08-16-2012, 03:38 AM
714C4170464644464F230 wrote: Personally, I don't think MM (in its current form) is a good fit for iPod/iPhone but perhaps for iPad. The talk of making the game available for iPod/iPhone makes me think a little bit about this thread: Midnight Mansion 3 - your opinion wanted!, and that maybe Vern's ideas would have been better suited for those smaller platforms. It just seems like some of the more successful games for those platforms tend to be smaller, or at least broken down into smaller sections, more puzzle-oriented, and generally something that you might play for shorter periods of time.
Yes, I agree completely. I don't expect Midnight Mansion HD to do very well on iPad / iPhone for this very reason. The top games have a number of things in common:
1) Controls that take advantage of the ability to touch the screen or tilt to control (i.e. NOT overlaid controls)
2) Designed specifically for iPhone / iPad, with new features that wouldn't be possible on a normal desktop computer
3) Gameplay that you can get into immediately, play for 1-3 minutes and have fun, and then stop. Great for while you're waiting for the Mac to start up, or for the elevator to arrive.
4) Memorable characters, very easy to play, yet still fun / challenging.
Midnight Mansion fails on almost all counts. It's not positioned well to be a top-seller on iPad / iPhone. Yet Rob, I can tell you that the iPhone version actually DOES work pretty darn well -- better than you'd expect, and is actually more fun (imo) than the iPad version, because holding the iPad in a way that lets you control it with D-pad style controls is more awkward.
Part of this is that I added a lot to the iPhone version to make it work well on that device. The screen actually scrolls so that Jack is never under a D-pad button. It's pretty smooth and intuitive, so you almost don't even notice it.