#oneaday Day 734: Pay Attention

Since getting an iPad a few short days ago it’s become more clear to me than ever that if you are ignoring the iOS platform on the grounds that it’s “just mobile games”, then you are Doing It Very Wrong.

Let’s face some home truths first of all, however. Traditional control schemes suck on touchscreens. The lack of tactile feedback is the main thing — you can’t feel those buttons under your fingers, so it’s all too easy to drift away from them, particularly if they’re of the breed that are fixed in place. Alongside that, your thumbs blocking part of the play area isn’t a great look, particularly on the small screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

That is the main issue with iOS gaming, but also a blessing in disguise.

The fact that traditional control schemes sucking is such a well-established fact by now means that iOS developers are forced into making some important decisions when creating their games. Do they remain steadfast and shoehorn in a virtual joypad control method? Do they support external controllers such as the iCade and make the assumption that anyone serious about playing that kind of game on iOS will already own one? Or do they throw conventional thinking about what makes a good portable game out of the window?

It’s the latter option that leads to the most interesting experiences, and it tends to lead in one of two directions. The first direction leads to the explosion in new styles of gameplay we’ve had since gaming really started to take off on the platform. Granted, some of these existed in the form of independent and Flash games prior to iOS’ emergence, but Apple’s platforms have very much brought them to the masses. Physics-based puzzlers. Line-drawing games. Match-3 puzzlers. “One-touch” games. All of these provide simple mechanics that are surprisingly versatile. In the case of the line-drawing genre, for example, go play Flight Control, DrawRace 2 and Heroes vs Monsters and tell me that isn’t an incredibly versatile control scheme.

The second direction is in the resurgence of genres which have lain all but dormant everywhere except the independent PC game development community for many years. Turn based strategy titles. Board game adaptations. First person flick-scrolling dungeon crawlers. Deep, hardcore roleplaying games. Roguelikes. All have made something of a comeback on iOS, and it’s no coincidence that these games provide some of the most satisfying experiences on the platform. It’s also these titles which provide the strongest, most compelling evidence that yes, you do get “proper” games on iOS, and there’s no reason to believe that you’re getting a “lesser” experience than what you would get from a console, except perhaps from some diminished graphical quality — and even then, that gap is rapidly closing.

iOS does also bring with it its share of controversial topics. The monetization of games in particular. It’s not unusual these days for games to have the option to purchase in-game currency or even skip out parts of the game altogether. I’m not a big fan of this practice, but if done correctly, it can actually have several benefits for both consumer and developer alike.

Firstly, it allows the game itself to be released at a far cheaper price point than you’d ever see it on 3DS or Vita. I bought a racing game today for 69p. It has impressive graphics, fun gameplay and is certainly on a par with the PSP version of Burnout in terms of depth. 69p. You can’t even buy a cup of coffee for that anywhere, yet here I am paying it for a game that would have been at least thirty quid a few years back. And how can it afford to do that? Because of the few people out there who value their time more than their money and would rather unlock content in the game quickly through dropping a few pounds on it rather than playing through it normally — which, I hasten to add, is very much still an option.

The downside to above is that it has affected the perceived value of these games. If you paid 69p for a game — or even got it for free in some cases — are you more or less likely to play it through to completion? I’m guessing “less”, because if you’re anything like me, that feeling of “I just spent forty quid on this, I’d better bloody play it” just isn’t there. This factor is actually mitigated somewhat by the titles that are considered “expensive” on the platform — look at Square Enix’s £10 RPGs, for example, or £5 titles like Infinity Blade and Galaxy On Fire. £5-10 is considered “expensive” for an iOS title so people are more likely to think before they buy, and by extension take a bit more time to play through these less “disposable” titles.

I think by far the greatest thing about the platform, however, is how there’s something to appeal to pretty much everyone. In my circles of family and friends, there are kids and grandparents who like playing Angry Birds; hardcore strategy gamers who like deep, complex mechanics; commuters who appreciate having something quick and low-maintenance to play on said commute; hardcore gamers who crave the depth of a console or PC title in a format they can carry around with them; people who don’t have time to immerse themselves in the sprawling experiences that are today’s interactive entertainment titles but appreciate the opportunity to play a quick game of Words, Scramble or Hero Academy with friends. All of them are catered to, and there’s a bunch of crossover between the groups too. That’s amazingly awesome, and it’s probably done more to help the image of gaming in the mainstream audience than any other technological innovation we’ve had over the years.

So in summary, then, if you arestill of the belief that iOS as a platform isn’t important to the games industry and games culture at large, I say again: you are Doing It Wrong.