Maddening HD on iPad Soon (Updated: Out now)
YoYo Games have released a small/badly laid out flow chart showing the process through which submitted games must go before appearing in the YoYo Game Store or on other platforms. An enlarged version is on the right.
None of the game requirements, due to be listed in a “Base Line Spec”, have yet been released – all in all it isn’t a very insightful announcement.
There is some text to go with the flowchart on the YoYo Games wiki. The first part of the process has actually already been live for a while.
An iPad version in Andrew McCluskey’s madnessMADNESSmadness series, dubbed Maddening HD (yuk!) is “coming soon”. The Apple iPad release will later be followed by a general iOS release suitable for iPhones and iPod Touch. No word yet on pricing or a release date.
Update 2nd November: Maddening HD has been released on iPad at ($0.99 USD, £0.59).
I don’t see the point in doing a special release for iPad before the other versions. The user base is much, much smaller, and the controls will be awkward (the screen looks like you’re supposed to hold it in your hands like a Gameboy).
The iPad seems like it’d be much more akin to board games or large touch / drag interfaces, and not action games requiring the use of onscreen thumb controls, anyway.
Who knows; I’m not a big fan of the iPad. In my opinion, they’re just expensive, dumbed-down laptops for idiots and douchebags.
I think it’s a good idea to get one title out there for the iPad, just for the experience and technical feedback. I think it’s important especially for resolution differences between devices.
Ideally I’d like to see mechanisms to deal with the three different resolutions for a single App:
iphone <4 480 x 320
ipad 1024 x 768
iphone 4 960 x 640 native and emulated 480 x 320
I didn't think that the ipad would be the success that it is, I'm not interested in the original ipad, but will pick up the next revision when it's available.
Since I don't think I'm an idiot, I guess that makes me a douchebag.
Every iPad I’ve seen/used thus far has had a (presumably official) flip-open screen protector, which you can bend around to turn into an angled table stand. With a game as simple as Maddening, the most comfortable way of playing it is to stand it on a table or desk infront of you and control it either with index/middle fingers, or with thumbs as if you were holding it (but not actually carrying its weight). I’ve found either of those allow playing of the game comfortably for any period of time.
It does work alright holding the device, though its weight means it’s only good for short bursts before your hands start to ache.
@NPT – I will leave it up to the user base to figure out which bucket they fit into.
As for me, I just can’t see the use of it. I’ve got a desktop, a laptop, a phone, and an iPod. The iPad doesn’t fit in between all those things well enough to justify the cost, especially since the only one that is even marginally useful is the 32gb / 3G model, which starts at $729 and adds on a monthly data plan as well. I also disagree, on a deep level, with marketing a tech device as “magical” in the year 2010.
@Andrew – Have you guys considered other, less conventional controls? Since Madness is a simple game to control, why not use one half of the screen to move one way and the other half to move the other, with a tap or double touch to jump? Or why not tilt control or something?
In my opinion, if a game can’t be played without requiring a user to have a stand attached, there might be a better way to do it.
I really like the look of Maddening except for the title (or loading) screen font and the ugly touch buttons.
I agree the touch buttons look pretty awful but I like the new font although it is mismatched with the in-game font.
I like the overall look of the game too, but I have to agree, the touch buttons are dreadful.
I’m really interested to hear someone who’s gone through the process speak candidly about how working with yoyo went down; just so we have a bit more of a handle on how things work should the opportunity be pursued.
When we’ve seen some ‘normal’ games go through the process we might be able to get this. At the moment there have been no typical cases – SkyDiver has been taken on by YYG for a long time whilst they developed and tested the runner and Andrew is unlikely to be able to speak out about his case.
They’re having to individually port games to iOS. This is horrible and unscalable. It’s like Sandy Duncan manually e-mailing serial codes to people after they buy.
For a tiny capacity it works.
For anything bigger you might as well not even bother. They’re obviously just taking game concepts and rewriting them for iOS (their runner was optimized entirely for the old sky diver game)… they may as well write their own games instead of losing 30% of the profits to a user who isn’t at all involved.
I think YoYo don’t know their market. People want to make PC games, some/most want them on iOS also. No one really wants to send your game off to YoYo for them to re-make it. Stupid…
They don’t have to individually port the games to iOS. They have a Game Maker runner which runs on the iOS platform.
Apart from modifying the game controls and maybe tidying up a few graphics, there isn’t a lot of work to do on YYG’s part.
Tune in next week for James Garner’s weekly rip into YoYo Games!