Comments on: What Do You Think About iPhone Game Development?

By: ME

ME — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:15:33 +0000

with the newer games coming out amazing. I say its definatly a conteder

By: Karl

Karl — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:57:43 +0000

Juuso,
That is the app! Glad you like it, and hope it comes in handy for you and others if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch. Please contact me if you have specific feedback or suggestions.

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:43:50 +0000

Karl, I presume this is the one:
http://www.karlbecker.com/carcare/

Nice!

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:50:13 +0000

I’ve done iPhone development of a utility, and it is definitely a good development proposition if you’re looking to make some money. I am very happy with sales, and development was not that hard.

There are lots of game ideas that are just waiting to be picked still…

By: DaveyJJ

DaveyJJ — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:51:15 +0000

@Juuso …

Unity announced back in late March the availability of a future version that supports iPhone development.

http://unity3d.com/company/news/iphone-press

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:21:20 +0000

Good comments guys. The price/profitability factor will definitely be something to consider. I have tested only a couple of “not so fancy” games, so I’m not the best person to say if the games are good…

Btw – Unity for iPhone? Missed this one..

By: James

James — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:13:50 +0000

I think it has a novelty factor like the Wii, and with the number of iPhones/iPod Touches out there it’s probably safe to say there’s a market for games on ‘em. The most interesting game I saw while browsing through the apps store a few days post-launch was a version of the roll-the-ball-around labyrinth game, using the motion sensors.

So, yeah, there’s a lot of potential to both develop new ideas and rework old ones with the touch/motion controls. Would be interesting to see someone develop an RPG or the like on an iPhone and see how the controls are handled.

I think it’ll come down to how much people are willing to pay for a game on their iPhone: The majority of apps I’ve seen are either free or really cheap. It’s a viable platform, just not sure if it’s a profitable one.

Looking now, there’s Super Monkey Ball on there for $9.99, and the reviews are looking pretty bleak in terms of control, so… who knows?

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:00:45 +0000

Will it take off? Indie developers would argue it already has!

A *good* indie game can easily sell 3X the licenses via any other venue. My hope is that it stays around about the level the way it is now. I don’t think it’s yet on the radar of the big dollar publishers (I’m looking at you, EA) and the lack of Flash support will hopefully keep the more technically intricate games from getting diluted by a bunch of cranked out “web” games.

Since you have to have a Mac to develop anyway, I suggest looking into the Unity engine (http://www.unity3d.com) instead of Torque. I have used both fairly extensively and Unity is very close to putting out an iPhone deployment path.

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:11:09 +0000

I think it’s all feeling like everyone getting carried away with a new platform at the moment. Yeah, it’s a great device, but will it last for gaming? I think not.

If you’ve had a chance to try some of the more “serious” games on there like Super Monkey Ball or Crash Nitro Kart then you’ll probably have noticed just how badly it handles its own motion controls and how infuriating it is that there are no buttons whatsoever.

The only games which really work on it are those which are touch only. I’ve had a bit of fun playing Sudoku and Lights Out on mine, but are these really going to be the games that take down Nintendo DS?