even in comments here are having tons of fun with. I'm excited at the potential of it coming to iOS in any capacity.

  • Noah

    Tilt to move. Tap and Hold to shoot. Done.

  • trent reznor

    this game seems pretty awesome! I would totally buy this as a virtual stick shooter

  • Andy

    Just take a look at Jeff Minters Mintotron - that's how it should be done!

  • andrzej raczynski

    everyone likes something different, some people like virtual sticks, some don't, some think pixelated games are great, some don't, some think perma death is great, others don't.  if they don't want to take the time to put their mmo on the ios just because they're used to keyboards/mice/controllers, then so be it, its their right.

  • TanTan

    I've never heard of the game before, but I tried it out in the browser and it was pretty good! Good enough at least to put some thought into a control scheme. Sadly though, I haven't been able to think of something that would with touch controls other then the typical two sticks.

    I'm not sure which DDS Rob tried out, but he either wasn't playing a game like Mini gore or Geometry Wars where the controls where done completely right. Or it's solely the fact the he was trying to play on the iPad. Which is hard to play a DDS on based on the size/shape.

    But since it clearly says "mobiles" i'm going to say that the iPhones/iTouchs of the world would be added into this game as well. And DDS work very well with the shape and size of the iphone.

    So to make this work, I'm going to say that the UI would have to involve 2 sticks, (Either stuck in a location, or as a "touch anywhere" sort of deal) That takes care of the movement and shooting. 

    Now You could easily throw a minimap up in the top right corner. Just be sure to add the option to select your own opacity. For the items/spells/equipment (aka 1-8) add "hot keys" just like in Z3, the 5 or so buttons that you can move around and set to either abilities or items.

    Lastly for the iPhone/iTouch controls, to pick items up. the bar that goes down half way between the mini map and the top of the screen will go to end the of the mini map, Your inventory will be on the top, the bag of goodies will be on the bottom. Drag and drop to pick up!

    I'm sure some of that is kind of hard to understand, so ive added a picture to help! And lastly, I think this game would be way better on a iPhone then on a computer. I tried playing on my Mac and if felt weird using WASD and a touch bad to play a DDS.

    http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn86/TannerSeverson/ROTMGUIidea.jpg

    For the iPad, I would have the same set up going on for the iPhone, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that everybody who owns an iPad, most likely also has an iPhone or iTouch. So the implementation of Joypad here would be out standing!!!!

    If the idea is liked, feel free to contact me if there are any questions! 

  • Furtin

    Easy! Virtual Dual-Stick control is a nobrainer, as long as I snap my beloved FLINGs on it. Otherwise you must have the CAVE bullet-hell direct control option. Its the best for accurate and fast control.

  • nickmorgs

    Never heard of this game before.  It's now an hour later and i've got no work done..........

  • Rdizzy

    I play rotmg on my mobile already, new android w flash enabled.

  • Guest

    It's awesome that you guys actively search for hidden gem games that could thrive on iOS.  With proper implementation of Dual Stick, ROTMG could be awesome on the mobile devices. Because you guys have a little cred, has anyone considered contacting positech games lead man Cliffski about Gratuitous Space Battles?

    • Qwertythebold

      that... that would... make me cry with joy...

  • Jonnypez

    Dual virtual sticks works well for Mini-Gore… and from the looks of it, I'd rather be playing this game.. please?

  • Braun Parent

    What developers should do is add an in-game notice providing a list of stores in your area that sells the ifling joystick using the location services setting, thus allowing the reccomendation of a better gaming experience with the games dualstick shooter interface. That way it includes an alternative experience for the hardcore gamers

    • Otni Ledelay

      No. Just no. I'd quit RotMG if this happened

  • Adam Stranberg

    MAGE-GAUNTLET!!! Best stinking control scheme on the iPad EVER!! I play that game just to move in circles :P

  • http://profiles.google.com/nokkturnal334 Corey Hendrey

    ..Virtual stick bottom left of device for movement, then use your other hand to point where you want too shoot..

    :S Seems easy?


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