I thought it would be interesting to address the post regarding helping our competition. In a positive light: I think it's actually beneficial to support our competition to some extent. It allows them to make for better games, which in turns attracts more customers to the iPhone and the appstore. This helps out all developers who now have a wider audience and more people to spend money on games, including mine! In a negative light: Developers can also purchase the products of other developers in order to steal the ideas that work great and leave out the failures of others in order to create a product to rival their competitors. Its a give and take relationship.
I love Edge, Flight Control, Prism, Tiki Towers, ..and Sneezies! Greetings to our friends at Antairgames! cheers Future777
I keep returning to Puzzle Quest for some reason, although its getting tedious to play the same match-3 over and over again. Other than that - Blue Attack and Pinball Dreams. During development of our games I also play research games (on all platforms - not just iphone). Meaning "the competition", so I can learn from their mistakes and make better game design choices. Its called evolution btw and not "stealing from the competition". Right now I play Heroes of Might and Magic V, Advance Wars Dual Strike, Fire Emblem, Kings Bounty and a few other games in that direction - guess that tells you a little about "whats next" here.
Playing Imprisoned! right now. After that I'll probably get back to Vay... I started that months ago but didn't get back to it...
I bought Chronicles of Itonia around December during my Winter Break from the Uni*******, and I just beat it last week finally. It was a very long game. I wish the framerate was much smoother, it could be easily accomplished. I have also been playing Trism a lot which is a really nice puzzle game! The main game I have been playing was the test version of Blitz Blok I had developed when I first became a developer. It has gone through many revisions, and there are plenty more to come to keep the game fresh, and fix some flaws. Aurora Feint is also a spectacular game! Its RPG elements still have me hooked from the very day I bought it back in July. Truly a masterpiece although I have not bought any of the newer ones.
Yeah I guess time is a big problem for everyone. The only time I have is right before I go to sleep usually, then I usually check my email (that alone is a 24h job) and play a round of Strategery and try beating that 2nd level on hard in geoDefense. Damn you level 2!! Then of course, we play lots of games at work too apart from when we are doing research. We enjoy Motorstorm 2 a great deal, it's great for four players.
I wonder if this will tarnish my image as an iPhone developer... but I actually do not own an iPhone or even an iPod touch. But I am hoping that if Crayon Ball is successful enough that one day I will be able to afford one. However my coworkers Scott and Andy have iPods... so I still get to play stuff. I really really like Edge. It has a walking robot made out of cubes!!! Mouse House is also pretty awesome. 10 ball 7 cups has the best prizes ever... and a FREE TACO! Also it is probably the best skee ball game for the iPod. The games that make me really want an iPod: RogueTouch: This sounds like the most amazing thing ever... a copy of Rogue that I can play everywhere. Touch Grind: This is so ingenious. When I was in sixth/seventh grade, finger boards were all the rage. That was before anyone had even manufactured them as toys... we used to make them in tech shop by cutting out plastic and using a heater to bend up the edges. It's a good thing that they were easy to make, because finger boards were frequently confiscated. It just makes me nostalgic for being 12 years old again. Now I am just a total poser and an old fart.
I played almost all of the games that ever hit top 10, except for maybe oregon trail, because last time I tried to get it it's not available in australia.. what gives? As for the real time-sucking ones, it was probably iDracula and orions. Finished edge as well, iShoot was great, finished enigmo, spent plenty of time with fieldrunners, spent a lot of time with flick fishing, zombievill also got plenty of playtime. Finished heavy mach too. Played a bit of theseus, pretty cool. You know devs never play games. They do "market research", which is a more justifiable word whenever someone finds you slacking off
Because you don't think that game developers also like to play video games? I think my two favorite games are Edge (just so freaking cool), and The Creeps. I also like Crayon Ball of course...
Wow, most stories sound the same: no time to play, need to test/design/code game I'm developing. Same here. Have been playing Sneezies a lot lately though. No thinking involved, just pretty pictures... tap... something happens. Wonderful.
I think *most* developers are over-exaggerating on how little time they have to play... Most wouldn't be into game development if they couldn't enjoy some of their favorite games. I'm in the game development market and get my fair share of iPhone games, Nintendo Games, and my Xbox games. (Only system I don't have is the PS3. And yes, in my system line up I have the NES, SNES, N64, Commodore 64, and even built a computer gaming console that is an emulator for the old Arcade games, fully including 4 controllers and 4 joysticks. I am one lucky man. )
I'll tell you a little story. I used to be so mad on getting the latest games from the app store, I was quickly becoming an addict. Then a few weeks back I changed all because I learned to program myself, and began devising my own game. And, you guessed it, I haven't spent more than 15 minutes, since creating my own game, playing other games! I loaded up iFishing since it's last update for ten minutes and I think that was it. I have had updates for others, and haven't bothered loading them to see how they have improved. I am working on my own game day and night till 2am- it is SO much more addictive than playing other peoples. Maybe I'll get back into playing other games when I have finished mine. But then I'll probably have an idea for another one
am i the only one who loves how v-e-r-s-i-t-y is banned? no **********, uni*******, di******* hilarious no im not a developer but im trying to be!!!! (Im playing iShoot)
It's the same for most developers, because you're creating something and you can see it grow you want to continue to nurture it. Be careful of getting programmer burn-out (Google the term for lots of threads explaining it).
Right now I'm playing a lot of frenzic as well as just fill'n. I'm a fan of super simple gameplay that I can manage with one hand as I ride the streetcar to the studio.
Wastedyuthe, I completely understand that! Most of the games I play are for no longer than 5- 10 minutes. I just bought The Quest for 5.99, created a character, talked to some people, and shut it down. It's not that its a bad game, but I just don't spend that much time on them, especially since I don't want to be into a lengthy game.
Im not a dev but I would have to agree with that statement, its not as if those of us that aren't devs dont work long hours. Let alone alot of iphone gaming is done in short sessions like when you're on a break or what not so I dont buy the no time excuse at all. Of course I can see if you have a full-time job and dev for iphone is a 2nd job then yes its more understandable but still plenty of breaks during the day to check out other games if they wanted. I think its more of a focus thing they want to stay focused on their game and dont wanna get sidetracked or be influenced by other games. Even if they aren't working or playing/testing their game they are thinking about it and would rather do that and keep focused on it then playing other games. But it prob works both ways some devs might like to check out the competetion for ideas and thoughts and see whats hot or not or just to get away from their own for a bit.
