Tablet games that aren't awful?

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by Cutter John, Jan 5, 2014.

  1. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Yes, but that would require developers to put effort into their mobile releases. Mobile is the dumping ground for developers to publish their crappy freemium games in an attempt to make money with zero effort.
     
  2. Cutter John

    Cutter John Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Last edited: Jan 7, 2014
  3. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Even so, it rather seems to be a waste of a perfectly good opportunity and not to mention, the medium itself. There's potential just sitting there. With hidden-object games, they're already halfway there. I'm sure a developer would be able to figure out how to make it viable, by say, bringing episodic gaming to the tablet. Or even porting over some classics, which wouldn't be too hard given that there are emulators that would make it easy to do so.
     
  4. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    I have experience there since I work as a game designer currently for an MMO PC game for children.

    The thing is...game designers don't want popups in your face constantly asking you to pay money with a bunch of in-game currency. They usually want to make a good game first and foremost. The issue is, most of the time the company they work for or the company investing in or publishing the game requires game designers to add that in because when you get to the bottom line, the companies have to make money and support their workers.

    It is especially tricky with the game I work for because we make games for kids and you have to be careful.

    Just from my own experience, most game designers working for a company are forced to put monetization tactics in or else the game will not get made.

    That said though, mobile literally is the dumping ground of horribly made games by companies and people looking to get rich quick and be the next fad.

    Luckily I am working for an MMO and it's more stable than mobile. I don't even bother much with mobile anymore. It's just too difficult to muddle through all the trash to find one decent thing.

    There are a lot of free puzzle games though if you're just looking for an on the bus time killer. It's hard to screw up a basic puzzle game.
     
  5. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Just found a rather good looking game called Adventure Town. Not too bad as far as tablet games go.
     
  6. Cutter John

    Cutter John Rear Admiral Rear Admiral


    Of course. I've no beef with the programmers and designers. Its the suits and marketting weasels you mention that I have the problem with.

    So far I'm still enjoying Plague Inc. Its basically a strategy/puzzle game.
     
  7. Robert Maxwell

    Robert Maxwell memelord Premium Member

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    Here are some tablet games that don't suck:

    Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP -- THIS GAME IS AWESOME, GET IT!
    Anomaly -- Pretty good spin on the tower defense genre.
    Canabalt -- Fun, simple, fast action. You jump a lot. That is all you do.
    Spirits -- A fun, Lemmings-style game.
    Star Command -- Space strategy game. Haven't played it a lot but what I've played so far is pretty fun.
    Eufloria -- Everyone raves about this game. Kind of a weird RTS game.
    World of Goo -- This is also a great game!
    Time Surfer -- Pretty fun, not a complicated game but nevertheless entertaining.
    Zen Bound -- A curiously relaxing game where you paint wooden figures by tying ropes around them. I like it a lot.
     
  8. Lindley

    Lindley Moderator with a Soul Premium Member

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    Speaking of Lemmings, the game Cavemen on iOS *is* Lemmings, slightly re-skinned for legal reasons.
     
  9. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    The company I work for had previously dabbled in mobile and made about 10 games, but they are for little kids...and they all suck anyway.

    I might go on my iPad tonight to check out some games. I'll let you know if I find any that I enjoy.
     
  10. B.J.

    B.J. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Speaking of Lemmings, I don't know why the original game hasn't been ported into a mobile game. Seems like a touch screen device would be perfect for it.
     
  11. Lindley

    Lindley Moderator with a Soul Premium Member

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    That's what Cavemen was supposed to be, until the lawyers showed up.
     
  12. Rincewiend

    Rincewiend Admiral Admiral

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    Keep an eye on the Humble Bundle site...
    They had 8 or 9 android bundles with some great games...
    And most of them had PC ports as well, so the Steam keys for those are included as well...
     
  13. Robert Maxwell

    Robert Maxwell memelord Premium Member

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    Speaking of those bundles, some games I forgot to mention that have PC ports but are also decent on tablets:

    * EDGE
    * Crayon Physics Deluxe
    * Nightsky
    * Osmos
     
  14. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    I own an iPad and the game I've played most (by far) is Fairway Solitare.
     
  15. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    When you wrote Nightsky it reminded me of a great App I use called "Night Sky" where it allows you to move your iPad/iPhone around and see which stars/planets are currently in the sky in real-time. I find it fun and useful.
     
  16. Cutter John

    Cutter John Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Well I can definately recomend Waking Mars. Simple mechanics, but a very interesting SF premise as you wander around beneath the Martian surface interractign with the plant like lifeforms with your perky AI companion. Its a bit pricy at $4.99, but at least I know they won't be bugging me for micro-transactions.

    I'd like to try the companies other game, Spider: the Mystery of Bryce Manor, but for some reason I get a "Not compatible with your device" error. *scratches head*
     
  17. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I used to use Google Skymaps until I upgraded to the Tab 3 where it doesn't work well, and found one called Star Chart which is prettier but does the same thing.

    Oh and yeah, Cutter. The disadvantage of having so many different Android devices, is that you'll often encounter apps that aren't compatible with certain devices. I guess that's another reason why app developers prefer developing for iOS.
     
  18. Cutter John

    Cutter John Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    I guess you're right. But there's no way in Hell I'm buying an iPad.
     
  19. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I'm with you there. I'm comfortable with what I have right now.
     
  20. Stoo

    Stoo Commodore Commodore

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    Oh, played this on windows, didn't realise it was available for android. I'd recommend it also. Puzzle-platformer again (honestly, expect a lot of these in indie gaming), rolling a mysterious sphere to its destination, quiet and contemplative atmosphere.