I can't speak for him but I want most of the design effort to go into the game and not the interface (for games with no dexterity element). Sometimes I see developers make two mediocre games where with the same amount of effort they could have designed one better one. It's also nice to have a larger community of fellow players (other people playing and discussing the same game, not two different versions with different mechanisms and rules).
Oh the mechanics and rules would play the same. It would just have a couple tweaks to take advantage of the machine. Exact same game - just different scales, navigation etc.
Universal is a direct upscaling of the graphics to fit the iPad screen. iPad version can have unique features that use the screen size more effectively.
Universals are just iPhone games scaled up. Our artwork wont really scale the same way. We're not saying that its a ton of work to get it ready for iPad, but it wont be just a zoomed in version of the iPhone version either.
Huh? No, it certainly isn't. In fact, you can't release a universal app that just upscales the graphics and controls, Apple won't even accept it.
Ipad scaling Our menus are vector based so we could scale them up to the new ipad resolution... I think perhaps there might be something else there - more fundamental -with the increased area- that we would really like to address - perhaps adding a new view mode- or even adding some features to the main display - so for example since you have all this room- maybe we should display more information that the iphone didn't have a chance of showing (so we had to bury in a menu) or perhaps you could have the navigation map as a little thumbnail if we found that to be pertinent to gameplay to display the whole time - but simply couldn't include this with the iphone... it will prolly be best to revisit the UI entirely with the ipad and see what things we had on the wish list that didn't make the iphone cut- and revisit them with the new real estate. we were talking fo a staggered release with the iphone being first - and this is probably how it will end up happening.
There seems to be some confusion here about what a universal app is. As DaviddesJ has pointed out, it absolutely is not just the iPhone app scaled up to fit the iPad. A universal app is essentially two games contained in the same app - one designed for iPhone and the other for the iPad, both using shared assets such as graphics, sounds etc. The interface elements, layout etc. are designed to suit the different devices. Take a look at this universal app for Galaxy on Fire 2 as an example. Look at the third screenshot, and compare the iPhone and the iPad interface by clicking at the top right of the screenshot panel. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/galaxy-on-fire-2/id397127539?mt=8
Please take the time to get both versions right ... you're clearly correct that you have much more scope to include more 'live' information on an iPad screen rather than having to menu dive like on an iPhone I guess the bottom line is, do you want to charge for the separate versions.... Fishlabs introduced the iPad version several weeks after the iPhone version but did ultimately make it universal. Clearly the majority of users (like myself) would love the universal route even if the launch is split into 2 and done through an update I guess the developers would love a method to do a paid upgrade which doesn't really exists in iOS land yet....
Clearly we're idiots. Right now to make our release window it will NOT be universal. It will eventually. Truth be told I have never heard of this but it makes a ton of sense. We will probably just build it into an update once the iPad version is ready. Either way, the iPad version will be awesome. This I can promise.
RATIO of BUILD/MANAGE/EXPLORE what do you guys think the ideal ratio of BUILD/MANAGE/EXPLORE should be for Star Command? (fighting is part of manage) for me I think other games are as follows: Sims 1 30/65/5 Sims 3 25/50/25 Civ V 10/55/35 Sim City 4 35/65/0 Giants Citizen Kabudo (build maps) 15/60/25 Star Craft 10/75/15
I'm going to say 25/50/25. Managing is the best part of these type of games. I like building and exploring kinda evenly.
25/45/30 because exploring new systems and uncolonized planets is pretty much what space travel is realistically about. Managing (and more importantly fighting!) is where most of the fun is and building allows for customization I think.
I would say 40/20/40. Building and exploring are more interesting than managing and the actual mechanics of fighting, to me. But I think that Civ IV is something like 40/40/20. Deciding what to build (which includes worker improvements) is a big part of the game. I haven't played Civ V as much, but I can't see how it can only be 10% build unless you're counting a lot of what I consider building as management instead.
