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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

#181

Post by flashman »

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…

> I'd subscribe to a newsletter focused on great, non-IAP-driven iOS games.

I guess one would monetize that by soliciting advertisements and featuring particular games?

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

#182

Post by CmdrKrool »

StuieK wrote: post #179
voltagex_ wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a site that only listed no-IAP games for a while, but I think they "pivoted" into something less useful. http://www.slant.co/topics/1194/~android-games-without-in-ap... / http://www.slant.co/topics/3480/~ios-games-without-in-app-pu... is what's left.

Are you referring to honestandroidgames?

I was poised to post that site in this thread earlier on, but on googling I found not the site itself but this sadly relevant comment on Reddit from the site's former owner describing their eventual exhaustion in searching for the good stuff and disillusionment with the Android platform in general.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidGaming/comments/2ggaqp/

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

#184

Post by voltagex_ »

StuieK wrote: post #179
voltagex_ wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a site that only listed no-IAP games for a while, but I think they "pivoted" into something less useful. http://www.slant.co/topics/1194/~android-games-without-in-ap... / http://www.slant.co/topics/3480/~ios-games-without-in-app-pu... is what's left.

Are you referring to honestandroidgames?

Yes, thanks for reminding me.

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

#185

Post by pdkl95 »

coldtea wrote: post #41
Goronmon wrote: post #19

Honestly, the lack of dedicated controls will never allow for mobile gaming to be anything more than a time diversion for most people. A touchscreen just isn't something that's comfortable to use for extended lengths of time, in my opinion at least.

> 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?

Games can be many different things besides a time diversion. An important thing that games can be is an artistic or storytelling medium. Is a novel a "time diversion"? It probably depends on the work.

One of the benefits of games is that the subtitles of the interaction can also be part of the story. A touch screen, unfortunately, offers only a small set of possible interactions, and thus it has a limited toolset for telling interactive stories.

This is important, because we are just learning how to use interaction as a expressive tool. I highly recommend watching Innuendo Studios' "Story Beats"[1]. The first 3 clips are examples, and the last (4th) has the main essay. The thesis is that games offer the storyteller a different set of tools. Video (movies), for example, can generally only access your sympathetic emotions (you feel excited/sad/etc for the character), while interaction allows other emotions to be experience first-hand.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY4f8-eoY0mg...

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

#187

Post by tedmiston »

tracker1 wrote: post #168
idunno246 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I keep thinking that a virtual arcade model could work well... you get N plays per day for free, but if you want to buy more "coins" you pay like $5 and they carry over... Each version improves existing games in the arcade and/or adds new ones... you can play your 20 coins/day first, then buy extra if you choose... there's no reason that model couldn't work quite well.

This is the model most Facebook games use. They might call credits "energy", but whatever.

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

#188

Post by Retric »

babuskov wrote: post #177
rush340 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time diversion versus what? The lack of dedicated controls is only a negative for games that require precise inputs (like classic arcade games). There are so many fantastic games that don't require that at all. Strategy, turn-based RPGs, puzzles, adventure games, etc. For certain games, a touchscreen can blow dedicated controls out of the water if the interface is designed well.

Yup, especially for strategies. It's much easier to touch the position with your finger then having to drag mouse across the screen.

That only works on a simple boards. Chess is 8x8 and feels cramped on a 4" screen. Go at 19x19 takes scrolling or zoom then click which slows down input. For a more complex board you end up being vague or spending lots of time fighting the UI.

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

#189

Post by IgorPartola »

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…

I just bought it and gave it a try. I have to say, it is not really my type of thing. After beating the boss, it just repeats, which is not really fun. I really liked the graphics and whatnot, but there was very little in ways of Replayability. It reminded me a lot of Xenon, but was basically over after the first boss. Still, great job! Hope it makes you rich.

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

#190

Post by alttab »

zzleeper wrote: post #113
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…

Is there a way to filter pay-to-win games? I can pay, but I want to have fun and progress with skill/practice instead of by paying. Last week I spent 20 minutes on the google app store and at the end almost everything was "free" games with p2w

Try puzzles and dragons. It makes all of its money in IAP but so far I've felt no urge to purchase. Game is largely based on skill as far as I can tell. I'm sure there is a lot of grinding to get through at certain points, but I've been playing regularly for a couple of weeks and haven't run into it on the regular dungeons.
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