Civilization revolution for the iPhone

My main concern when I downloaded Civ revolution on my iPhone was that the game would be some kind of stripped down version of the original product, simplified to appeal to the masses. The iPhone has become a great gaming platform thanks to the updated specs of the 3GS, but even on a dual core computer with dedicated GPU, Civ IV isn’t the fastest, which led me to think that some sacrifices had to be made.

Full of expectations, I started the app, which rapidly loaded and displayed a sleek menu featuring typical (and very welcome) Civ music. I chose to start a new game, which gave me the choice between playing a scenario or loading a random map. I chose the latter,  selected the second of 5 difficulty levels (Warlord) and then chose the leader I would control. Here come my first disappointment: The interface is a strange mix of tap and slide and tilt to slide, which can be quite confusing at first. A simple tap and slide would have been sufficient, the tilt control ads absolutely no benefit to the interface. Also, the display picture of the various leaders are really – how should I put this? – hideous. I understand an iPhone can not display the beautifully rendered 3D portraits like in Civ IV, but it can surely do better than pixelated cartoonish images.

As soon as the map is loaded, it become apparent that the very poor graphics are present in the entire game. The map is heavily pixelated and not even in 3D (mountains and other geographic feature are just icons on a map) the units are animated in 4 frames, the whole feel is just ridiculously close to what an average windows ’98 game was. I can already hear the civ fanboys out there shouting “who cares about the graphics, it’s Civ on an iPhone!”, but that is precisely my point: The screen is small, you don’t have a mouse or keyboard, which is already a big handicap when it comes over game overview and manageability of the various strategic factors. The last thing you will want when playing such a complex game on such a small device is to have to cope with bad graphics. I’d be really happy with 2D graphics if only they were sharp and a little more aesthetic.

The gameplay itself isn’t bad: If you’re familiar with earlier versions of Civ, you’ll have no problem figuring out what to do in this version. The main limitations are linked not to the iPhone, but to Civ revolution itself. Sid Meyer, trying to appeal to a broader audience simplified the rules settings, meaning that the player has very little control over pre-game options. There are only 4 ways the player can win: Domination, space race, culture and economic. That’s right, no conquest, no time victory. This means that a civ game can be finished in at little as 2 hours. If the player’s civilization is nearing one of the above mentioned victory conditions, all other civilizations will declare war on them in an attempt to delay or stop them from winning. The construction of the World Bank, the construction of the United Nations, and the launching of the ship to Alpha Centauri can all be stopped by capturing the enemy’s capital/palace. Another difference from previous iterations are the barbarians now live in villages and attack from them. Also, the level of barbarian activity cannot be adjusted as in previous iterations, though the level of barbarian activity changes in certain scenarios.

The iPhone is the most connected phone on the market, and it would therefore be logical to expect a multiplayer option, right? Wishful thinking, there is none, to my disppointment. What was 2K thinking? The iPhone can handle this!

Value and verdict

This app leaves a bitter sweet taste. I love the idea of Civ on a phone, I love the fact that it even exists. However, I can’t help but feel that 2K hasn’t fully exploited the iPhone capabilities, to say the least. I would have gladly traded the short loading times for better graphics and a few leaders for a multiplayer capability. The scenarios are a nice option, but they’re nothing more than in-game saves.
I would find this acceptable if this was just the mobile version of civ, but it is not: Civilization Revolution is the current flagship of the Civiliaztion franchise, and the Nitendo DS shares the same limitations. The Xbox and PS3 games just have better graphics, but are basically simplified versions of Civ IV.

If you’re a hardcore civ fan, get the app. It just feels good to carry the game in your pocket. If you love strategy games, I suggest you buy SimCity or even the much simpler (but gorgeous) Star Defense. In any case, I strongly recommend “Civilization IV: The complete edition” for PC and Mac.

Civilization IV is available for PC and Mac, and Civilization rRevolution is available for PS3, Nitendo DS, Xbox 360 and iPhone OS. The iPhone apps costs 7,99$.

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]]> http://techhaze.com/2009/12/iphone-app-civilization-revolution/feed/ 0 http://techhaze.com/2009/12/exclusive-interview-with-dexoris-founder/ http://techhaze.com/2009/12/exclusive-interview-with-dexoris-founder/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:43:54 +0000 Kamma Thordarson http://techhaze.com/?p=807 Welcome to our first ever TechHaze interview, the first of many. Stay tuned, because we have much more coming up!

The 50 million of us lucky enough to have iPhones spend a good deal of time playing games on them, especially when two iPhoners meet where there is wireless internet. Whether or not we look silly is not a question worth answering, where these games come from, however, is. We interviewed a slightly geeky 22 year old Icelander named Jóhann Þorvaldur who recently joined the world of iPhone game creators and asked him about his creative process and what software was essential to it.

TH: So Jóhann, who are you and how did you get into making iPhone computer games?
JÞ: I am a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That’s the kind of man I am. I also have a B.Sc in Mathematics from The University of Iceland and felt so exhausted that I decided to try to do something ridiculously creative. So I founded the game development studio Dexoris, that currently focuses on iPhone and iPod touch games. We have released two titles to critical acclaim: the harrowing sheep herding adventure of Peter und Vlad and Audio Puzzle, the game that reinvents the jigsaw puzzle and allows you to rediscover your music collection through engaging game-play.

TH: How do you get your ideas?
JÞ: Before I started working on games I hadn’t realized that the easiest part of the whole game creation process is getting an idea. We were obviously looking for the next big thing, so I started writing down every idea I got; every dream that I remembered and every mundane thing that I felt might be interesting. My mantra was that every little thing was potentially important and as a result I got most of my ideas sitting in a bus on my way to work. There is an very interesting palette of people who accompany you for a short time every day and they just get my creative juices flowing.
This idea process quickly filled up a small notebook and I discovered that the really difficult thing about ideas is the part where you sift through the sprawling ideas and try to spot the great ones amongst the ordinary ones. I think that everyone gets a lot of interesting ideas but it takes a lot of skill and practice to recognize the good ones. My current rule of thumb is that if it is hard to explain your idea then you should probably think harder.

TH: How many people work together?
JÞ: When we were developing Peter und Vlad, we had a team of 5; two programmers, a graphic designer and two marketing experts that also served as game designers. In a small company like Dexoris, you quickly realize that it is necessary for everyone to be able to change roles, – we talk about wearing a lot of different hats – so while I am mostly in charge of game design and programming, I’m also responsible for the music and sound effects, script writing, the marketing material and even editing the promotional videos. I have therefore become quite the juggler as I juggle these different roles from day to day.

TH: What technology / software do you use?
JÞ: We decided to focus on the rapidly growing iPhone platform so we obviously had to use Apple computers and software. When we started out we shamelessly acknowledged the fact that although we had good experience in software engineering, marketing and design, we didn’t know anything about the creation of computer games. We therefore decided to start by choosing the right tools that would allow us to bypass most of the solved problems, such as how to draw an image on the screen or play a sound file, and allow us to focus on the things that made our game special. After a brief search we found Cocos2D, an excellent framework for creating 2D games for the iPhone and iPod touch, that served as a thin layer that encapsulated all the stuff that we didn’t need to learn yet.
Peter und Vlad took approximately 3 months to develop and market and we couldn’t have done it so quickly without the use of Cocos2D, as then I would have had to reinvent the wheel over and over again, and I simply like the wheel as I discovered it in the prehistoric era.

TH: Is making computer games difficult?
JÞ: Studying mathematics is really difficult so I thought that I was prepared for anything, but the process of creating games still took me by surprise as it is genuinely difficult! There are so many layers of expertise needed to succeed and the level of complexity grows very quickly. It is, however, a very giving and enjoyable process as it allows you to put to use much of the seemingly useless stuff you learned in college/university.

TH: Is there a major difference between your two games? What is new about your game?
JÞ: Although our games have some things in common, for example a high level of polish and instant playability, they are quite different beasts as they originate from two different design principles. In Peter und Vlad, we wanted to create a small, narrative heavy, arcade game that would allow us to get a feel for the whole process of creating games; from a simple idea to the complex implementation that involves the creation of an artificial intelligence, composition of music, level design and play testing.
With Audio Puzzle we had a more focused goal as we wanted to create a game that turned your music collection into game-play; i.e. allowed you to experience familiar music in a new and exciting way. So we created Audio Puzzle, the world’s first musical jigsaw puzzle! Instead of using boring panoramas to create the jigsaw puzzle, the game uses the tracks from your iPod library and therefore allows you to rediscover your music.

TH: Are you planning to make real videogames later?
JÞ: What is a real videogame? One that has a budget of millions of dollars? One that is created by a team of 60? There are approximately 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users in the world. This is a market of approximately the same size as the Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3 market but has the advantage of requiring no distribution costs and the user can immediately reach our product. I would say that a game developed for the iPhone is just as real as a game developed for the XBox or PC. This is just a question of scope and focus. We surely intend to grow and create more games, and as we grow and learn, we’ll be able to expand our scope and attempt to execute more ambitious ideas. Currently we are proud of creating small games that achieve their goal of providing short burst of entertainment to your phone.

A big thank you to Jóhann Þorvaldur for finding some time to answer these questions!

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What it is

Eliminate Pro is a first person shooter game for the iPhone. What makes this app unique is its connectivity: The whole purpose of the game is to play online and collect credits that will allow you to upgrade your armor and weapons. Basically, you are an employee of Arsenal Megacorp, and you’re supposed to test equipment. As you enter one of 5 arenas, you will encounter fellow gamers and your goal is of course to eliminate them. The more you score, the more credits you get, and these credits will allow you to buy better weapons and armor. Here’s the catch: In order to be able to collect credits, you have to play in a “charged” suit. To charge your suit, let time do its job (your suit will be fully charged in 2 to 3 hours, and ngmoco has been decreasing this time over the weeks), or buy additional power cells. This video might clarify a few concepts:

Gameplay, graphics and performance

The gameplay is fantastic. The concept is simple: eliminate as many people as possible, collect credits and powerups (like cloaking, shielding, jet packs, etc…). People who like FPS will be immediately hooked. However, let’s not forget that the game is played on the iPhone, and this device doesn’t have physical controls. So how do you move around and aim? Well it needs some getting used to, but you basically hold your phone like you would hold a console controler, and put both thumbs on the screen. The right thumb is used to aim, the left one to move. Here’s a shot video explaining the controls:

Surpringly, the controls are very intuitive, and the scheme works very well. A few tweaks in the settings menu and aiming is precise and easy, moving is fluid and smoothly controlled. Online play is fun, charging takes no longer than a few seconds and I haven’t had any performance problems. You can also play offline, but this is rapidly boring: You can only play in the standard suit and the bots are just too predictable. The graphics aren’t the best on the iPhone, but they are convenient and fast. The effects look nice and it is a pleasure to roam around the arenas. And yes, let’s not forget that you are basically playing an onlince 3D FPS game on … a phone.

Pricing, criticism and verdict

Eliminate Pro is free. That’s right, you can download and use one of the best mobile games in the world for free. There is no light version, and all the functionality is included in this free game. There are no ads either. However, if you want to seriously increase your rankings, you will have to pay for additional power cells, as these take ages to charge. Brian Tong, in his weekly “Apple Byte” on CNET TV threw a bad apple at ngmoco for this, stating that you will have to wait or pay to play the game. Well, it is my turn to throw a bad apple at him, because this is not true: You can very well play the game if your suit is discharged, you can even play online. You just won’t get any credits for the game, that’s it. And considering the quality of the game, it pricing and the fact that charging time decreases regularly, I find this limitation really insignificant. And if you do happen to pay for cells, well then you should seriously consider getting a life, so thank you ngmoco for not pushing me to become an asocial iPhone gamer who hasn’t seen daylight in days. The only negative point about this game is that the server seems to always put me in arenas with people who sometimes have twice my level. This kills the fun in the game as it usually only lasts a minute or so and I don’t stand chance. Looking at the App store complaints, I’m not the only one saying that this should be fixed. In any case, you can play a one on one with friends, which is a nice feature and allows you to rapidly win credits.

Eliminate Pro is one of the best iPhone games I’ve seen so far. Grab it, you won’t regret it.

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