The future of iPhone games
With the release of "2012," the iPhone app tied to the forthcoming Sony Pictures film of the same name, a group of developers may have kicked off the future of games on the hit smartphone.
While the game itself is fairly simple and lasts just minutes, it incorporates features that may never have been tried before, and as such, could be among the small number of titles that are showcasing what will soon be considered par for the course.
In the minds of many industry observers, thanks to its integration of a functional operating system, an accelerometer, GPS and a camera, and the fact that thousands of developers, big and small, have released games for the iPhone, the Apple device has already surpassed Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS as the most important, or at least most adaptable, portable gaming platform.
But as developers get more creative and as its technology improves, it's likely that the iPhone will only get more impressive as a gaming machine.
The new iPhone game, 2012, features an innovative ability to call out to people on a user's contact list for help with answering tough questions. This is one example of where features in iPhone games are heading.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)With "2012," the developers at augmented reality entertainment production studio Trigger seem to have broken new ground with a couple of features. In the game, players are tasked with making their way--virtually, of course--from their real-world location to a digital Tibet. They do so by answering trivia questions related to survival, and with each correct response, they are credited with hundreds of miles of forward progress.
But sometimes the questions can be difficult, and since players get only three "lives" with which to get to Tibet, the game borrows a page from the TV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"--players are able to cash in "lifelines," and reach out to real-world friends for help with tough questions.
To do so, players can call people from their iPhone contacts list, directly from within the game, a feature that, according to Trigger president and executive creative director Jason Yim, had never been implemented in an iPhone game before.
And while from a user experience perspective, the procedure seems very simple and well-integrated, Yim said that from a technology perspective, successfully integrating phone calling from within the game was "quite complex."
By itself, the feature may not come across as that impressive, and it has some serious flaws--for example, each time someone plays the game, they must re-enter the three people they wish to call for lifelines, something that can be time-consuming for someone with a lengthy contacts list. But as a technological innovation that will eventually make its way into any number of games, the feat is both impressive and important.
Just the beginning
To Yim, however, tools like this are just the beginning of what will soon be a new wave of feature innovation, many of which will happen as developers clue in to how to take things to the next level, and others which will come as a result of new developments in the iPhone operating system itself.
For example, he pointed to the fact that Apple is now allowing Flash programmers to bring their applications to the iPhone, a move that will make it possible for many games to now be ported onto the device, and which will make it "simpler to create basic content for the iPhone."
And new innovation, exciting especially to a company like Yim's Trigger, is the emergence of new augmented reality games that double as marketing vehicles for large companies. Already, some apps for the iPhone 3GS--which, unlike the two earlier versions of the iPhone, has a built-in compass--have implemented AR, such as a secret feature in the Yelp app that lets users shake their phone three times and see restaurant names and reviews appear on the screen over the video they're watching.
But Yim suggested things will soon go beyond that. For instance, he said that an iPhone user might be able to walk up to an AR-enabled poster, point their device at it and automatically unlock some sort of prize. Similarly, a user could take their iPhone into a McDonald's, or some other partner restaurant, and get a free french fries, all because the device knows where it is, and syncs that awareness to some sort of marketing campaign. And if that was built into a game of some sort, it would give players an incentive to participate.
One-point-five Life
To Ge Wang, the chief creative officer and co-founder of hit iPhone apps Ocarina and Leaf Trombone developer Smule, augmented reality is exactly the direction that the next generation of iPhone games will take.
Wang said that the iPhone, as a device, is moving people's sense of computing into a new age, taking them away from their monitors and letting them go anywhere they want. As a result, games will be able to leverage that newfound computing freedom and blur the lines between the virtual world and the physical world.
"I think maybe for the first time, with the iPhone and all these supersmart phones," Wang said, "you have (the convergence of a couple of) things you need for augmented reality."
First, he said, is a ubiquitous computer in the hands of millions of people. And second is that that device, always in users' possession, provides consistent network connectivity and location awareness.
Add that to the fact that the iPhone, especially the 3GS, is rich in sensors, and you have the ability, more than ever, to bring connected gaming out into the open world.
"The time's never been better or more ripe for...this kind of mixed virtual reality," Wang said. "It is kind of this alternate reality, and augmented reality. It's not quite Second Life, and it's not first life. It's almost 1.5 Life."
Wang also pointed to the push notifications feature of the iPhone's OS 3.0. He suggested that game developers would be able to change the dynamic of how people play games together, and that with push, "people don't have to be proactive, they can be reactive."
In other words, multiplayer iPhone games could offer each participant the ability to take turns, regardless of where that person is, because the device can send a notification when it's time to take action. And that's just one example. It's hard to prognosticate the endless ways that this kind of tool could be implemented in games, but to Wang, this kind of feature means players can having passive relationships with the games they play to more active ones.
Smart micro-transactions
Another future game innovation is likely to be what Seth Gerson, CEO of iPhone app developer LastLegion Games, which built the official iPhone game for the film "Watchmen" called personalized in-app purchases.
Already, some iPhone games and other applications allow in-app purchases--but to Gerson, those tend to be a bland set of offerings that pay no mind to the personal preferences of users.
But that will change, he suggested, as developers get ahold of and mine new behavior data that allow them to offer players the specific kind of virtual items they want. "You can give the consumer a voice in what they're purchasing," Gerson said, "and give them better experiences."
That means, essentially, that iPhone games will be set up to determine, based on how people play, or on preferences they've asserted during play, the kinds of items the might want to buy. In a first-person shooter, that could mean offering specific kinds of weapons or armor, or different kinds of outfits in a fantasy game. The sky, really, is the limit, so long as developers think about what the data they collect mean and use it to enhance players' experiences.
Gerson also thinks there is a future for iPhone game features based on cloud computing. He said it's too early to say exactly how that will evolve, but the upshot is that developers will be learning how to automatically transform multiplayer games into solo play if someone's network connectivity is lost. Further, he said, technological advances in data distribution will mean that multiplayer games will work better even on AT&T's EDGE network and won't require 3G for seamless across-the-network play.
Given that Apple always plays its cards close to its vest, there's no way to know for sure what kinds of technological innovations are coming for forthcoming versions of the iPhone or its operating system. Much can be guessed, of course, and developers are going to have to stay a step ahead if they want their games to be relevant and exciting to players faced with nearly limitless choices.
It also matters, of course, how new innovations are implemented. It doesn't do anyone any good when new features are rolled out if the way they're done makes for a mediocre user experience. But when done right, a new feature can be disruptive and force everyone in the field to stand up and take notice.
Because the iPhone environment is so adaptable, as it should be given that it is a functional, albeit limited, computer, it is certain that there is no limit to the kinds of innovations that are coming down the line, both for games and for other kinds of apps. But given that games are one of the most popular genres of apps for the device, you can be sure that if there is one area certain to highlight the evolution of new kinds of features, games will be where the action is hottest.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
In particular, it may soon be possible to have a real life version of Doom/Lasertag running on a mobile device in which the phone is the gun site and the video is overlaid with powerups and weapon effects. Pointing the camera at an opponent and shooting them would disqualify the person from the game and disable their ability to shoot others. The game map would be a real world location and powerups could be real world objects. For instance, aiming the camera at a pre-designated fire hydrant could charge up an ice gun, street lamps could be overlaid with an automated gun turret and so forth.
So instead of having kids stuck in front of their tv's playing on their consoles they would be running around their neighborhoods blowing each other up in semi-virtual and augmented games of war, just like in the old days.
Are you serious? Do we have the same device? Because I have not found one game that is really worth anything on the iPhone. Nothing comes close to what is being done on the DS or PSP. iPhone games are so incredibly basic and boring that they lose interest after 5 minutes... if that. I think the only game I regularly play is Falling Jems which is a BeJeweled rip off. Sadly the only game I think that really show cases the iPhone is Cooking Mama and even that was not worth paying for the full version.
The PSP and DS(i) are dedicated game machines, the iPhone is a phone with many features, one of which is somewhat capable of playing games. How that makes the iPhone the most important portable game device is beyond me.
He didn't say "platform" he said "gaming platform", also "as the most important, or at least most adaptable, portable gaming platform."
Most important? Most adaptable portable gaming platform? You can't compare the Iphone with the PSP and DS(i), because (lets call them) "at-home-developers" can't develop apps or games (legally) for the PSP and DS, you have to pay a lot of money for the rights to do that. Their are a lot of PSP (and DS) apps and games but they are all homebrew, and against PSP (and DS) its policy.
If PSP had the same licening as Iphone, than there were much greater apps and games. You can't compare them together.
Blades of Fury, Tiger Woods PGA, Madden, Fifa 10,
The Rolando games have huge heart and fabulously whimsical gameplay. I know it's not Halo...but maybe sh*t doesn't have to blow up for it to be good.
Are the graphics better on the PSP? Maybe. Is that the be all and end all of gameplaying? Are you FKM?
I appreciate all of you PSP fanboys who have a limited imagination about what a game is supposed to be.
How many major developers have created departments that are just for the iphone? In one year there are over
25 000 games for the iphone, in four for the PSP 600...
How many truly incredible games did the PSP have in their first year? Exactly...let's hit this conversation again in three years.
Do you hear that sound PSP fanboys? That's the sound of obsolescence creeping up on your precious device like a zombie in Resident Evil 4 (which is also on Iphone by the way).
So the phone is now everyones adult PSP and DS2.
Let's look forward to the next 3D versions and selective calling apps to send audible fart and burp apps to our favs ... better yet random calling with identity masked with one of those bouquets...
The Apple "tilty" games get old fast.
O course you could also argue that to a Mac user , this is "real gaming" LOL
There are 'gamers' and there are normal people. Most people fall in the later category, that is why XBOX is bleeding money and iPod touch and iPhone are smash hit, game changers.
Gaming isn't my life, sure, but there are WAY to many great games for me to go into here. Try checking them out on the app store for yourself. Oh, right, you don't have an iPod or iPhone, well, ask someone who does, you are probably the only one on your block that DOESN'T have one... LOL
While the quality of the software has improved over the past year or so it's still a console-lite experience (i.e. Hero of Sparta instead of God of War or Rolando instead of LocoRoco), and while iPhone games are cheaper, they're also far shorter.
iPhone games are to PSP or DS games what sitcoms are to movies.
Oh, and augmented reality is being done far better on the PSP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invizimals
Have a nice day.
No need to explain the A or B or triangle or whatever buttons that can't ever be changed.
In defense of Haptic Feedback I'll say I'm yet to see anyone breaking a touch typing speed record on a touchscreen.
a DS is for little kids and those who like to keep rescuing princess peach after that dumb b*tch keeps getting kidnapped
a iPhone is for when you dont have either of the 2 above
- by pfunk725 October 12, 2009 7:43 AM PDT
- Seriously, the hostility in these comments shock me! What's the big frickin' deal? So you all have your favorite gaming platforms, and some of you worship the iPhone and some of you claim it's useless. Honestly, I don't understand the anger between the Mac and PC worlds!
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(37 Comments)I use a PC at work and it's perfect for what I need. I use an iPhone for personal use and I love it. I think both companies have something great to offer, while they are lagging in other areas.
This article outlines some exciting ideas for the future of mobile gaming, but all of that was skipped over and everyone focused on one comment comparing the phone with the PSP and DS. Instead of attacking the author, go back and read the first phrase in that paragraph. "In the minds of many industry observers".... You can't dispute that, I've heard this point a lot.
Sheesh, I swear it's like watching Democrats and Republicans go at each other...