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Chapter 1: Building Great iOS Games
Device-guided design
One of the keys to creating a great iOS application is to take advantage of the
functionality that the device offers. In the case of a new platform (such as
the iPhone 4 and the iPad), capitalizing on the new possibilities is especially
important — especially when the application is a game!
Games are often expected to push the limits of a platform. When your game can
easily incorporate new iOS (or hardware) functionality, new frontiers of game
design and innovation open before you. These elements of iOS functionality —
and how they relate to games — are as follows:
✓ Accessing the Internet: Allowing your games to offer users the ability to
post their high scores to social networking sites, such as Facebook, or
quickly and easily download new levels or content packs for your games
is not just a good idea, it’s essential. Word of your game spreads faster
as users share their scores and favorite levels via their Facebook or
Twitter pages. Your users also feel more connected and invested in your
game because they’re sharing it with their friends! By providing access
to extra content stored online, your game’s initial download size can
also be made quite small.
We cover making your game into a social beast in Chapter 16.
✓ Detecting the location of the user: Using the iPhone’s built-in location
services, you can determine the device’s current location or even be
notified when that location changes. In the context of gaming, location
has a variety of potential uses — though many of them aren’t obvious.
For example, you could create a location-based game in which the play-
er’s location influences the game.
Pac-Manhattan, a 2004 research project into location-aware games, had
players running around the streets of New York carrying bulky GPS
devices and re-creating a game of the arcade classic Pac-Man. Six years
later, you have all the power of that hardware in your users’ pockets.
✓ Tracking motion and orientation: The iPhone and iPad contain three
accelerometers and a compass (and the iPhone 4 adds a gyroscope),
which help you detect very small changes in movement. You can use
these features to detect when the user turns the device from vertical to
horizontal. In the case of iPhone games, you’re probably more interested
in subtle movements, such as tilting.
Cro-Mag Rally, by Pangea Software, features a unique racing experience
in which the user holds the iPhone like a steering wheel and turns it
to drive the car. There are also a number of dexterity-based games in
which the player must roll a ball around an obstacle course, such as
Super Monkey Ball and Labyrinth. Traffic makes use of the accelerometer
to detect the user shaking the device; you can read about how to add
the feature to the game in Chapter 25.
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