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Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

theguardian.com

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Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#151

Post by so_serious »

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #48
jwcooper wrote: post #14

If you can get past maybe the top 50 or 100 grossing games there are a lot of really good games out there that aren't looking to leech money from you. I have plenty of games that have been worth every penny I spent with a lot of depth and strategy required in order to master them. Letterpress, Spelltower, Hearthstone, Tiny Wings, Ticket to Ride, Strategery, GD Swarm, Ridiculous Fishing, Monument Valley...I could go o…

If anybody's looking for a side project, I think there's a curation opportunity here. I'd subscribe to a newsletter focused on great, non-IAP-driven iOS games. It could be weekly or monthly, with a mix of new games and classic gems that maybe aren't so well known. I'd tolerate a fair amount of advertising or sponsored content in the newsletter as long as it was clearly labeled. The key thing for me is quality . I thi…

Long time lurker, first time poster. I wrote and published a completely original puzzle game for android, got featured on google play a number of times.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wp.wordbox

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#152

Post by dfar1 »

The problem with mobile games is GOOGLE PLAY STORE and the APP STORE, that only show you 1% of what's out there. This "flat ui" stage of design has removed all functionality of applications that need them. Let me search apps by categories, or filter by price, product, company, developer, date added, date updated, and so on...

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#153

Post by imglorp »

dfar1 wrote: post #152

The problem with mobile games is GOOGLE PLAY STORE and the APP STORE, that only show you 1% of what's out there. This "flat ui" stage of design has removed all functionality of applications that need them. Let me search apps by categories, or filter by price, product, company, developer, date added, date updated, and so on...

They're trying to get the more profitable ones in front of consumers. So a flat search is not in their interest.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#154

Post by MustardTiger »

oldmanjay wrote: post #49
MustardTiger wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is incredibly hard to dig through the mountains of garbage to find the occasional good game. I'm not so sure it is a net good thing, I think fewer good games are succeeding now because they are being buried in crap.

i will happily trade away your effort unto the end of time if it means I get a broader selection.

Just because you are happy with it, doesn't mean it is an overall good.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#155

Post by lotharbot »

riskable wrote: post #104
coldtea wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Honestly, the lack of dedicated controls will never allow for mobile gaming to be anything more than a time diversion for most people. Isn't gaming precisely a time diversion?

Single-player games trend towards mere time diversion but multiplayer games can be any number of things such as: * Competition * Shared experiences * Role play * A way to socialize ...among other things.

Sid Meier divides game enjoyment up into four categories: Easy Fun, Hard Fun, Relaxing Fun, and Social Fun.

"Relaxing Fun" is basically what the GP post was talking about -- a diversion, something you do to pass the time, which is typically not completely passive but mostly so. A lot of sandbox-type games do this well, where you're mostly just sort of looking at the scenery and derping around and having a good time without being particularly threatened or challenged.

"Hard Fun" is nearly the opposite -- it's competition and challenges and stuff that gets your heart rate up. It's "play to 20, win by 2" and you end up finishing 25-23 in a high-stakes match to improve your global rating [0]. It's beating a level in a single life when it used to take you 5 or 10 lives. It's shaving 3 seconds off of your speedrun by perfecting a tricky maneuver.

"Easy Fun" is things like shiny in-game treasure, achievements, even satisfying sounds like the Mario coin pickup sound. It's stuff that makes you smile just for playing and making ordinary progress.

"Social fun" is, of course, anything that connects you with other people -- playing cooperatively or competitively, or even talking about the game outside of the game itself. (I met my wife on a video game BBS 18 years ago.)

[0] A Descent match between two of my friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mq6hyfFAo4&index=2&list=PLo...

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#156

Post by csours »

Arjuna wrote: post #87
Tenhundfeld wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just purchased and played several times. Very solid gameplay, nice retro graphics, fun music. Congratulations. I was kind of hoping for some power-ups, like a faster shot rate or scattershot. Those might be present, and I just didn't get to them yet, only made it to stage 3-x on first attempts. I also wish the stages had more variation, might feel too repetitive after a while – though that might happen later also. An…

Well, first off, a massive THANK YOU for both the purchase, and for taking the time to provide feedback! Unfortunately, there are no power-ups, and the levels do repeat after the boss level (although the game does become progressively more difficult). Those are definitely great ideas for the next iteration of the game. Thank you, again. It means a lot to me.

More unsolicited advice: A prestige mechanic can be a good way to increase re-playability, whereby current progress can be traded for future boosts.

I play(ed) a game called Sky Force 2014 that would have benefitted from a prestige mechanic.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#157

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

>> Before Atari, software engineering was considered a highly professional career which meant coders wore a tie and a sensible haircut. “Atari was able to change that corporate culture a great deal,” says Bushnell. “When Steve Jobs – who worked for me – left, he took that ethos to Apple. Everybody else who worked in Silicon Valley back then looked at these two fastest growing companies, and started to think maybe our culture was important. So they started copying it, and now, today, anybody in technology can go to work looking like shit. That’s one legacy.”

And for that legacy, I for one, am grateful.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#158

Post by idunno246 »

Arjuna wrote: post #68
Tenhundfeld wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anybody's looking for a side project, I think there's a curation opportunity here. I'd subscribe to a newsletter focused on great, non-IAP-driven iOS games. It could be weekly or monthly, with a mix of new games and classic gems that maybe aren't so well known. I'd tolerate a fair amount of advertising or sponsored content in the newsletter as long as it was clearly labeled. The key thing for me is quality . I thi…

"The key thing for me is quality." I wanted to say that I developed Rocket Renegade [1] for iOS. It's an 80s-inspired arcade shooter, with elements reminiscent of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaga... and, of course, it contains bosses. I wrote all of the code, and I composed the soundtrack as well. The bitmap graphics were done by game designer Daniel Cook, who released them under a Creative Commons Attribution licen…

At 0.99 though, do you really make much money? Back of the envelop numbers seems that any game at that price point is so underpriced to never be profitable or more than a side project. Especially when an ad driven install costs more than that - relying on the pretty poor app store discovery mechanisms cant drive much traffic. (ive worked for free to play, so maybe we just saw a totally different thing)

The reason IAP became so big is because there was a huge race to the bottom in pricing in mobile, $1 isnt sustainable, so everyone was forced to find alternate revenue streams. If apple got rid of free and <$5, the average quality of the app store could be so much higher

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#159

Post by joslin01 »

djsumdog wrote: post #76
jwcooper wrote: post #14

If you can get past maybe the top 50 or 100 grossing games there are a lot of really good games out there that aren't looking to leech money from you. I have plenty of games that have been worth every penny I spent with a lot of depth and strategy required in order to master them. Letterpress, Spelltower, Hearthstone, Tiny Wings, Ticket to Ride, Strategery, GD Swarm, Ridiculous Fishing, Monument Valley...I could go o…

I really like Ridiculous Fishing. The guy who made Braid has similar talks, comparing mobile games, arcade games and 90s syndicated sitcoms. They only keep you entertained long enough to insert another coin or make it through a commercial break. The good mobile games, like you've mentioned, focus on creating a good engaging game without micro-transactions. They earn less. Games with micro-transactions have like a 70%…

Game Dev Story is fun and has no micro-purchases. I was hooked for a couple weeks straight.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#160

Post by derFunk »

intrasight wrote: post #93
mikestew wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly you do not know who is Nolan Bushnell I would argue that he knows who Bushnell is better than you do. What you posted in no way invalidates what you quoted from the parent post. Yes, Bushnell started Atari. Since he sold, he's done...golly, I'd have to go look it up because all I remember is a string of forgettable (duh) games that he put his name on because "founder of Atari".

I've had lunch with the guy. My point still stands - he's not just "some developer".

I envy you.
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