Research Into ipad Games

Today has been an excellent day. Not only did my ipad 2 arrive ready for game testing, I have a clearer idea on what i want my game to be about.
During game testing I noted down all the games characteristics, along with their good and bad points regarding gameplay, controls, general gameplay overview, graphics and simplicity/complexity of the game.
I focussed my testing on three games in particular. Reckless Getaway, Zombie Highway, Drag Racing and Lego Racers on the Nintendo 64.

Reckless Getaway

Reckless Getaway is basically a Burnout/Grand Theft Auto game. There are two different game types. one is demolition, which involves driving a massive lorry and smashing through as many obstacles to gain the highest score possible. All along the road there are '?' icons laid out, for players to drive through to earn bonus points. This mode is also available online so you are able to compete with random people or your friends online. The second game type is called Getaway. The key objective of this game mode is to escape from a robbery of some kind in a getaway car and evade the police. The one mission I played involved me having to escape and evade the police in an allotted time.
What I loved most about this game was the graphics, the birds eye view the player had of the game and the simplicity of both the games mechanics and the overall game in general. What I didn't like was the sensitivity of the controls. Although the controls were very sensitive I loved how it was two simple left and right arrow buttons. I checked out a number of reviews in both ipad magazines and on the App Store. Most people who purchased this game gave it a 4-5 star rating, because of the positive points I made.

Demolition Mode (See the scoring system
 for certain cars/objects destroyed)

Great example of the birds eye in game view

Title Page

Zombie Highway


Zombie Highway was another great game I played today. The key objective of the game is survival. You are driving a heavily armoured vehicle through the desert, fighting off zombies trying to knock you off the road. The game itself is simple, highly addictive and very competitive.

When I first picked up this game I thought 'oh no, not another zombie game'. But to be honest, I have never played a zombie game, which involved driving too. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Driving on a highway with zombies.

The game can be played either offline or online against other people, trying to survive as long as you can. The game has a good upgrade system, although it does become very restricting if you have no money to spare in order to buy some hardcore weapons. I was playing for at least an hour today and only just unlocked a simple SMG. It just proves that money goes a long way.

View of the game on the ipod Touch

Concept art for the game

In game screenshot

The game is available on all three Apple iOS products, being the ipad 1/2, iphone 3, 3GS, 4, 4GS and the ipod touch. The games control system is done by tilting the device left and right to steer your vehicle. As you can see in the image above, when zombies mount your car 4 circles appear around your car. 2 circles on each side of the car to represent doors. Whenever a zombie mounts a certain door on the car, the circle indicating will turn red. It is then the players mandate to tap that circle to shoot the zombies off the car or steer the car into obstacles sprawled on the roach to knock them off. For the players convenience, each attacking zombie has a health bar above them. As I mentioned earlier there are 7 different classes of zombies in this game. One being stronger than the other. The health bars support this by either decreasing slower when being attacked or they are a different colour to represent the stronger classes. 

Overall I personally love this game. I like the idea, how it plays and the controls. The trouble I had with it was the difficulty at the beginning. I had to really work at the game to unlock items and in general; 'survive', which is the initial aim of the game. I wouldn't say this game should be a first choice game to pick up if you are new to gaming on Apple devices, because it requires skill and the ability to look ahead, not to mention epic multitasking.

Drag Race

Drag Racing is a racing game primarily based around drag racing. The aim of the game is to win drag racing competitions to earn in game spending money to buy upgrades for your car, or just buy a better car and upgrade that one and so on.

In game

The garage, where you purchase new cars or upgrade them

This game is available on all iOS devices like 'Zombie Highway' and 'Reckless Getaway'. It has an insanely simple in-game control system. As you can see in the 'In game' screenshot above, there are two tabs left and right to the steering wheel with plus and minus signs and a foot pedal logo to the right, above the positive tab. The two tabs are used for gear shifting. In game, the player has to simply press either of the + and - button to shift up or down to control the speed of their car. The foot pedal logo is what the player presses to rev up their engine ready to accelerate off the start line. In order for the player to see their distance from the finish line or between other players, there is a track map displayed at the top of the screen. The general in game layout is very basic. Its a 2D layout. The players drivers seat with the controls in and the racing cars in front of that.

While I was playing 'Drag Race' i found it very similar to a popular console game called 'Need For Speed'. The idea of having a garage of cars and being able to upgrade the cars performance and look is very relatable to 'NFS'. Of course 'Drag Race' is far simpler, to make it an easy pick up and play game, with no in depth narrative or extreme graphics and game mechanics.

I found the in game menus and customizing car options tiring to flick around, because I'm wanting to make a game that is easy to navigate around and can appeal to families and children.

Overall I'd say this game is great, but I would find it very tedious after a half hour or so of gameplay. So I think its more of a pick up and play game, not one that one would play continuously for hours on end, but thats just my personal opinion.

Lego Racers

Lego Racers was a game I used to play on the Nintendo 64. It is a racing game based around the children's construction toy, Lego. The game allows players to make their own car out of lego pieces and race their car against other players in local multiplayer or AI (Artificial Intelligence). 

I found this game a great influence for my game idea, because it targets children, the player can make their own car to race with and it has a nice comic themed style to it, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Lego Racers

I really want to use selected features from each game I have analysed and condense them into my game idea. I like the steering controls and in game birds eye view in 'Reckless Getaway'. The touch and shoot feature in 'Zombie highway' is a good idea if I want to have a combat system during races. 'Drag Race' doesn't really have any appeal to me, but I am considering its simple gameplay. 'Lego Racers' comic theme and the ability to build your own car to race with is a great concept, that I want to include in my game.