Indie Games on the iPhone?

[Greg Squire]

Apple is about to open up the iPhone to 3rd party developers. The SDK is supposed to be released here real soon. Not sure if this will be open enough for "Indies" or not, but if it is, I think it could hold some great possibilities. I think it would be a great platform for small Indie/Casual games. Perhaps even better than the Palm, Pocket PC, and Mobile platforms have been. What do you guys think?

Here's some more info on the upcoming SDK.
http://www.dbtechno.com/phones/2008/02/27/apple-to-release-iphone-sdk-with-apps-next-thursday/
http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900627&subSection=Macintosh+Platform
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/devcenter/

[Mollusk]

I think so too. Just waiting for the release :/

[Michael Flad]

Does anyone already know some details about the distribution/business model for 3rd party software on the iPhone?

[Mollusk]

Seen on Engadget.com :

According to iLounge, Apple will be severely restricting access on software for the iPhone and iPod touch, only allowing apps to be downloaded through iTunes, hand-picking which applications will make it to the store, and cutting off developer's access to accessories which interface with the dock connector. Of course, this is just about what we expected from Steve, since he's already lauded Nokia (http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/jobs-praises-nokias-3rd-party-app-scheme-but-he-has-it-wrong/) for its S60 verification scheme. Additionally, the report claims that the SDK we see next week will be an incomplete beta, with the full version rolling out in June to coincide with the WWDC.


http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/29/iphone-software-development-to-be-locked-down-by-apple/

Doesn't sound to good ;)

[jaguard]

So you actually spend months of development to pull out the great Iphone game, and then it doesn't get selected by some hand-picker and all your effort is lost forever? Just great.

[Michael Flad]

Seems like it's going to work like this - well probably more like the big players know upfront that they will get their games live and can safely invest their time and money.

[Adrian Cummings]

It still seems like a pretty closed loop for many smaller indies :?

[Diragor]

Anybody keep up with the announcements today? I'm subscribed to a few Apple/Mac/iPhone feeds, so I'll summarize the dozens of articles as it relates to indie games:

iPhone dev kit is Mac-only (obviously, since it's basically like a tiny Mac).

SDK, simulator and XCode integrated tools are free.

$99 to join the official dev program, which gets you 1) more free resources online, 2) tech support, 3) distribution on iTunes / App Store.

Apple gets 30% of your revenue and there are no other charges for hosting or distribution.

No charge to developers for distributing free apps.

There was no mention of any kind of approval process. You pay your $99 to get into the program and get a digital certificate, then you can get your apps into the store with no further barriers. That's what I gathered from all the reports, anyway. Sounds pretty good to me. They showed some impressive demos, including a version of Spore, all done in two weeks.

[princec]

What APIs are there? Do we get Java? OpenGL? How fast is it?

Cas :)

[ErikH2000]

There was no mention of any kind of approval process. You pay your $99 to get into the program and get a digital certificate, then you can get your apps into the store with no further barriers.
This is one of the most interesting points. If anyone has any more information on this or a confirmation that it works like that, I'd appreciate hearing it.

-Erik

[Diragor]

Apple has posted a video of the entire event, and that's where all the news stories and blogs got their information.

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/rtp20e92/event/index.html?internal=fj2l3s9dm

Here's a "meta-live-blog" of the event with links to all their sources:

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/06/iphone-roadmap-event-metaliveblog/

[MacMan45]

What APIs are there? Do we get Java? OpenGL? How fast is it?

Cas :)

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/06/iphone-sdk-comparison-chart/

APIs: Cocoa-Touch
Language: Objective-C
No idea on OpenGL, but seeing how apple has embraced OpenGL since it dropped quickdraw & quickdraw3d, OpenGL seems like the natural choice.

It seems EA is making an iPhone version of spore as well:
http://www.modiphone.net/spore-on-the-iphone-video/

Might give you an idea of what the phone is capable of

[OremLK]

The iPhone definitely has more potential than the regular mobile market from the game design perspective; that is, whatever cool things you can do with a touch screen.

Nintendo DS, anyone?

[Diragor]

I watched that video of the event. Very impressive demos, and lots of good info in there. OpenGL is in, and the only approval involved in the process is screening out porn, malicious apps and stuff like that. That's the way it was presented in the event, anyway. The building, debugging and instrumentation stuff is very slick. Trying to download the SDK now.

[Adrian Cummings]

"The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months."

Other than that it all looks much better than I first thought :)

[ChiefRedThunder]

Spore looks really impressive on the iPhone.
I hope Nintendo is keeping a very close eye on the iPhone because I remember a while ago that Nintendo was considering to make the Gameboy into a phone/gaming device. Now with iPhone doing it, watch Nintendo make something even more amazing. =)

[jomanto]

My very first post here, so hello everybody!

What APIs are there? Do we get Java? OpenGL? How fast is it?

Cas :)

- Core OS has the OS X Kernel, Lib System, BSD TCP/IP, Sockets, Security, Power Mgmt, Keychain, Certificates, File System, Bonjour -Took everything we knew about creating stuff with Cocoa and everything about a touch API for iPhone to build Cocoa Touch -Cocoa is great, but based on mouse & keyboard input
- Also include SQLite, Core Location

And the most interesting part:
- Has all audio/video capabilities: Core Audio, OpenAL, Audio Mixing, Audio Recording, Video Playback, JPG/PNG/TIFF, PDF, Quartz (2D) Core Animation, OpenGL ES

Source: ars technica (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080306-live-coverage-of-the-iphone-software-roadmap-announcement.html)

[princec]

Aha, and I discover the CPU is about 400MHz. (source: intomobile.com (http://www.intomobile.com/2007/12/04/apple-boosts-iphone-cpu-clockspeed-with-iphone-v112-firmware-update.html))

Cas :)

[Adrian Cummings]

I'm going for it all as I reckon it could be quite good.

[incaman]

iPhone can offer an unusual game experience because of no keys and sensor screen. I think that we will see a lot of different and revolutionary games there.

And also, its a new market. Yet no occupied. Waiting for it's players.

And what makes me really sad - its not distributed officialy in Ukraine yet :(

[Xiotex]

SDK looks great even if it was a 2GB (!) download.

The only downside with the emulator so far is that it can't run the OpenGL samples (or at least I haven't found a way to). I tried running on the iPhone but you have to be a member of the development club to get the required certificate just to test it as well - and that is only open to a few select Merkins at the moment.

[Adrian Cummings]

Yes I just noticed that from the code samples downloaded (not tried anything myself yet mind) but thanks for the heads up.

"Please note, the iPhone Developer Program will initially be available in the US and will expand to other countries in the coming months."

[James C. Smith]

the only approval involved in the process is screening out porn, malicious apps and stuff like that.

I was under the impression that they were also screening out bandwidth intensive applications because they don’t want to saturate the cell phone networks.

[princec]

Oh, even more good news, for me anyway: Java will be available too (http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/03/08/jvm_for_the_iphone/).

Cas :)

[moose6912]

Oh, even more good news, for me anyway: Java will be available too (http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/03/08/jvm_for_the_iphone/).

Cas :)

Great, I hope tat JVM does not suck as bad as the one that Samsung or Motorola uses.

[princec]

I think it'll be a proper Hotspot JVM with full J2SE.

Cas :)

[moose6912]

I think it'll be a proper Hotspot JVM with full J2SE.

Cas :)

Great, be still, my beating heart. Hope the iPhone comes to Singapore soon.

[ErikH2000]

I wonder if they will support Java applets in their browser. If they did, then you could write and sell games without paying any attention to the iPhone store. And use a shareware model too.

-Erik

[Adrian Cummings]

Java also!... this latest IPhone news is almost too good :)

[berserker]

Here is what I've heard:

“No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and builtin interpreter(s)… An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.”
taken from Apple iPhone SDK Agreement.

Say goodbye to Java?

I don't have developer account at Apple so could anyone confirm please?

[princec]

Meh, don't be silly.

Cas :)

[Pyabo]

I'd also like to know where everyone is getting the idea that it's an "anything goes" sort of thing as long as it's not malware or porn... that's certainly not what I'm reading. The FAQ I saw said that Apple will be looking at every app... I don't see how they can do that without picking and choosing just what they want.

[Diragor]

How does Apple "looking at every app" mean they're doing anything more than sifting out malware, porn, etc.? The way it was presented at the event by Steve Jobs is that they're going to be filtering out only apps that fall into a small set of categories of unacceptable content or functionality. I'm looking at the slide right now and it lists illegal, malicious, privacy, porn, bandwidth hog and "unforseen". Of course, that last one is blanket term for "anything else" and they can refuse to distribute whatever they choose.

As Jobs says himself, it's in their best interest to have as many apps in the store as possible. They don't exercise editorial control over the music on iTunes, so I don't know why they would for the App Store except to protect their customers and the normal functionality of the device (including the network).

[Pyabo]

I sincerely hope you are correct! I own an iPhone and I'm looking forward to playing games on it as well as developing for it. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[moose6912]

Anyone managed to download it successfully? I registered for the free iPhone developer account and got the email where I had to click on the link to download it. #1 But after clicking on the link, I am brought to the page where I have to log in using my mac.com user id. But after I logged in and click on the download SDK, I am prompted to enter my iPhone developer userid and password and after that, it says an email has been sent to my account and clicking on it will enable me to download the SDK. Then it is back to #1 again. Rinse and repeat.

I tried it with Firefox and Safari and both had the same issues. Maybe me being in Singapore has something to do with it since the iPhone is not available in the Asia Pacific region yet.

[Sillysoft]

The iPhone is a very interesting new platform. I think Apple has a decent shot at winning the eventual mobile OS war. Getting in at the very beginning is a good opportunity.

re: Java on the iPhone: I'll believe it when I see it working.

[Diragor]

Anyone managed to download it successfully?

The day of the announcement (the 6th) and the whole next day, all I could get was a page that said "We're processing your request. Please wait a few moments and refresh this page." The third day I got an e-mail that said (to paraphrase) "You may have had trouble downloading the iPhone SDK. We've fixed it, so try again." By then I had already downloaded it from the newsgroups, where it was posted on the 6th. I hope it's OK to admit that here. It's free and I registered for it, so all I did was save them 2GB of traffic. :)

I'm really happy with all of the videos and documentation at http://developer.apple.com/iphone . I've been trying to get started with Mac desktop development for a little while now, and none of those resources are as well organized and easy to follow as the iPhone stuff. They're really clearing away the barriers to entry for iPhone app development.

[moose6912]

The day of the announcement (the 6th) and the whole next day, all I could get was a page that said "We're processing your request. Please wait a few moments and refresh this page." The third day I got an e-mail that said (to paraphrase) "You may have had trouble downloading the iPhone SDK. We've fixed it, so try again." By then I had already downloaded it from the newsgroups, where it was posted on the 6th. I hope it's OK to admit that here. It's free and I registered for it, so all I did was save them 2GB of traffic. :)

I'm really happy with all of the videos and documentation at http://developer.apple.com/iphone . I've been trying to get started with Mac desktop development for a little while now, and none of those resources are as well organized and easy to follow as the iPhone stuff. They're really clearing away the barriers to entry for iPhone app development.

Hmm, I think I will try again next week when their servers are not overtaxed.

[bikingbill]

HI,

We are experienced iPhone developers (have the most popular iPhone web games) and approved SDK developers.

If you want to build or convert your game to the iPhone, let me know.

William Volk
CEO, MyNuMo
bvolk AT mynumo DOT com

[cigarandyak]

Ooooo, interesting.

[ManuelFLara]

Is there some official (or popular, if not) forum for iPhone SDK developers to hang around? If anyone's messing with it, did you find the last beta (2) a lot more unstable than the first? I'm having a lot of difficulties with the Simulator, specially, but with XCode too.

[simonh]

A new version of the iPhone SDK is available which features OpenGL ES support in the simulator. Now the serious game dev can begin :cool:

[PoV]

Shhh! :p

[filharvey]

Actually the hardware is quite good, you can expect from 4000-6000 polys a frame. I already have a 3D exporter for it working, with skinned models.

Phil

[Jack Norton]

Is true that for now only US-based devs can register? hope not, was interested on the iphone too but I'm european :)

[Adrian Cummings]

Is true that for now only US-based devs can register? hope not, was interested on the iphone too but I'm european :)

"The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months."

You can still grab the latest sdk and play with it though just not send to real device yet until later if non-US (last I heard).

[Sectarian]

Your favorite web based games on the cellphone and iphone, not hard to do->>> talking to you on my blackberry cellphone as I speak Isn't technology wonderful... :bounce:

[Adrian Cummings]

Got my official iPhone developer signup details today - great - so I signed up! :)

I'm in the UK btw.