Purpose of this blog

Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Sunday, March 24, 2013

[ALL] Playing On the Move

Just arrived to San Francisco for GDC and related events. Checking out with the poll:

Regarding the most recent poll: I have got 

  • Android smartphone - 792 (46%)
  • Don't have any! - 527 (30%)
  • Android tablet - 254 (14%)
  • iPad - 222 (12%)
  • iPhone - 219 (12%)
  • Windows smartphone - 105 (6%)
  • other smartphone / tablet - 112 (6%)
  • Windows tablet - 38 (2%)

By the way, just curious out of those who have mobile devices, what mobile games do you play if any. Shooters, city builders, puzzles, social games, etc

As always the new poll is up.

49 comments:

  1. I do not play on my mobile devices.

    I mostly listen to audio books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i mainly use my android phone to get on internet and check info about wot. if i play i eater play jetpack joyride or duke nukem 3d (tough the controls are hard)

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  3. Droid games are ok, shooters on small screens tend to suck mostly but casino (WSOP Poker, Texas Hold em) and puzzle games are good casual fun when sittin on the ol crapper. They are usually small and dont use much batt/cpu. One thing I hate about freebies is the near-constant need to have internet access for ads so its worth throwin a few bucks at ones you really like to get rid of em.

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  4. I tried to play on my Galaxy S2, was crap.
    So the best thing to do with a smartphone is to surf the net and read blogs like the blog of our Good ol' Overlord. :-)

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  5. I play a lot on my Galaxy S2, recently playing games like GTA: Vice City, Order&Chaos HD, Shadowgun: Deadzone and a lot of easier games, like Angry Birds,Cat Wars 2.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Order&Chaos,

      this is so painful for my fingers.

      Delete
    2. streetfighter moderncombat for ios are my favors

      Delete
  6. I own a Windows phone and generally don't like the idea of playing games on mobile devices (though I would be more than willing to make an exception for the likes of WoT:G). I do, however, find Windows phone to be an excellent gauge for whether a company is willing to put honest effort into keeping its users satisfied. For example, I love that the World of Tanks Assistant is on Windows Phone instead of only the big two!

    Valve, by contrast, has managed to either completely forget that the software they primarily make their games for has a mobile variant, or simply ignores that portion of their user base.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a 10" tablet, and the thing I've found with games is that you have to be careful with controls.

    The following can all be downlaoded for free, so if you want to have a look at them, you can with out spending a penny.

    I'm an avid Minecrafter, have been since Beta, so I use the pocket version, right? Nope. The controls are a nightmare and you constantly get giant sausage fingers in the way of your view.
    As you're obviously thinking of the game to come, make it so the interface keeps your view of the screen clear. Equally make it so that only one control is needed at a time. Using the minceraft pocket version as an example, the jump button is in the middle of the virual D-pad and is very very difficult to use.

    If you want a 3D game that the controls work with check out Tank Recon 3D. Simple virtual D-pad one side, two buttons to fire on the other. the only limit is the lack of elevation and depression. The other intresting feature is your gun sight is also the Radar screen, which means it saves on screen real estate and improves ones situational awareness.

    Most people whom I know who have tired it have gotten the hang of it pretty much instantly.

    Other games I have on my Tablet:
    Most played: Chess then Angry Birds.
    Others:
    Tank Hero, Fruit Ninja, Minesweeper, solitare and assorted card games.

    Games I'd like to get, if the developers would pull their finger out.
    FTL (Its perfect for a tablet, but hte developers have said "nope" last time I checked) and Warhammer Quest (Just came out on the iPad, but I want ot get it mostly for nostalgia reasons).

    Hope that helps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thinking about the above post more I guess I can summarize it by saying:
      Don't use touch screen unless you have to.
      A lot of Dev's seem to think "there's touchscreen controls so lets use them!" for games, which is great until you see that the players hand will block most of the screen during play.

      Take the Pocket minecraft example above, the controls would have worked far better if you'd had three buttons (Use/place, Attack/smash and a jump button) down the right hand side, and the D-pad on the left. But no touchscreen, must use touch screen, and they lost a sale.

      Delete
    2. Tank Recon 3D sounds interesting, I will have to check it out :)

      Delete
    3. Touch devices are not 100% suitable for action/shooter games, imo. That's why controls are so much important.

      Delete
    4. Yeah I know that, but not knowing what sort of game you have as an idea means we've got cover all possabilities.

      Another example is the game Tank Hero, thats a top down game, and again a giant zonking hand in the way for most of the time.

      I wonder, would a first person game work using the accelerometer which most phones have built in? Position using a D-pad on the screen, Accelerometer for looking about, and a few other buttons to interact.
      Maybe thats the magic bullet for a WOT-like on mobile? D-pad for hull, Accelerometer for turret.

      How about Steel Panthers on mobile. :D

      Delete
    5. Yes, please! Steel Panthers WaW all the way...

      I wonder if those guys are still around making games...

      Delete
    6. Yeah Matrix is still about, They just signed up for doing a Warhammer 40K Turn based game.

      http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-15-games-workshop-licenses-warhammer-40k-to-slitherine

      Delete
    7. Holy crap... Warhammer and Steel Panthers combined? I am in heaven.

      Delete
    8. Yeah, myself and a few mates had the same reaction.

      "All the things from our childhood in one place!"

      I actually did a 40K mod for SP:WAW (Or was it MBT? I forget now) many, many, many years ago. The game kept the motor bike class in their code and never yanked it, so it was an infantry unit that could take vechile abilities, so I stuck an armour value on it and got myself space marines.
      Ahh the risks of letting mad people play with unit editors.

      Delete
    9. Exactly, I even made a special Space Marine OOB, edited the weapon tables to add storm bolters with ridiculous kill ratio... good old days :) Trolled my best friend with it too - he took Germans, I took Space Marines... was very short :)

      Delete
  8. I love my Android tablet, but I've never tried using it to game. I prefer watching a video or reading stuff - entertainment with less interaction. If I were to try to game, I'd only do so using my external keyboard, preferably on a game that doesn't have controls explicitly using the touchscreen at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are missing out. Some games with "drag and drop" interface have no better hardware than touchscreens. I completely agree that typical games designed for controlers or mouse and keyboard are bad in general when ported to tablet. There are some exceptions, but in most cases only games designed for touchscreens are good, and rarely are very good. Most of these made well are card games and TD games, some are turn based strategy, but i did not manage to find a good strategy that is not iOS based.

      Delete
  9. I actualy have a smartphone with that "3D without glasses technology" (LG Optimus 3d), so I play shooters and racing games, but I guess there are only several models that do that. Other games are mostly tower defence, management games (Plague INC. is a great example of pandemia management game), and some hard to classify games like Minecraft Pocket Edition and Angry Birds.

    Asmuch as I like TD gams, I do not think there is aything else to do i this genere, as it was redesigned and remade so many times, that every other game is just a new set of graphics. That is a pain in the A, because nobody tries to make more demanding games with more content, as our phones have multicore processors now and 1 or 2 gigs of ram often. So in terms of what I am looking for and would have on my phone if it only existed (and maybe there is, so if any one of You knows of such thing for android, let me know! :P) is some sort of province based turn based strategy, like the global map of total war games, or europa universalis games. I would have that shit on every single mobile device I have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clear, I believe that the market moves towards more complicated games than just match-3 mechanics or similar.

      Delete
    2. I very much hope so ;)

      Btw: are You planing to make some sort of CW manager app to manage global map of WoT in a mobile device? I know some of our ppl in charge have problems with getting home in time to put all chips on the map properly, and since it still did not manage to make it into the game as a part of the client, there is nothing done so far to make managing CW easy. Such app or an expsnsion to existing assistant could be a nice step forward in that regard.

      Delete
    3. Were not planning to make that kind of app. I believe such functions can be added to our WoT assistant.
      Thanks for the idea.

      Delete
  10. Saw a couple of mobile games that looked quite interesting,
    but I got my PsP and Ps Vita if I want to play when not at home.

    @new poll:
    Male

    131 (97%)

    Female

    3 (2%)

    Obviously, people are lying.
    There are no men on the internet. :P
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uCcXTXmT_A

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True ;) ... They just don't follow this blog ;)

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Nice. Btw, a joke:

      Q: What the difference between a real-man and non-a-real-man does boil down to?
      A: To extra X-chromosome.

      Delete
  11. Ovi tell us, how is the work implementing Havok in WoT going?
    Do you think we are going to see a part of it soon (in say, 1-2 patches)

    Aaaand again, exp reduction for the obj 268? I give you a cookie?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In progress. :) But I believe it will take a bit longer than 1-2 updates from now.

      Guys say there won't be any reduction.

      Delete
  12. I like the new poll - 242 men and 10 trolls :)

    Ah well, I guess one cannot stop the progress. I'd never play on a tablet or a smartphone (Windows ftw), but who am I to talk - I still use vintage PS-2 keyboard with USB reduction... very hipster

    ReplyDelete
  13. Replies
    1. don't expect anything until fall this year

      Delete
    2. Mr.SpeedChaser,

      sry mate, can't tell you anything besides the fact that the game does look great even at this early stage. I'm getting the same old excitement I had when we were starting WoT.

      Delete
  14. I only have Angry birds SW on my phone. This game is simple but has so mutch caracter, still i get a smile on my face by the sounds and small details.

    Q: I have a windows phone (latest nokia920) and i have the wot app on it, but a few months ago there was a news post about it being updated, but the win phone app didn't get updated, any plans for an update on it to? Love this app, got better stats overview than on the main page and stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Not playing that much on the phone, but really liked Anomaly Warzone Earth and Toki Tori was fun too.
    And once I get a tablet will definitely play Football Manager.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't play a lot on my smartphone. Sometimes some puzzle games but most of the time I'm just reading different news sites and browsing the web. I would like to play more, but most of the games are not really worth it, because they are too simple minded. I'll be looking into some good old RPG console ports soon.

    On the other hand, I would love to see mobile games, that are somehow conected with a main game. When for example, playing the mobile game actually affects your main pc or console game in certain aspects and enhance the overall game experience.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hey Overlord, why not make some simple arcade game for smartphones that would have daily rewards for WoT/WoWP/whatever?
    Like in Facebook games?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wish we had more resources to do that. At this stage we need focus on what we have been doing for some time already.

      Delete
  18. Did you run out of ideas for the poll? ;)

    Oh and I play Solitaire and occasionally 'Guess what word Auto-correct's going to randomly insist I use today' on my smartphone...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, I thought it would be fun with this kind of poll

      Delete
  19. still the brittish plane is not in and the most fame of world war two hurricane and the spitfire has not joined with out the hurricane and spitfire this game is not complete even in bate it lakes the dog fight for what the game stands for. only you as the player can change this. express your voice.:)

    ReplyDelete