iDeathSpank

Mar 8, 2008 half past eleven am


Apple announced their SDK for the iPhone a few days ago.  I was going to do a recap explaining what it means for game development done as Shakespearian sonnets set to the music of Rihanna's hit song Umbrella, but after writing it and putting it all together it seemed a little trite and gimmicky, so I'll just stick to bullet points.  (Free signed copy of DeathSpank: The Collector's Edition if you can figure out what 15th century song these can be chanted to).

  • Overall it's a lot better than I expected.  I was worried it would be a simplified API akin to desktop widgets, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
  • Early indications are that Apple isn't going to restrict what apps get made, with the exception of Porn, malware and carrier unlocking.  Looking at Porn on a iPhone seems silly, so I can live with that.  That's what my "big boy" computer is for.
  • All applications must be downloaded via iTunes.  This a double-edge sword.  If you're interested in making real apps to sell, this is a huge win.  Apple will allow 'free' apps to be downloaded, so that is also good.  My worry is that we will see thousands of really crappy 'free' programs and Apple will start to censor.  That would be bad, and any gatekeeper is problematic, even if they are a benevolent gatekeeper.
  • Not sure what this means for SCUMMVM.  Getting your legally purchased Monkey Island files to the iPhone might be an issue.
  • I think the 30/70 split is very fair.  Apple eats the cost of bandwidth and credit card transactions and you get 70% of whatever price you set.  I have no problem with that.  It's a hell of a lot better than the casual game business where they take 70% for doing the same thing.  XBLA used to be a 30/70 split until they decided that indie game developers were making too much money and now give them 35%.  Interestingly enough, Mr. Steve Ballmer was asked what he thought of Apple taking 30% and he said it was too much.  Really?  And what does Mr. Ballmer think of the XBLA split?  Maybe he doesn't know and when he finds out there will be hell to pay.
  • I think we're going to see a flood of casual games hit the iPhone.  We'll see if more interesting games start to show up.  If Apple truly doesn't care what you sell, then this could be a very interesting platform for adventure games.  Hell of a lot better than the developer economics of the DS/PSP.
  • The iPhone SDK says "No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application...".  I don't know of any modern game that doesn't use some kind of interpreted scripting language.  I'm pretty sure this was not Apple's intention, but we'll see how they deal with it.
  • Dear lord I will be so happy when Spore finally ships.  Not because I want to play it, but because I am so damn tried of hearing about it.

And one more time before we go:  Rihanna's Umbrella

Other people's comments:

Posted by gorba on Mar 8, 2008 five to noon

First comment:
NO PORN?!?! WTF?

Posted by Kroms on Mar 8, 2008 ten to one pm

Bah, to me "casual games" means a normal-budget/style* game that does something different, like Voodoo Vince. I'm not too worried SCUMM VM, because in my experience there's always a way around the dumb "you have to had install it from here" restrictions, and it's good news about the 30/70 split. A new age for gaming, or just a sign of bad things to come? Hmm...

* Usually lower budget, of course, so profit is easier to make.

Posted by Ron Gilbert on Mar 8, 2008 half past one pm

When I say casual game, I'm referring to stuff you get from Big Fish, Real Arcade, etc.

Posted by Kroms on Mar 8, 2008 five past three pm

Ah, gotcha. I thought you meant those because you referred to the Big Fish kind of game as "more akin to student games" in your Idle Thumbs interview four years ago. My bad.

Posted by Bogomips on Mar 8, 2008 half past one pm

I have deep misgivings about any gatekeeper, as Ron puts it, also having the ability to censor content, which is what the porn clause essentially is.

It's a very slippery slope. For example, imagine someone comes up with a game similar to Leisure Suit Larry... would that be considered porn? I have no difficulty imagining someone at Apple deciding that yes, it is porn because it contains sexual innuendos and a few images of pixelated tits.

Any and all forms of censorship are bad, even if they seem innocuous at first, there's the very real possibility that they'll spin themselves into something you weren't expecting.

Posted by blombo on Mar 8, 2008 four pm

You could say the same about the Movie/TV ratings, but it simply isn't so.

Posted by Bogomips on Mar 8, 2008 five to five pm

Movie/TV ratings allow for a wide range of material, the worse thing that could happen is that your movie/tv show will be given a mature rating, but it can still be seen by those who want to do so. If I make a porn movie I can get it into the distribution channel and eventually it will reach whoever wants to watch it.

Unless, of course, you happen to live in a place where the ratings board has fallen into the trap which I mentioned. Take the BBFC for example: remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Not if you live in the UK you don't, because over there they were known as Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles. God forbid kids should come across the word 'Ninja', which was deemed too violent for their impressionable young minds. I could also point out many other cases of BBFC censorship related to movies. Or the outright banning of video games. Not to mention their obsession with nunchuks...

The BBFC is just one example of an apparently benign "gatekeeper" gone bad. I could give you many others, but if you substitute BBFC for Apple you get a glimpse of what happens when someone in that position starts playing censor.

And I need to rant a bit less...

Posted by Sqorgar on Mar 9, 2008 twenty past ten am

I really wouldn't worry about Apple's gatekeeping. The SDK is surprisingly robust and really goes beyond what most people were expecting. I think Apple really wants the iPhone/Touch to become a major new viable platform, and that's not going to happen if public opinion makes them out to be too controlling. Apple has everything to lose through open censorship. I think something like Leisure Suit Larry fails to qualify as porn by any stretch and already, there are movies on iTunes that are far worse in content (far worse... or better?). They have said that following the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines would be a "Very Good Idea" though (but frankly, I'm with them on that one).

The things that are more worrying, for me at least, is some of the limitations of the SDK itself. You can't even test content on an iPhone directly without joining the developer program (for $99). You can't create applications that live in the background. There's no support for any real file system (Apple suggests you create a SQLite database to save everything). Battery life is likely to be a major limiting factor. The lack of traditional controls makes certain types of genres to be a practical impossibility. There is apparently no support for getting files to and from the iPhone or syncing with desktop programs. And the inability to use scripting languages does present an obstacle for adventure games. Nothing insurmountable, but something like ScummVM is going to face difficulties.

Still, it's an exciting platform to screw around with. If only I could get my wife to give me a few hours off from pressure washing the deck...

Posted by Alex on Mar 8, 2008 twenty five to two pm

"Dear lord I will be so happy when Spore finally ships.  Not because I want to play it, but because I am so damn tired of hearing about it."

I have the same kind of feeling with the iPhone.. except there's never a final shipping date.

Posted by Davey C on Mar 8, 2008 twenty to three pm

"The iPhone SDK says "No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application...".  I don't know of any modern game that doesn't use some kind of interpreted scripting language.  I'm pretty sure this was not Apple's intention, but we'll see how they deal with it."

I think this may be aimed more at preventing platforms like Java from establishing themselves on the iPhone. Which if true is a pity.

Posted by Tobias on Mar 8, 2008 half past six pm

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/07/sun-iphone-java_1.html

Posted by Davey C on Mar 9, 2008 twenty to five pm

Of course it remains to be seen what Apple's stance on this matter will be. So far there has been no comment from their side.

Posted by blombo on Mar 8, 2008 five past four pm

Ron, funny how you always write "Porn" with a capital p ;-)

Posted by chalito on Mar 8, 2008 twenty five past nine pm

Dunno.. I'm still holding to see what happens with android. Seems like a nicer platform to develop for if gets enough public.

Posted by Jeff on Mar 8, 2008 quarter to eleven pm

I can't imagine that they'll let anyone publish anything through iTunes.

One of the big problems in the casual games market is all the clones of the hit games.  PopCap makes Zuma, and the next thing you know there are a bunch of games using the same play mechanic, with a slightly different theme.  There's even a pirate version of Zuma called "Pirate Poppers" - and that's by PlayFirst, who did Diner Dash!

So if you're Apple, and you don't want iTunes filled with derivative crap games, do you let 30 clones of Zuma get published?  I don't think so.

Posted by Nils on Mar 9, 2008 quarter to eight am

Hi Ron,

there is already a working and stable port of scummvm for the iphone. have a look at http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/IPhone

Greetings,
Nils

Posted by chrisis on Mar 9, 2008 ten past nine am

Ron already knows about that (there was a bit controversial article right at grumpygamer sometime ago. Not everybody understood Ron's jokes then, obviously), the thing is: This port is higly unofficial an only does work on a jailbroken device (but I have to agree, it's great, I'm happily using it on my iPod Touch ;-))

Posted by Toryn on Mar 9, 2008 quarter past ten am

I'm extremely excited about the iPhone / iPod touch SDK. I've been brushing up on my C++ and Objective C skills for some time now in preparation for it. I just can't wait to latch on to a popular intellectual property from a movie studio and release a crappy game based on it! Then I'll sit back and watch the iDollars roll in!

Actually, I'm hoping to make short adventure games.

How's this for an ideal situation?

Telltale decides to make an episodic game for the iPlatform and they hire Ron as the game designer!

Posted by Dante Kleinberg on Mar 9, 2008 eleven am

Even when Spore comes out, you'll never stop hearing about it.

Eventually we'll get Spore: Teen Style Edition, Spore: H&M Fashion Stuff, Spore: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff, Spore: Open for Business Expansion Pack, and so on and so on to infinity.

Posted by JohnnyW on Mar 10, 2008 twenty to seven am

I don't think for a nano-second that the iPhone will EVER become a "viable platform" in and of itself. It takes a hell of a lot more than just an SDK to make a successful platform. iPods are way more prevalent than iPhones, and yet their "amazing" game content is terrible. I've seen more people play Cenitpede on their phone than I have seen anyone playing games on their iPod.

We'll see, but I really can't see it happening.

Posted by Toryn on Mar 10, 2008 quarter past seven am

I agree that gaming on the iPod is a joke at best. The interface is terrible. They actually released Sonic the Hedgehog for it. Can you believe that? How in the world could you possibly control Sonic with a click-wheel?

As for the SDK, it's for both the iPhone and iPod touch. Both of which have much better interfaces (multi-touch screen and full 3D accelerometer). Before you dismiss these two devices as a viable gaming platform, watch the keynote address video:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/iphoneroadmap/

Skip the first part about the iPhone in the business world and check out the software development part.

This platform has a few good things going for it:

- Built in application distribution mechanism
- Device capabilities
- Development tools (XCode is a nice development suite)
- Powerful language (Objective C is fairly ease to learn and very powerful)*

*Quake was written in Objective C... for example

Only time will tell.

All I know is that if I can fire up iTunes and purchase and download a new graphic adventure game, I'll be a happy man.

Posted by Ron Gilbert on Mar 10, 2008 half past eight am

One reason the iPod game content is "terrible" is that it's not an open platform where anyone can download the SDK.  Apple hand picked companies to make iPod games and picked big companies, not companies that wanted to explore the platform.  The iPhone is different.  We'll see hundreds of games come out and from all kinds of people.

Posted by LKM on Mar 10, 2008 five past nine am

So... DeathSpank will come out for the Mac. Mac OS X and "Touch OS X" share many of the APIs (there's OpenGL, Core Audio and all that stuff on the iPhone). Will DeathSpank be ported to the iPhone? No, wait, let me rephrase that: Please port DeathSpank to the iPhone and I will buy a dozen copies, promise!!!

Posted by blombo on Mar 10, 2008 eleven am

All right. I'll personally port, bit by bit, DeathSpank to the iPhone. Price is fixed at one million dollar per copy. Since you promised to buy 12, I'm willing to give you a big discount, so the total price is only ten million dollars.
Deal? ;-)

Posted by LKM on Mar 10, 2008 five to two pm

That would be too expencive... How about 9 million for the hole thing?

Posted by Mike on Mar 10, 2008 ten to one pm

Hmm... the accelerometer could add an interesting dynamic to a game titled "DeathSpank"

Posted by teamonkey on Mar 11, 2008 five to six am

"XBLA used to be a 30/70 split until they decided that indie game developers were making too much money and now give them 35%."

This apparently came from a talk at the IGF where it was stated that MS was offering returns as low as 35%. It instantly became INTERNET FACT that XBLA returns were being dropped to 35% across the board and Microsoft were screwing everyone over.

The truth is more like that there's a range of licensing options and the 35% figure is what you get if you need your hand held at every step of the way, you can't stump up the cash in advance to purchase or lease a dev kit any other way, and the localisation, certification and submission stuff is handled for you.

So a guy in a shed who knocks out a natty game in his spare time might get 35%. A small indie team with experience of selling a game and have a few grand to invest in hardware and cert. fees up-front should get much more.

Posted by Ron Gilbert on Mar 11, 2008 ten past six pm

This is indeed a fact, not a rumor.  Microsoft "giving" developers support like testing and localization is just spin control.  If you went to MS and said you didn't need any of those things, you would not go back to getting 70%.  This was a greed move, plain and simple.  Microsoft doesn't understand what they really have in XBLA.  It could be so much more than a bunch of arcade and match-3 games.

Posted by teamonkey on Mar 12, 2008 ten past six am

I agree that they could make it so much more, but it was never a fixed 70% return for XBLA. The only thing that MS will say (and have been saying since XBLA was announced) is that it's on a sliding scale and everyone else is so heavily legaled-up they can't talk about it.

It was only rumoured that a company got 70% for an XBLA game, but it was the kind of rumour that spread everywhere, so when some guy says that some developers are getting as low as 35% the whole internets assumes that they have cut the price for everyone. Bastards!

When in fact they should be considered bastards because the median cut was probably always in the lower end of the 35-70% range.

Posted by Davey C on Mar 11, 2008 ten past five pm

It looks like all may not be as peachy as it seems with the iPhone SDK...

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13739_1-9889159-46.html

Posted by LKM on Mar 12, 2008 ten past midnight

Doesn't matter for games.

Posted by Chris M on Mar 12, 2008 quarter to three am

That article isn't relevant.  It's Apple's phone, it's their software, so as far as they're concerned, every thing is just peachy.

I wish Nintendo were as open with their WiiWare SDK, as Apple is with the iPhone SDK.

Anyway, my only gripe about the iPhone SDK, is that I'll need to pick up an Intel Mac and Leopard just to get started. grumbles

<]=)

Posted by Someone on Mar 12, 2008 ten to three pm

"I wish Nintendo were as open with their WiiWare SDK, as Apple is with the iPhone SDK."

Except it isn't really open is it? You can only develop for the iPhone on an Apple Mac.

Posted by Chris M on Mar 12, 2008 quarter past seven pm

True, but unlike Nintendo, Apple doesn't require one fills out an application and go through an approval process just to get going.  Anyone with a bit of money can buy a Mac (Mini), download the SDK, and start having some fun.

<]=)

Posted by Shadee on Mar 12, 2008 five to five am

You'd probably be burnt as a witch if you chanted that to a 15th century song :)

Completely random pick: Guillaume Du Fay - Resvelons Nous
I hope I'm not right.

Posted by Gorba on Mar 13, 2008 five to two pm

It was my birthday yesterday!

Posted by Mantícora on Mar 14, 2008 twenty to seven am

I bet is from Dowland.. maybe Tobias Hume

Posted by Leon on Mar 22, 2008 ten past two pm

Hey I knew about this stuff long ago... at the University in Germany we are going to be programming Apps for iPhones in this semester, one of the possible projects is a Game

Posted by Matt on Mar 25, 2008 twenty past nine am

Anyone who is concerned about Apple censoring content should take a look at some of the content available on the iTunes Store. With TV shows like The L Word and Californication, movies like Monster's Ball, and more explicit music tags in the music then you can shake a stick at: Apple doesn't seem too worried about protecting people from content. Implement a rating system and integrate it into the parental control settings to allow parents to limit access. Once that's done then a game like Leisure Suit Larry could be a real possibility.

Posted by Joe on Mar 27, 2008 noon

Please Ron! Please, no iPhone version. For all of our sakes. O.O

Posted by Joe on Mar 27, 2008 five past three pm

Seriously.

Posted by Jack on Mar 30, 2008 five to seven am

Bored of MI ?
Why that ?


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