Archive for the ‘applications’ tag
‘Tapic’ Review – Tap Along to Your Own Music Library
Ever since a slew of new APIs found their way into the latest version of Apple's iOS, the one that we've been waiting for somebody to really take advantage of is the ability for applications to finally be able to tap into the music library of the device itself. We even dreamed of the classic Audiosurf making its way to iPhone in a post from early last month. With the success of rhythm games in the past few years, and especially the on iPhone, gamers have been clamoring for a similar game that they can play using their own music. Enter Tapic [99¢], the first game (that I know of) that creates a tapping chart directly from a song in your music library for you to play with. Tapic attains various levels of success in what it sets out to do, but it's far from perfect. Still, it's a novel use of the new API and is pretty fun in its own right.
The interface used in Tapic is simple to use. Choosing Play from the main menu brings up all the songs from your music library. After selecting a song Tapic will create a note chart for it, which takes about 10-20 seconds, and next you'll choose which difficulty to play it on. The harder the difficulty, the faster the notes come barreling towards you down the lanes. Choosing More Songs from the menu allows you to select a bunch of songs at once and have them prepared in advance for playing. Depending on how many songs you choose this can take a quite a few minutes, but allows you to play from songs in your playlist in succession without waiting for each one to create a chart in between.
The game can be played in portrait or landscape mode, although landscape must be purchased and unlocked using collected in-game coins (or by buying them with real money as IAP). Portrait uses three lanes of notes to tap along with, and landscape uses five. The game is at its best in landscape mode, and it's annoying that this must be unlocked rather than available from the start. Portrait is still ok, and it's a good way to get acclimated with playing Tapic, but landscape is where I spend most of the time playing. Different themes can also be bought using the game currency for both portrait and landscape mode, adding some graphical variety to the backgrounds.
The presentation and functionality of tapping the notes all work extremely well in Tapic, but it's the actual chart generation that fails to really impress. It doesn't ever feel like the notes jive with the song in a meaningful way as they rarely sync up properly, and when they do it mostly just feels like a coincidence. Some songs fared better than others while testing out the game, but overall you really feel like you're just playing an unrelated tapping game while listening to your favorite tunes. In my experience, and the general consensus of gamers , is that hip-hop and techno music gives the best results, while rock and metal generally don't.
The funny thing about the chart generator is that even though it's somewhat lacking, Tapic is still a lot of fun. I found myself continually wanting to keep playing, even though it didn't really feel like my performance had any impact on the song that was being used. I just can't help but feel like if the developer can improve this aspect of the game, which they have stated they are working on, then Tapic could really be something special. My other biggest point of contention is having to play for an extensive period of time (or spend real life money) before being able to unlock the landscape mode. It just feels like a cheap aspect to an otherwise excellently presented game. Perhaps the game will be taken to the next level over the course of its lifespan, but even right now Tapic is an interesting and fun way to experience your music.
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Got Gyroscope Envy? The ‘Perspectiverse Engine’ Might Just Cure It.
With the release of the iPhone 4 less than a week away, many readers are surely counting down the days until they can call Apple's most powerful pocketable device their own. The iPhone 4 boasts hardware enhancements that will allow for more sophisticated applications of every sort — but especially games. Its "Retina display" packs four times as many pixels as the current iPhone into a display of the same physical size, yielding a 326 pixels-per-inch, razor sharp display that makes jaggies a thing of the past. The 1GHz Apple A4 processor, which is currently used in the iPad, will allow for more complex games with improved physics and AI. And, finally, there's the gyroscope which will allow for incredibly accurate in-game motion tracking.
During the WWDC 2010 keynote, we saw Steve Jobs demonstrate the new iPhone's gyroscopic capabilities in a Jenga-like demo app. It was an impressive display of motion-tracking tech that went beyond what we had previously seen from the iPhone. After all, you need a gyroscope to pull off that kind of control, right?
Developer Vishal Srivastava of might beg to differ.
As , Srivastava, formerly with Microsoft, has created what he calls the "Perspectiverse Engine" that allows the iPhone 3GS and iPad to track motion in a fashion that yields seemingly impossible results from a device lacking actual gyroscope hardware. His system allows the user to manipulate their body in the physical world and see corresponding motion in the virtual world, making the iPhone or iPad feel quite like a window into that world.
According to the developer,
[The engine] uses a combination of device sensors to constantly align the game world with the real world. No matter how you orient your phone, north in the game universe is the same as north in the real world, south is south, up is up, down is down, and so forth. This allows you to interact with that game universe as if you were in it.
And, I can tell you, it works far better than you're probably guessing. If you've got an iPhone 3GS or an iPad, you can give it a try right now with Srivastava's [App Store], a Universal entertainment title that allows you to paint a 3D easter egg by moving around it in virtual space. (And it's on sale for $0.99 through this weekend.) The effect, even in this rather basic application, is pretty amazing.
The developer will soon be releasing a rather more interesting game title called Gyromaniac (previously known as Colonoscapade) in which you move your body around in order to find your way through a human colon and various other internal systems. A demonstration video shows the app in action (and gives one much appreciation for the trials of poor ).
Srivastava began work on his Perspectiverse Engine long before we knew that the iPhone 4 would sport a gyroscope (it was put together last July, in fact). So, is he daunted by the news that came in the iPhone 4 unveiling? Not at all. The physical gyroscope will improve the accuracy of his engine on new hardware, while on supported devices which lack a gyroscope, the engine will do its thing to simulate one.
And for other developers that like what they see in this system, Srivastava tells us that he is definitely open to the possibility of licensing the technology for use in others' apps, but his first order of business is to build a range of apps on top of the engine that showcase its capabilities on current hardware.
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Video of Jailbroken iPad Running SNES Emulator
This short video uploaded to youtube shows off the ability to run an emulator on the iPad to play SNES games, while using the Wii Remote to control the character. The game being played is Super Mario World on snes4iphone [].
The jailbreak for the iPad has not even been out a week yet, and you can clearly see the great possibilities that can come out of this device. As the jailbreak community continues to release new iPad specific applications, that Apple does not allow in their own AppStore, expect to see some really creative ideas unfold.
If your not too sure what jailbreaking your iDevice means, a great overview on what jailbreaking is, how easy it is, and some other common FAQ's regarding jailbreaking. But as always, like the Gizmodo article clearly points out:
And remember, be careful! Jailbreaking is unsupported and something that's very new to the iPad. If in doubt about a particular Cydia app, err on the side of caution. You're better safe than sorry, really.
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‘FarmVille’ could be coming to the AppStore
The extremely popular Facebook game, FarmVille, may be making its way to the AppStore. FarmVille is a farming simulation game, where users plant, grow, and harvest virtual crops along with raising livestock, similar to the freemium ngmoco game We Rule [iPhone / iPad] that was released last month. FarmVille is developed by the company , who is no stranger to the AppStore, with over 40 applications including Mafia Wars and Live Poker.
News of this broke when that DNStination Inc. registered the domain names farmvilleipad.com, and farmvilleiphone.com. DNStination is the same company that holds the domain name to the official farmville.com website by Zynga.
When a spokesperson for Zynga about it, they were told, “Zynga plans to expand to various mobile platforms." However, they were not able to get any more information. With the combination of the new domain names, Zynga's willingness to move to mobile devices, and their history of being in the AppStore, it seems likely that FarmVille may be coming.
It will be interesting to see if the mobile devices that 'Zynga plans to expand to' will include all the features that the full version has available online.
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Manomio Demonstrates Amiga and Atari 2600 Emulators for iPhone
Back in February we reported that, in an interview with Retro Gamer magazine, Stuart Carnie of Manomio (who brought us C64 for iPhone [App Store]) indicated that he was currently in the process of readying an Amiga emulation system for the iPhone to be used to wrap licensed Amiga games for release as individual iPhone game titles in the App Store, the emulation layer being invisible to the user.
Manomio has just released a video demonstrating the system that shows the Amiga games International Karate + and Turrican running quite smoothly in an alpha version of their emulation environment on an iPhone 3GS.
This morning, I spoke at length with Stuart regarding his Amiga emulation system. He indicates that his hand-coded 68000 emulator (the Amiga's CPU) was well worth the effort in terms of performance and that the iPhone 3GS is a perfect platform for playing Amiga games in this fashion. Unfortunately, devices lower in spec — that is, anything that's not an iPhone 3GS, a 3G iPod touch, or an iPad — are not quite up to the task and, as such, Manomio's coming Amiga releases will not support that hardware. Happily for iPad users though, the coming Amiga games will be universal applications that feature high resolution artwork and interfaces appropriate to the iPad's large screen.
Manomio's emulation system is based on the UAE4All emulator tied to Manomio's own ARM-optimized emulated 68000 CPU core. The system emulates a fairly standard computer.
As for what Amiga games we can expect to see in the App Store, Stuart indicates that is a definite, and that he is currently in negotiations with the IP holder to bring that classic title to the iPhone. Talks are underway with a number of IP holders who licensed their C64 games to Manomio for use with C64 for iPhone, as well.
An Amiga game that Arnold and I have both long enjoyed is the scrolling space shooter . Upon informing Stuart that securing this favorite was an obvious necessity, I was shocked and quite pleased to hear that the IP holders of the title had recently contacted him, seeking to bring that very game to the App Store through their emulation system. The deal is in negotiations and both parties are excited about the prospect.
Aside from the games already mentioned, Manomio has tested various other titles, including Xenon II, Ghosts 'n Goblins and R-Type (not that these are necessarily among the IP they have secured for release in the App Store), all of which "are just perfectly smooth." The first Amiga game from Manomio to hit the App Store will be International Karate +, which should land sometime in the late June timeframe.
And, while getting their Amiga emulation system finished and in the App Store is Manomio's main push right now, it's not their only one. Alongside the Amiga demonstration video, the studio posted a video demonstrating an Atari 2600 console emulator they've been working on for the iPhone. The video shows an iPhone running the Atari 2600 versions of Space Invaders, Berzerk, and Frogger.
Unlike the case of their Amiga emulation system, the Atari 2600 emulator is not a sure thing for App Store release, as Manomio is still rather early in talks with Atari over the needed rights to make such a system happen.
We will bring further details about Manomio's upcoming efforts as we hear them.
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Live Bloggin’ The Apple iPhone OS 4.0 Keynote
Apple's surprise media event unveiling the iPhone OS 4.0 is set to begin shortly. We'll be providing live updates, and focusing on things that specifically pertain to iPhone gaming or things iPhone gamers might be interested in like all of our other keynote coverage in the past.
Steve Jobs just took the stage, and started things out by talking about the sales figures of the iPad. On Saturday they sold 300,000, and as of today they've sold 450,000. Apple apparently is making them as fast as they can, but notes that Best Buy is already out of stock. On the first day, 1 million paid apps were downloaded, and since then 3.5 million have been. (In addition to 600,000 eBooks.)
Photo courtesy of .
Jobs also mentions that there are over 185,000 apps in the App Store, with over 3,500 iPad apps. He then took some time to show off the more impressive iPad apps in the App Store currently such as the ABC app, Netflix, the Marvel comic book reader, and others. Shifting gears to talk about the iPhone, Steve mentions they've won three JD Power awards for customer satisfaction, and currently holds 64% of the mobile browser market share. Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones, with 85 million combined devices between the iPod touch and iPhone.
iPhone OS 4.0 is coming this summer, with a developer preview available today.
Photo courtesy of .
Photo courtesy of .
Among the seven "tent pole" features of iPhone OS 4.0 is multitasking. Steve goes on to demonstrate how multitasking is going to work. With multiple apps running, double clicking the home button raises a window that looks a lot like the bottom dock of the iPhone showing what apps are running. Tapping an icon instantly switches to that app.
Photo courtesy of .
To explain how this all works while preserving battery life and performance, Steve hands things off to Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software. iPhone OS 4.0 will provide seven multitasking services. The first of which is audio streaming, and Forstall specifically cites Pandora as an example of an app that will shine with this functionality. Developing applications to utilize this functionality is apparently extremely easy, as it only took the Pandora developers a day to make the app background aware. Skype also works fantastically with this new functionality, even allowing you to accept calls while running in the background.
Doodle Jump spotted:
Photo courtesy of .
The next multitasking function is background location. Apps that use the GPS functionality such as TomTom will be able to continue routing while in the background. This raises obvious privacy concerns, and a new settings menu will be available to enable and disable location services per application, as well as showing a small arrow icon next to the battery indicator.
Moving on to push notifications, Forstall mentions they've sent over 10 billion notifications since the service went live. Building on push notifications comes local notifications, done entirely on the phone to see alerts from apps you have running in the background. One example mentioned was a popup when a photo was finished uploading to Flickr.
Photo courtesy of .
Steve takes the stage again and announces folders to organize apps. The interface seems an awful lot like the various jailbreak app organization solutions. So far Apple is really knocking it out of the park with this keynote.
Photo courtesy of .
The iPhone mail client is also getting enhanced, with a unified inbox for each email account on the device along with a threaded email view for reading conversations. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone is also getting the iBooks app which will sync pages and bookmarks with other devices that have the app.
Forstall just announced "Game Center", Apple's own gaming social networking service that seems to handle everything Plus+, OpenFeint, and others do with presumably one unified login tied to your iTunes account. Matchmaking, leaderboards, and achievements are all part of it.
Photo courtesy of .
Also mentioned was Apple's own iAd advertisement services, which we expect to see making appearances in many free games that have historically relied on AdMob and other advertising networks.
iPhone OS 4.0 will be coming this fall, and sadly, multitasking will not be supported for the iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch. That's it folks, Steve is taking questions now.
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Apple Accepting iPad Apps, Upcoming iPad Game Forum
With the Apple iPad only two weeks away, Apple has invited developers to start submitting their iPad applications to the App Store. They are asking developers to submit their iPad apps by March 27th to be ready for the iPad launch.
As we discussed during our GDC Podcast, we were surprised at the scope of some of the projects that have been in the works for the iPad. In anticipation of the iPad launch, we've created an subforum for developers to post announcements and screenshots about their upcoming iPad games. Developers can also contact us privately at tips@toucharcade.com if they prefer.
Some of the games already pre-announced for iPad include , , and a .
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‘The Graveyard’ – An Interactive Art Experiment
Thanks to the App Store I have been able to experience games I had missed the first time on other platforms. Dare I say it; I missed Monkey Island the first time around. , The Graveyard [$1.99 / Free] recently hit the App Store, it's over two years old and has even won awards but I never played or heard of it.
The Graveyard is not really game, I feel more comfortable describing it as interactive art or poetry. You can argue that’s what games are but after playing this I feel that the word game doesn’t do it justice. But to make writing this a little easier I will pretend I can call this a game.
You play the game as an old lady visiting a graveyard. Your only clear objective is a park bench at the end of the path. I could tell you more but I would spoil it for you. I know that sounds amazingly too simple, but when you play the game you will see there is so much more. I don’t understand it myself, but the game really makes you think about life.
I would suggest downloading the lite version and giving it a try. I would also wait to play the game when you’re alone in a quiet place to get the full effect.
The developer says that there are only a few differences between the computer and iPhone versions. If you do end up trying the lite and enjoying it, download the full version and it will introduce death into the game. I know that doesn’t sound like much but it adds the sense of urgency.
App Store Link: The Graveyard, $1.99, The Graveyard Lite, Free
[via ]
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Freeverse President Ian Lynch Smith on the Recent Purchase by Ngmoco
As a followup to yesterday's inteview with ngmoco CEO Neil Young, this morning we spoke with Freeverse President Ian Lynch Smith to hear what the recent purchase of Freeverse by ngmoco means to them. The full audio is attached below, but here is a summary of the talk.
Originally founded in 1994, Freeverse's earliest titles were Mac shareware games. They later branched out in to games for Windows, XBOX Live Arcade, and most recently the iPhone. Freeverse's MotoChaser was one of the few 3D games that launched with the App Store. Also immediately available were Big Bang Sudoku and Jared. They then went on to release a catalog of great iPhone games, both developed in house and and by outside developers published by Freeverse.
Photo by
Since the surprise announcement yesterday of ngmoco's purchase of Freeverse, what we've all been wondering is what is going to change. Ngmoco has recently shifted gears to an entirely free to play business model, while Freeverse has been happily releasing massively successful 99¢ games like Skee-Ball and Flick Fishing while working on highly anticipated games such as Warpgate.
The short answer of what is going to change initially is almost nothing, with very little changing in the future aside from the shift in payment models. According to Ian Lynch Smith, they wouldn't have done the deal if it wasn't for the shared vision between both companies, as each of them focus on the iPhone and iPhone OS. This doesn't mean they're abandoning the Mac games, applications, and everything else they do either. Freeverse will remain its own company in Brooklyn, just as a wholly owned subsidiary of ngmoco.
In addition, Freeverse will continue to publish the works of other iPhone developers, with the same level of quality and care we've seen in the past. As Smith put it, "[Ngmoco] did not buy Freeverse to make radical changes. They bought us because of our success, and they bought us because of what we've been doing right."
From Freeverse's perspective, the main motivation behind agreeing to this deal is the immense potential for growth. Through the years they've done everything they could to reach a larger audience, originally starting with shareware, then making the jump to retail shelves, then bringing their games to both the PC and XBOX, and finally jumping on the iPhone.
In regards to ngmoco's recent push to "freemium" games, Smith said, "We wouldn't have done this if we didn't think there wasn't more growth and more possibilities to reach more people in the free to play model." He cites people (now teenagers) who have grown up playing high quality free flash games as well as the massive successes seen in Asian markets as proof that the free to play model works.
Ian seems open to all forms of free to play games currently, including a one-time purchase to unlock all the features and functionality of a game– Something often requested by forum members regarding ngmoco's TouchPets and Eliminate. Freeverse has no intention of "nickel and diming" gamers, and plans on just being smart about how these things are implemented.
While he was reluctant to comment on future game development, when asked if they were still going to provide substantial gameplay experiences for gamers to enjoy instead of Farmville-like games, Smith simply responded "Yes" and mentioned a "substantial game" being discussed behind the scenes.
Freeverse admits they have much to learn about the free to play world, but with the combined expertise of ngmoco, they hope to release compelling games that can be played at no cost to the player, while providing optional in-game purchases for players who spend hours a day playing. They're hoping this will result in games that see the same exponential growth that the iPhone in general has enjoyed, instead of the current linear growth patterns Freeverse sees now.
Prior to this recent acquisition by ngmoco, Freeverse has never had investors and has been profitable on their own for the last 15 years. According to Smith, the main motivation for agreeing to the purchase was to "swing for the fences" and feels we're at a major moment in time, an inflection point, where we're going to see an explosion of mobile gaming.
"At the end of the day, we are just trying to sell our games in a way that lets us grow and continue making more games," Smith explained.
We recommend listening to the entire interview yourself, which is included here.
Podcast music provided by .
Interview Audio: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 12.9MB)
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‘Ancient Frog’ on iPad – Developer Thoughts
For the many that surely missed it, on Wednesday Apple quietly announced a new member of the iPhone OS family, the iPad. And, while it runs existing iPhone applications just fine in a pixel-for-pixel or 2x-scaled mode, the device with its 9.7-inch screen has much more to offer in the way of screen real estate (over 5x the pixel count of the iPhone) and both CPU and GPU power. The iPad proposition gives iPhone developers much to ponder in the way of just how best to support it.
James Brown, author of the lovely, zen-like frog manipulation game Anicent Frog [App Store] has, himself, begun to ponder the situation and has shared his thoughts on what he feels makes the most sense in bringing Ancient Frog to the iPad, in .
I can make the current iPhone application recognise the iPad and behave more like a native application on that platform. What I've done here is run it at 768×1024, but allowing it to letterbox slightly to retain the original aspect ratio (luckily the ragged border gives me a neat way to bring the edges in a bit, as well as a bit of room to lose some pixels top and bottom). This already looks way better than the previous shot – lots of elements are still blurry, but things that appear at varying scales in the game are already at a higher resolution. This means the text, the daisy and the particle effects are all crisp, which makes the whole thing seem higher resolution
He goes on to point out that fully supporting the iPad's enhanced resolution in his existing iPhone game would not only require a reworking of the graphics that make up every level, but would also push the game above the 10MB barrier for Edge / 3G download, which would greatly reduce the game's "impulse buy" potential for iPhone users.
Brown's plan is to bring the incremental upgrade that he describes, enhancing the game experience on the iPad in the near term and, down the road, release a separate, larger iPad-only version that takes full advantage of the device, but does not penalize iPhone and iPod touch gamers with a larger install.
For new games, moving forward, building in specific support for the iPad is one thing. But reaching into the back catalog to refresh existing titles for Apple's new device is quite another. Just what degree of iPad support is worth adding? What make the most sense? Once gamers start getting iPads in their hands, the early reaction to the experience of gaming on the device, as well as overall sales levels, should help answer that question. But developers and gamers alike should keep in mind the fact that, when the App Store launched, the iPhone had been on the market for a full year with millions of units sold. When a gamer downloads the first iPad game from the App Store, its market will be starting at zero. As such, it will be some time before developers determine where the "sweet spot" of iPad development effort lies.
App Store Link: Ancient Frog, $4.99
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