Ryan Rigney looks at how gaming on Apple’s tablet has drastically changed since its launch a year ago.
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hen the iPad debuted last year, more than 900 games were already available on the App Store. The flood of releases was both a blessing and a curse: For every good game, the store held 20 stinkers, a problem that iPhone and iPod Touch gamers had already become well acquainted with. But that wasn’t the only thing familiar about the iPad launch. Quantity was high, and quality was low. The App Store had a few bright spots, like Flight Control HD, but many early iPad games looked like an assault on the iPhone by a steamroller.
A Modest Launch Most of the iPad games in the initial batch of releases were nothing more than upscaled versions of iPhone games. Sold as “HD” apps, the quality of these games frequently hinged on the amount of work developers had actually put into the iPad port. Flight Control HD represented the best of the HD apps available at launch, largely because developer Firemint had taken advantage of the iPad’s larger screen to add same-screen multiplayer and new, larger levels. The HD version was a redesign, not a port. Then you had games like N.O.V.A. HD; the game’s set of virtual buttons and sticks work well enough for iPhone, but Gameloft made almost no changes to make the controls more intuitive on the far larger iPad. This made it nearly impossible to play N.O.V.A. HD and other games like it comfortably. Another launch disappointment was Drop7, which had been freshly updated to support both the iPhone and iPad.
Drop7’s a fantastic game on the iPhone, but blurry, pixelated graphics greet iPad owners who boot up the game. The game looks essentially identical to the way it would if it hadn’t ever been updated at all. Plenty of Drop7 fans felt betrayed by the lazy port job, as evidenced by the negative reviews covering the game’s official page on the iTunes App Store.
iPad Gaming Today Epic Games’ flagship iOS title, Infinity Blade, reflects several trends in iPad game development, not the least of which are the massive graphical leaps that gamemakers are making with iOS development. Infinity Blade sports a well-designed button layout, looks gorgeous, and runs beautifully across all of Apple’s mobile devices, iPhone 3GS and higher. It owes much of its visual impressiveness to the Unreal Engine, which Epic has begun licensing for use by other developers who want to make awesome-looking iPhone and iPad games. Another major strength: Infinity Blade is a Universal App and represents a growing tendency by developers to release apps that work well across all Apple devices instead of splitting games into a standard app and an overpriced “HD” app. The release of PC cult hit World of Goo a week after Infinity Blade’s debut is another triumph for the iPad, both from a technological standpoint and as a beacon for mass-market “hardcore” games on the iPad. Developer 2D Boy delayed the game several times after its initial announcement to make sure that the iPad version ran the way they
intended it to. And as a result the game feels like it’s always been meant for the supersized touchscreen device. Perhaps the biggest change in the iPad development scene occurred when gamemakers realised that games developed for the iPad don’t automatically have to also fit the iPhone (and viceversa). Indie-developed titles like Erik Svedang’s Shot Shot Shoot represent some of the first iPad games that could only work on the larger, more powerful device.
A Bright Future The iPad still isn’t quite as established in the gaming world as other platforms, but slowly and steadily, games created by people who understand this changing industry are emerging— and flourishing—on the App Store. Independent developers are leading the charge to create distinct, iPad-specific game concepts, and major studios such as Epic are pushing the limits of what the iPad can handle without relying on ineffective and ugly compromises like virtual D-pads or joysticks. The shovelware is still lurking, but the ratio of good-to-bad games has improved, and as more talented developers set their sights on the iOS platform, the games should continue to improve. 2010 was the year that the iPhone came into its own as a game platform; 2011 is the iPad’s year.
March 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 31