iPhone as Gaming Platform? I don’t think so.
December 25th, 2008
Here is my thoughts about iPhone as gaming platform after short trip to mountains.
Tilting is not that good in moving trasnport: I tried to use tilt while was in not vertical position (lying on backseat of a car), and I haven’t enjoyed it. I also expect tilt to have problems in underground/subway, since trains wobble and change speed from time to time, but have not tested it, and could not find and info on the net. It’s not a big issue unless hardest level of difficulty is selected.
Solution: always leave buttons as alternative control scheme.
No buttons: while it could be a subjective, I could not play games comfortably without buttons, yeah, you can put “buttons” on screen, but then I had to lift my fingers from time to time, to check if I’m still pressing right button.
Solution: to use stylo, Nintendo DS utilizes style, and it does not over whole button, it just needs to cover 2-3 square pixels.
Battery life: Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable has option to change battery, which could be helpful on long trips, iPhone 3G with high brightness die pretty fast.
Solution: to buy chargers for planes, trains, cars instead of extra battery packs.
It’s not that bad, but just as Mac OS X, iPhone is not shaped with gaming in mind. I doubt that spoiled by Sony and Nintendo gamers will enjoy iPhone, but casual gamers could find it enjoyable. So the bottom line is: iPhone has all the chances to become best gaming phone, of Apple will work in this direction, but I don’t see 10-20 million sold games ($15-35 each) sales for iPhone. IMO that leaves iPhone for indie developers and PR, MLM and Viral Marketing campanings, but not mainstream gaming.
Btw, does any one know, whenever Apple plans to enable games on Apple TV?
Update
According to comment I received on my email, it’s also hard to tilt when player is stoned.
