The iOS gaming thread

[Cheeko]

Edge reviewed it. They like it very much. So far I find the visuals very appealing but I don't really understand the concept of the second gauge yet. It just seems to shrink until it hits the middle and I can't seem to do anything about it.

You have to touch the other side of the screen, one side controls the thicker bar, the other side controls the thin one, just to add to the mix they don't move at the same speed either

[rumblecat]

I've really been enjoying Plague Inc. It's basically Pandemic, but with a slightly nicer look and easier interface- you create a plague, you watch it spread round the world, you trying and mutate it to avoid being cured, and see how much of humanity you can wipe out.

Casual mode is fun for the oddly depressing experience of wiping out humanity, but normal and hard provided a decent challenge where you have to pay more attention to developing your strain of plague and making sure it flourishes in different physical and economic climates.

[Grobbelboy]

You have to touch the other side of the screen, one side controls the thicker bar, the other side controls the thin one, just to add to the mix they don't move at the same speed either

Cheers! Just played it some more and it's a lovely little game, mainly due to its pureness and the brilliant presentation.

[misterSquare]

Hey folks - just a little plug for my game, Bitstream, which finally got released today:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/bitstream-lite/id527356910?mt=8

As it was my first iOS game, I just wanted to do something simple to get my head around XCode/Objective C etc, so settled on doing a port of the first XNA game I ever worked on. Its sort of a modern take on the rather niche GBA game, Dotstream, only with funky music and lots and lots of particles

[Kryptonian]

I've really been enjoying Plague Inc. It's basically Pandemic, but with a slightly nicer look and easier interface- you create a plague, you watch it spread round the world, you trying and mutate it to avoid being cured, and see how much of humanity you can wipe out.

Casual mode is fun for the oddly depressing experience of wiping out humanity, but normal and hard provided a decent challenge where you have to pay more attention to developing your strain of plague and making sure it flourishes in different physical and economic climates.

Cheers for pointing this one out, grabbed it at lunch and it's really good.

[Clipper]

Hey folks - just a little plug for my game, Bitstream, which finally got released today:

http://itunes.apple....d527356910?mt=8

As it was my first iOS game, I just wanted to do something simple to get my head around XCode/Objective C etc, so settled on doing a port of the first XNA game I ever worked on. Its sort of a modern take on the rather niche GBA game, Dotstream, only with funky music and lots and lots of particles

V nice, good aesthetic, clean gameplay , fun , well worth 69p

Only thing I would say is maybe give a sensitivity option for touch controls as i found i reached screen limit occasionally and had to lift finger move down and drag up again which slowed me down at direction changing some times.

[Vimster]

Really enjoying Gauge, it's surprisingly addictive.

[DukeOfEarlsfield]

Hey folks - just a little plug for my game, Bitstream, which finally got released today:

http://itunes.apple....d527356910?mt=8

As it was my first iOS game, I just wanted to do something simple to get my head around XCode/Objective C etc, so settled on doing a port of the first XNA game I ever worked on. Its sort of a modern take on the rather niche GBA game, Dotstream, only with funky music and lots and lots of particles

Sadly, the Lite version refuses to work on my iPod Touch 4th Gen. It shows the Projector Games splash screen and crashes back to the home screen. Shame, as I really loved Dotstream.

[HarryBizzle]

I'm playing an awful lot of Magnetic Billiards.

I can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm just missing something and once I get it I'll be much better at it.

Also sometimes it can be a bit fiddly to make extremely fine adjustments, which is a bit annoying when it's a game which wants you to play it slowly and in a controlled manner (I think?)

[JPickford]

Open to suggestions Harry.

In an early build we had a few different control modes - some of which were a bit more abstract than just positioning your finger. Ultimately we went for the simple approach.

[HarryBizzle]

I'm sure you've put a lot more thought into this than I ever will, but what I find myself kind of wishing for while I'm playing is a slider like in Peggle, if you know what I'm talking about? In that you can make large, fast movements just by touching where you want to hit and if you want to make very fine adjustments there's this slider on the right of the screen you can use.

Something like that would require the arrow thingy to stay on when you set it though, and then you'd need like two sliders, one for fine adjustments to power and one for angle. (Maybe just up and down and left and right anywhere on the screen?)

It's so satisfying when you beast the S rank. Shame Gamecenter doesn't seem to allow leaderboards for individual levels.

[ravnaz]

Anyone tried Dungeon Village? New release by Kairosoft today.

[Mentazm]

Woot! Been waiting on that for an age!

[Hitcher]

Open to suggestions Harry.

In an early build we had a few different control modes - some of which were a bit more abstract than just positioning your finger. Ultimately we went for the simple approach.

What about a dead zone?

[HarryBizzle]

I don't quite understand the fuss over Kairosoft "games."

Tried Hot Springs Story and apart from being unbelievably dull, it seems impossible do to poorly at it.

[toythatkills]

Is that the only one you've played? You want Game Dev, really.

[gospvg]

Game Dev Story & Grand Prix Story - both great fun

[Dudley]

I don't quite understand the fuss over Kairosoft "games."

Tried Hot Springs Story and apart from being unbelievably dull, it seems impossible do to poorly at it.

You have chosen the worst one there but the "impossible to do poorly" is a bit of a feature. It's not sim city where you'll be dead in a year if you're an idiot but that's kinda the point.

[Mentazm]

Hot Springs is OK, but Game Dev is not just the best iphone game, it's one of my fave games of all time. Grand Prix Story is effing awesome too.

[HarryBizzle]

I was under the impression that they were just kind of reskins of one another.

Also seems odd that none of their games are Universal apps.

[Dudley]

I was under the impression that they were just kind of reskins of one another.

Also seems odd that none of their games are Universal apps.

Edo and Venture Towns are very similar but even then they're not "reskins".

They do have 2 main "styles" though.

They're not universal because they're ports from older smartphones.

[Dandy_Sephy]

'Summer'

[Mr Do 71]

Whale Trail is currently free, as is Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing.

Edit: Sonic & Sega not free anymore.

[Haribokart]

Whale Trail is free forever, unfortunately the latest update monged it up.

[toythatkills]

Whale Trail is free forever now, and they've messed it up entirely.

It's free-to-play, which means that the game you've already bought is now fucked up the ass with in-app purchases, including for things like higher combos. So if you want to get high scores like you did before, you're actually going to have to give them more money first. This shit should be banned, this is not the game I paid money for any more.

[Mr Do 71]

D'oh, that's a shame.

Monsters Ate My Condo is currently free

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/monsters-ate-my-condo/id459489208?mt=8

Everyone get this, it's totally amazing.

[Dudley]

Whale Trail is free forever now, and they've messed it up entirely.

It's free-to-play, which means that the game you've already bought is now fucked up the ass with in-app purchases, including for things like higher combos. So if you want to get high scores like you did before, you're actually going to have to give them more money first. This shit should be banned, this is not the game I paid money for any more.

It might be tricky to get a refund on this one, it's not like that racing game where they literally stopped levels, technically the levels are all still here, they've just added XP.

But yes, I'd never pay money to UsTwo again, I can't trust them.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Can't believe they ruined that 69p game everyone bought about a year ago and then stopped playing soon after.

[Dudley]

The point is larger than that and it comes to buying games digitally no longer being buying.

[rumblecat]

Didn't it have a huge budget or something as well..? I remember reading that they were a bit screwed because of all the money they'd splashed on it.

I thought it was okay, but never felt the need to keep playing it, something about the forced cutesiness felt a bit, I dunno... creepy in a paedophilic sort of way...