Who to ask about Shattered Dimensions DS port

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Shanatenay, Dec 24, 2010.

  1. Shanatenay

    Shanatenay Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    I just emailed Griptonite Games asking if they saw a possibility of a DS to Iphone port of Spider-man: Web of Shadows DS or hopefully the more enjoyable Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions DS. I know Assassin's Creed 2 uses a version of the same HYBRID Engine 2.5 so it must have been already ported over to the iphone. All the game assets are already created so all that would be necessary (as far as I know) would be to create intuitive controls and ten do some play testing. I'd imagine that Spider-man fans would love to be able to play these and I'd imagine it wouldn't be too expensive to port because most of the work is already done.

    By the way to those who haven't played the ds versions of these games, they're very much Metroidvania in gameplay and really fun.

    If anybody has any other ideas on who I should try to contact please let me know. I went on the activision site, but the contact setup is convoluted and I'm pretty sure it said something about not accepting unsolicited game ideas. :(

    (I wasn't sure where to put this and my best guess was to put it here because it's developer related)
     
  2. maxxx

    maxxx Active Member

    Dec 23, 2010
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    from the looks of it

    I think it would be immpossible to fit a whole DS or PSP game into an iphone/ipod. Iam sure they could make a port , but it might lack some features of the larger versions.
     
  3. Shanatenay

    Shanatenay Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    Well I looked online and the Assassin's Creed 2 DS rom is 64 megs and when it got ported over to the iphone it only moved up to about 182 megs.

    The Spiderman Shattered Dimensions Ds rom is smaller at 32 megs so I'd imagine the iphone port would be smaller than the iphone port of Assassin's Creed 2.

    The biggest problem I thought would be which company would want to port it. I know Activison has Spiderman videogame rights currently. Ubisoft did the port of AC so they have the iphone version of that particular game engine, but I don't know if they'd let Gameloft or Activision have access to it in order to use that same engine for Spidey.
     
  4. CharlesDM

    CharlesDM New Member

    Sep 21, 2010
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    My short guess is that it wont happen. Depending on the engine it might not take that long to get it ported over, but you need people familiar with the iOS development process. From what I know, activision has no people that do iOS development, but I might be wrong here. Also, it has to make sense from an economical point of view.
     
  5. Shanatenay

    Shanatenay Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    Yeah it's just wishful thinking.

    I think the engine already has been ported over because it's the same one used in Assassin's Creed 2 - Discovery (the DS to Iphone port)

    The only problem with that is that's a Ubisoft game whereas the Spiderman games are Activisions.

    I emailed Griptonite Games because they made all of those, but I'm not really expecting an answer to be honest.

    I thought I'd just try for the heck of it.
     
  6. SkyMuffin

    SkyMuffin Well-Known Member

    May 24, 2010
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    college student, ENG/WGS major
    Lexington, KY
    DS roms range from 16mb-256mb, so it's not really a problem. Also, some DS games such as Cooking Mama, Robocalypse, and others have already been ported.
     
  7. Shanatenay

    Shanatenay Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    That's true. Also there are current iphone games in the 500-600 mb range.

    On a side note, I just read an Oct 1st interview with the producer of Okamiden DS saying fans are asking for an iphone port.
     
  8. Marc Vaughan

    Marc Vaughan Well-Known Member

    Apr 15, 2010
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    #8 Marc Vaughan, Dec 27, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2010
    Football Manager Handheld (iPhone) is basically a direct port of its PSP brethren, the iDevices have FAR more memory and storage space than a standard PSP or DS.

    While some PSP games might be 'impractical' to port because of the large storage space required - in the main this bloatage will be through cut-scenes and suchlike which might well be removable or compressable to be a more reasonable size.

    (FMHi is about 200Mb in its uncompressed state but ends up being a tad over 70Mb on an iDevice)

    Really the only 'downside' to the iDevices is lack of specific graphics hardware, but this isn't a huge issue for most games ....
     
  9. Shanatenay

    Shanatenay Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    #9 Shanatenay, Dec 27, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2010
    I'm sure people could live with just text and not voice overs and also with FMV cutscenes. Also the iPhone seems to be way more capable graphically than the ds so a port (as opposed to a game running through an emulator) seems like a good idea. They wouldnt have to spend development costs on art assets since they already exist.

    I know nothing about development though so I don't know how much creating new controls, play testing and porting over to the iPhone costs. I do figure it's cheaper than starting a game from scratch if it's a full length game.
     
  10. Marc Vaughan

    Marc Vaughan Well-Known Member

    Apr 15, 2010
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    Its very capable in the main - was thinking mainly of PSP ports (as the PSP has specific 3d hardware) more than DS with regards to potential issues; but tbh even with that I reckon the newer iDevices would hold their own anyway (and at worst you'd simply have to tone down some of the graphical effects slightly).

    A lot would depend on the state of the existing codebase and how its structured, I've always structured my games with the idea that they might in the future move to other platforms which simplifies things slightly - if however they've been written specifically for a platform and interface with its hardware at a very low level throughout the code it could be far harder to undertake.

    If possible try then try and talk to the people who wrote the original game and get their design notes (if they're available) - this will help a lot with understanding things and ensure a safer and speedier development process imho.
     
  11. Shanatenay

    Shanatenay Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2010
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    #11 Shanatenay, Dec 28, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2010
    I appreciate your insight.

    I personally have no involvement in development (sorry if I gave that impression). I was simply trying to get opinions on who would be my best bet to email in order to let them know that there's interest in an iphone port and to at least get them to consider it.

    I didn't know if it would be my best to try to contact the developers or the publisher.

    On the topic of psp ports, do you think God of War: Ghost of Sparta would be possible on the iphone from a technical standpoint?

    I realize Sony's big seller would never show up on a rival device. If hypothetically they allowed it to be ported over though do you think it could possibly show up looking as good?
    Is the iphone capable of that polycount and amount of effects and whatnot?

    I know it isn't quite the same as asking about an average psp game however.
    Ready at dawn studios, the Psp GOW developers (just in case you didn't know) clearly are masters of psp development and are capable of making magic with that device :)
     

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