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[In this in-depth Gamasutra feature, veteran developer Alessi looks at the state of the iPhone/iPod Touch game market in 2009, mapping out the pitfalls, engine choices and opportunities of developing for Apple's hit device.]
With the holidays behind us,
the development path for the iPlatform -- iPhone and iPod Touch -- is coming to a
crossroads.
Will the iPlatform live up to its overwhelming promise, or will it
fail to deliver truly meaningful gameplay experiences by nickel-and-diming
users with free or extremely inexpensive gimmick content?
In this article, we'll analyze
the iPlatform's past, present, and future to determine what pitfalls developers
should be aware of before taking the plunge in 2009.
The Past
The iPlatform awoke in beta
form during February 2008. During this time, developers large and small signed
up in excitement to develop for the device that made Star Trek look ancient. Apple
unleashed a powerful and easy-to-use SDK.
The word on the street was that the
iPlatform was more powerful than even Sony's mighty PSP for gaming
applications. Looking at the power of the hardware, the ease of iTunes for
app delivery, and the cellular phone cornerstone of this platform, it was easy to see why this might be the way of the future.
Not all was rosy, though.
Developers had to deal with a restrictive NDA, which caused the flow of information
to travel like molasses. Developers like id's John Carmack said that Apple's
devices would revolutionize mobile development, and it sounded great. Perusing Internet forums, however, showed a
different side of the story. Developers struggled with a cumbersome code-signing process.
Apple's G4 computers, still
widely used, were not compatible out of the box, or supported by Apple's iPhone
SDK. Through some hacks, it was easy to get a G4 to work with the iPlatform
simulator, but getting an app onto an actual test device was nigh impossible.
To get in on this promising platform, one had to pony up for an Intel-based
Mac. There was a lot of promise for the platform, but there were legal
restrictions, information bottlenecks, and additional costs even for long-time
Mac developers.
The Present: Tools &
Finances
As we now know, the
stumbling blocks of early iPlatform development were actually minor. Developers
overcame the code-signing niggles, Apple dropped the restrictive NDA,
information flowed more freely, and people were making money.
For a developer
looking at the iPlatform today, there are many development options -- not just
Apple's SDK, but dedicated game development tools such as Unity, ShiVa, and
Torque. The cost is obviously higher, but the rate of production may be equally
so.
The minimum price of entry
for a completely green Mac developer is $1,144.54 at current exchange rates.
The breakdown of this total is $99 for Apple's development program, $599 for an
Intel Mac Mini, $229 for a second Generation iPod Touch, and $217.54 for
StoneTrip's ShiVa, the cheapest complete game engine for the iPlatform. The
free game iBall3D
was developed using ShiVa, and has gone on to see more than 850,000 downloads.
 Many developers have used
Torque at some point in time. The engine is an indie development staple, and
some would argue that the iPlatform is the ultimate indie destination.
Currently, only the 2D version of Torque is available for the iPlatform. The
price of entry is $500 on top of a pre-existing Torque Game Builder (TGB) Pro
Indie license ($250).
Furthermore, there's an additional $100 per-title fee. The
total for an Apple development newcomer using this platform, then, is
$1,677.00.
That comes out to a $532.46 gap in the cover charge from ShiVa. However,
it might be worth your time if you've already developed a TGB game and simply
want to port it over to the iPhone.
The last card in our
current hand is Unity. The price of entry is steeper than ShiVa, but not as
steep as Torque. The minimum grand total using this solution is $1525.00.
The
Unity components are an indie license for $199, and an additional $399 for the
iPhone Basic license. Already, a host of great Unity-developed titles have been
launched for the App Store including Bubble
Bang, Crazy
Snowboard, and my personal favorite, Debris.
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I feel apple did a great job of 'solving' many issues for indie developers: low cost of entry, ease of programming, distribution. The one issue that remains unsolved (not that it is apple's sole 'responsibility' to solve it), is a better app search and ways to give exposure to all apps more evenly. I wish the iTunes/App Store had at least a 'Random' section that would showcase a selection of random apps. Also maybe a section showcasing top rated ones, (best reviews). This would 'spread' the coveted app store front page exposure a little more evenly across all applications.
luis
I find it really strange that Apple sorts categories by popularity but not by ratings. With such a large flood of Apps it is hard to determine the quality of the app by which to make a purchase decision based on price-to-quality value. Subsequently purchases are much more of a guess and so as a consumer I am not willing to risk as much at higher price points.
I also think much more of the App statistics need to be exposed to the consumer such as total number of ratings, more granular averages (i.e. 3.27 stars), ratings by App version number and by calendar quarter or month, version update rate, total and monthly average number of downloads, etc.
There might also be some interesting ratios or misc. stats that could be very insightful to some consumers in determining App value such as possibly the average rating per current version, the average rating per dollar of price?, the average downloads per dollar of cost?, the most popular Apps per category without a price drop, the average price change per month. I think the more Apple discloses to the consumer the harder it will be for developers to attempt to release cheap gimmicky shovelware for any genre and this should result in an increase in quality and value for the consumer and make it easier for quality developers to survive.
http://ideenecke.blogspot.com/2009/01/itunes8-activate-half-star-ratings-for.htm
l
I would still like to be able to set the level of granularity though.
http://byteclub.com/blog/39-blog-multiplayer/49-where-are-multiplayer-iphone-gam
es
I've started a FAQ recently to collate info on the technical, operational, and marketing issues around the platform: http://iphonedevelopmentfaq.com