Has your view on mobile games changed?

[Doppel]

I'm surprised to say mine has, and not in the way I expected. Simply, I hate them.

I've not played on a handheld console in many years, but I keep hearing how everybody and everything is moving to mobile games (android, idevices), and yet compared to 18 months ago when I got an iPad, I hardly use it at all for gaming now. And I use my iPhone for it even less.

The screen size on the iPhone is already small, but using touch just makes it even smaller. I have a very faint feeling of claustrophobia when I use it. Case in point Rayman Run, a well made and well reviewed game. When I play it it feels like sitting at the back of a room with a 13" TV. That is alleviated on the iPad, but the touch input still is terrible for many games.

 

[Tweak155]

While you state mobile games, maybe you're focusing on touchscreen type games? I've never really liked them and opinion hasn't changed.

I threw on an old Metroid game I had for my GBA and had a blast on it still... You just can't beat actual touch controls. I'm not a huge fan of the DS due to the touch screen, but it still has some good games on it.

 

[exdeath]

Punch the Monkey and Angry Birds are not my idea of gaming.

 

[purbeast0]

mobile gaming is perfect for taking shits or just dicking around while in the car or waiting for something. other than that, they are worthless to me.

 

[Tweak155]

Wait, I take that back. I play a ton of Euchre on my phone.

 

[smackababy]

mobile gaming is perfect for taking shits

This is probably the only time I play any games on my iPhone. And it is usually Words with Friends because I really like Scrabble (and am still annoyed the rules aren't the current Scrabble rules and the board is different).

Other than that, I view mobile gaming on Android / iOS the same way I view browser games: decent enough time killers when you're board, but nothing really considered to be looked at like a real game.

 

[Nemesis13]

Other than emulators on droid i hate mobile gaming. But magic 2013 is great on ipad

 

[AstroManLuca]

Yeah, I just don't really care for mobile games. When I'm shitting or have 5 minutes to kill, I'm more likely to pull up news or one of my favorite websites, not play a mobile game. I far prefer "true" handheld games, but even those I don't like enough to spend any real money on them. I've thought about getting an old GBA SP or maybe an original DS for cheap, but I just can't see myself using it much.

 

[Arkaign]

HATE phone/tablet gaming. HATE it. It's trash. I play chess on my phone, have tried probably 50-60 games, just to give it a solid chance, but they're garbage honestly. I'd even rather play original gameboy than ANY phone/tablet game.

 

[exdeath]

I love watching people seeking attention playing games on their iphones/ipads in public.

They look like retards excitedly poking their screen repeatedly, and the "game" consists of something equally retarded where the only thing you do control wise is make a guy/monster truck/etc jump or something by touching the screen anywhere as if its one giant button while the game plays itself. Seriously they look like cave men discovering a mirror and poking at it trying to touch the guy on the other side.

I've contemplated attempting to resolve the touch screen gaming issue myself, but alas I'm only a programmer , not an artist, so I have no content to draw.

Problem is most games are NOT touch screen native. They try to port buttons, menus, virtual controllers etc and it doesn't work. The game needs to be natively designed around the touch interface.

Think something like Phantom Hourglass + Black and White... Walk by pointing at a distant spot while the character chases your moving finger in real time, run by pointing further away from the character, stab and slash based on target and direction of touch down/up line normal to character position (radial = stab, perpendicular = slash), special actions like spells by gestures (Eg Swype a zig zag over a target to cast fire, etc)

Phantom Hourglass is pretty much ALL touch screen. There are no virtual d pads and you never have to touch the DS real d pad at all. Or even the regular buttons are just aliases for things you can do on the touch sceen like open inventory vs touch clicking your bag.

I need to get back into game dev, any artists here?

 

[AstroManLuca]

I love watching people seeking attention playing games on their iphones/ipads in public.

Do you really think they are seeking attention by doing this? Really?

Agree with you on the controls, though, most mobile games have pretty bad controls. The best mobile games are the ones designed from the ground up to use touch gestures, not on-screen buttons. Otherwise, you're better off sticking to games that don't require reaction time. I've had fun playing Pokemon games on my phone through an emulator because Pokemon is turn-based.

 

[exdeath]

Do you really think they are seeking attention by doing this? Really?

Agree with you on the controls, though, most mobile games have pretty bad controls. The best mobile games are the ones designed from the ground up to use touch gestures, not on-screen buttons. Otherwise, you're better off sticking to games that don't require reaction time. I've had fun playing Pokemon games on my phone through an emulator because Pokemon is turn-based.

Yes. Its obvious when they are just sitting there, whip their iPad out from their bag out of the blue, play some game for 30 seconds, switch to web, play another game for 30 seconds, check their email again, etc. put it away again, then do it all over again when people walk by or sit next to them.

Nobody plays a game for 30 seconds then stops like that. That's what you do when you are showing off or demoing your device.

 

[mizzou]

i bought my first one, Carmaggeddon, for my phone while I was delayed in an airport for 8 hours.

I played it for like 30 min before I got sick of staying tethered to an AC outlet

The control scheme on your average phone is too limiting for serious gaming.

 

[smackababy]

Yes. Its obvious when they are just sitting there, whip their iPad out from their bag out of the blue, play some game for 30 seconds, switch to web, play another game for 30 seconds, check their email again, etc.

Nobody plays a game for 30 seconds then stops like that. That's what you do when you are showing off or demoing your device.

That is not true. At times, I will play a single match of SF or Marvel online, then go do something else. Does that mean I am seeking attention? And if I were to play something like Words with Friends on my iPhone, it is turn based and I have to wait for them to make their move. I am not going to sit and stare at the screen while they may or may not be deciding what to do. I take 30 seconds to find the best word I can, and move on.

If I were to do that in public, I don't care who sees it or notices it.

 

[exdeath]

I'm not talking about words with friends I'm talking something like an arcade wanna be game where they start up a new game and play for 30 seconds and stop. 5 minutes later they do it again, same game, from the start again. They aren't actually "playing".

 

[smackababy]

I'm not talking about words with friends I'm talking something like an arcade wanna be game where they start up a new game and play for 30 seconds and stop. 5 minutes later they do it again, same game, from the start again.

Most of the games have a timer or cooldown on turns / lives. So, they could be waiting for said game to refresh that life and they can play again.



I also don't think the touch screen is a limit for serious games, I just think the implementations we are used to for controlling things has not evolved for touch. Once someone figures out a great implementation for controlling something other than a "one big button" method, the games will evolve to being more serious. Motion controls are suffering, though not as much, from the same problems. They are gimmicky because we are trying to mimic the current control method and not evolving the idea of control.

 

[Doppel]

They look like retards excitedly poking their screen repeatedly, and the "game" consists of something equally retarded where the only thing you do control wise is make a guy/monster truck/etc jump or something by touching the screen anywhere as if its one giant button while the game plays itself. Seriously they look like cave men discovering a mirror and poking at it trying to touch the guy on the other side.

HAHA, YES. This is great.

You described Rayman Run, too. The screen acts as one big button (ok, two, depending on where you click) a tacit acknowledgement of the inferiority of the control input.

 

[smackababy]

HAHA, YES. This is great.

You described Rayman Run, too. The screen acts as one big button (ok, two, depending on where you click) a tacit acknowledgement of the inferiority of the control input.

I don't think it is the control system that is inferior, just how we are utilizing it. The "one big button" approach is extremely limiting to what you can actually do and the "press here for button A and here for button B" also works about as well as using chopsticks on a NES controller.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Mobile gaming as in phone games? No...screw that.

Talking about Persona 4 Golden, Soul Sacrifice, and Uncharted on Vita? Great titles. Mario 3D Land, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing New Leaf on 3DS are great too.

 

[exdeath]

Again, Phantom Hourglass on DS shoes EXACTLY how to use touch screen only controls in a seamless intuitive way to accomplish multiple tasks. It was so invisible I can't even recall a good example, other than the way you pointed to where you want to go , attacked enemies by stabbing or slashing with the stylus (automatically walking to them if too far), rolling, dashing, guiding the boomerang, etc.

Touch screen can work if implemented properly. But you aren't going to get that kind of detail in some shitty dime a dozen free game.

 

[Midwayman]

Mobile is fine for casual stuff, but anything that requires more than 5 minutes of attention? no way.

 

[Bateluer]

As others have said, mobile gaming is for casual, time wasting games to pass some time while you're standing in line riding a bus, etc.

This may be my personal opinion here, but I'm going to state it anyway. Because thats what I do, dammit. Freemium games, where the game is free but you have to purchase dozens of in app items(IAP) to actually effectively play the game or beat it, this type of game will poison the well. Especially as more people get a better understanding of it.

 

[Midwayman]

Freemium games, where the game is free but you have to purchase dozens of in app items(IAP) to actually effectively play the game or beat it, this type of game will poison the well. Especially as more people get a better understanding of it.

Ugg. I hate those. Even worse are the ones that charge you and them have those power ups on top of it. F that noise.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Mobile gaming as in phone games? No...screw that.

Talking about Persona 4 Golden, Soul Sacrifice, and Uncharted on Vita? Great titles. Mario 3D Land, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing New Leaf on 3DS are great too.

You missed Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Tales of the Abyss. Those two I have about 200 and 120 hours in respectively.

 

[Doppel]

As others have said, mobile gaming is for casual, time wasting games to pass some time while you're standing in line riding a bus, etc.

This may be my personal opinion here, but I'm going to state it anyway. Because thats what I do, dammit. Freemium games, where the game is free but you have to purchase dozens of in app items(IAP) to actually effectively play the game or beat it, this type of game will poison the well. Especially as more people get a better understanding of it.

agree. Whenever I see a free game in istore now I just assume it will nickel and dime me to death immediately and thus is not worth bothering with.