AGDC: Deus Ex designer crafting new FPS-RPG, iPhone strategy game

Your take is "preaching to the choir" or trying to convert the already converted. It's called a new market - have a look into it. Sometimes people like to try new things. Casual gaming is a big thing on phones and the iphone takes it wide open. You're just disappointed because you have a DS/PSP but not an iphone. Maybe you haven't been watching the stats on how many apps are being downloaded and bought for the iphone. I know people with iphones that want good games to play, they don't carry a DS or PSP wherever they go, but they ALWAYS have their phone.

Thus far the iPhone games are so very underwhelming. And I think they will remain that way due to a lack of any true buttons. Games like Bejeweled are likely the be the best type of games for the iPhone. Of course, shallow crap are big sellers these days so I'm sure they'll sell plenty.

The difference is, I have to change my phone service, pay a monthly service charge, get a new phone number, put up with Apple's heavy-handedness of the platform, and do all kinds of other shit if I want to play a game on an iPhone. Alternatively, I can play games on a DS or PSP without all that baggage, and if a game comes out for a system that I absolutely have to play, I can go out and buy that system and play it. No hassle, no problem.

On top of that, there will never be as many people with iPhones as with DS / PSP, and even if there were, most of them would not be using it for games. We don't make a big deal if a company develops games exclusively for BlackBerry, and a great deal more people own those. And we don't see big devs hopping on board with other, more well-known and well-bought phones either.

That's why it's silly to me to develop exclusively for the iPhone. Most of the world will never play your game, and doesn't even have the opportunity to. And that's disappointing.

The above post was directed to kristof, by the way.

I think touch-screen only could work very well for an old-fashioned JRPG or maybe point-and-click adventure game.

Unfortunately, these aren't the genres you're looking for.

Well, that's your opinion. And his opinion is that making a game for the iPhone is a good idea. So everyone's happy with their ideas. Yay. Stop hating.

The DS/PSP crowd will always have games. How about you look at it the way he is - there is a new market being formed and they want quality games.

My opinion is, I have an iPhone and I want more quality games. So there's one interested person, millions own iPhones and iPod Touches, there's a lot of potential. Over $1 million in sales the first month, the AppStore for the devices is moving apps, and one of the top sellers in that month was a game. (SuperMonkey Ball).

Sorry, I didn't complete that sentence when I typed that number:

It's been $1 million in sales A DAY the first month of the AppStore, not just "$1 million in a month."

Invisible War wasn't a bad game, actually compared to your average FPS it was quite nice - but it didn't live up to the legacy, and had wicked technical problems. Still, it shouldn't be used to judge the entire franchise - because the potential is certainly there.

It really did provide kind of a lousy storyline to work from, though...

You're wrong, Smith was the lead designer on Deus Ex and project director on Invisible War. And the original was his masterpiece too, it wasn't only about Warren. ;) And they both worked on DX: IW too, which by the way isn't a bad game at all, in fact it's a lot better than many other games, though of course it's not nearly as good as the first one.