Common User Interaction and The Future

sdpardue

So, as I design games to be played on the iPhone and iPod Touch, I'm also thinking about some day in the future (hopefully soon) when I'll also be able to export a GameSalad-created game to a BlackBerry, various Android phones, game consoles, etc.

I'm making a big assumption about the future here, but it would certainly make good sense for GameSalad, as a company, and all of us, as game developers.

My question is related to what kind of common user interaction we can expect? Will GameSalad develop a "common interaction device" that we can use? Left/Right/Up/Down arrows? A "space bar" for firing, jumping, etc.? Sure, we can create and code those ourselves, or use the computer keyboard device when it's present, but I suspect many of us will want to have those capabilities when a keyboard isn't present. It would be nice to drag an arrow key overlay onto a scene, that's linked to the common virtual device.

At some point, perhaps a setting to "Use Common Device" interactions might be nice, so that it's easier to create a game for multiple platforms, although this "device" would be fairly limited. For example, the accelerometer is not going to be available on every platform.

Just looking for some reaction from the GameSalad folks (as far as you can talk about your future plans), as well as from the community who make the games.

Thanks,

Steve

quantumsheep

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter...

Seriously though, they *are* great ideas, and a 'common interaction device' would certainly be very helpful.

Part of the reason the iphone is such a success is that if you develop for it there are a lot of standardised features across all models. Screen size and input method for example.

Manufacturers such as Nokia and pretty much every other phone manufacturer have so many models available, all with different specs, screen size etc etc that developing for all variations must be a complete nightmare.

I think that the behaviours found in GS should be pretty simple to port across to other formats. Each will have their quirkiness, or standards, that need to be done bespoke. And this is where the time-sink comes in. I used to make WAP games back in the day, and always went for the lowest common denominator phone wise.

The SDKs available back then would emulate different phone models, and you could change your game to suit each one, or just have a standard version.

Unless the GS guys are able to somehow have a one button press that will convert iphone games made with GS to another format, with the user left to 'tidy up' anything that doesn't fit or work quite right...

I mean there's some sort of precedent for that. They're converting GS games into Web playable games, as well as into iphone code of course.

Sorry, I'm rambling. Very tired. But I liked your post!

Post more!

QS