Apple Arcade |OT| Here's to the Gaming Ones

Bebpo · Oct 15, 2019

In what the golf when you're at the final stage is there any way to go back to the old stages? I have that glitch where I can't clear the final phase of the final stage and meanwhile I can't go back and play the other stages I skipped, so basically nothing left for me to do.

jefjay · Oct 15, 2019

Mutazione is a neat game. Well, it falls closer to a "walking simulator" than a game as there really aren't any puzzles. Just talking to people and growing plants. But it's a totally chill game. The world and characters it builds kept me going.

Kaz Frankenstein · Oct 15, 2019

jefjay said:
Mutazione is a neat game. Well, it falls closer to a "walking simulator" than a game as there really aren't any puzzles. Just talking to people and growing plants. But it's a totally chill game. The world and characters it builds kept me going.

I like the look of this one, downloaded it the other night so think I will give it a try in the next couple of days.

ErrorJustin · Oct 15, 2019

I absolutely adore Apple Arcade but it has a problem with unfinished games.

There are several that literally just stop.

The worst is Way of the Turtle - it ends just before you enter the final region with "coming soon!" appearing on screen. Down in Bermuda stops after just a couple puzzle islands. Outlanders has just 7-8 total scenarios in it. Shantae is objectively just a demo. These two are less egregious since they aren't story-based games, but Mini Motorways and Tint are also clearly unfinished. Tint in particular is still tutorializing new puzzle concepts in the final couple levels.

Making a short game like Assemble With Care or Possessions is fine. But launching your story-based game without its ending is something else.

It's clear developers either figured out for themselves (or were explicitly told by Apple) to get something up for launch and then fill in the rest after.

I want to reiterate here that mobile games growing and changing over time is not the problem -- it's awesome and one of the best things about mobile. But a few too many of the ~25 games I've "completed" aren't complete at all.

Makes massive, full experiences like Shinsekei and Bleak Sword all the more impressive.

Guybrush Threewood · Oct 16, 2019

Teasing further content sure is a way to get you to keep subbing.

infiniteloop · Oct 16, 2019

I got charged for my first month last night.

hombremalo · Oct 16, 2019

I like mini motorways, how is unfinished? . Just played a few games.

Vuze · Oct 16, 2019

Great update for grindstone!

https://twitter.com/CAPYGAMES/status/1184528260396400641

infiniteloop · Oct 16, 2019

shadowman16 · Oct 16, 2019

Finally got my controller mount for my phone, and have dived into (sorry) Shinsekai in more detail. Its delightful, a Metroidvania game that has a nice unique side to it - the underwater aspect of the game is a blast and makes the exploration in the game really fun, the upgrade mechanic that lets you go deeper feels like Metroid 2 and its mechanic for defeating Metroids to explore further.
Plus I stumbled upon the old Capcom emblem/mascot "Yashiki" when exploring the deep tonight. So props to the devs for putting together this awesome game for the Apple Arcade, some of the most fun I've had with the mobile platform in ages.

DongBeetle · Oct 16, 2019

shadowman16 said:
Finally got my controller mount for my phone, and have dived into (sorry) Shinsekai in more detail. Its delightful, a Metroidvania game that has a nice unique side to it - the underwater aspect of the game is a blast and makes the exploration in the game really fun, the upgrade mechanic that lets you go deeper feels like Metroid 2 and its mechanic for defeating Metroids to explore further.
Plus I stumbled upon the old Capcom emblem/mascot "Yashiki" when exploring the deep tonight. So props to the devs for putting together this awesome game for the Apple Arcade, some of the most fun I've had with the mobile platform in ages.

What controller mount are you using

Shirke · Oct 16, 2019

So I've been playing Various Daylife since I like watching stat bars and numbers level up and the characters are pretty fun, and I finally managed to make it to the climax boss at level 39 who actually was a challenge compared to the rest of the game so far, since I wasn't prepared and proceeded to whoop my party's ass. Made me realize I could have just put the Cleric subjob with the Scholar subjob on the MC to have unlimited healing.

But what really stood out during the fight was something I never thought the game would actually make a plot point

in a calender-day-schedule based game, where Prince Aelfric and his minions rise from the dead each time you beat them, and comments on how much in-game time has passed since you started, (mine being 8 years) and reveals that none of the characters on the continent have aged or are capable of conventionally dying due to a curse placed on the continent. Now since I haven't beaten him yet, I don't have the full context, this kinda begs the question on why no one else brought this plot point up, unless there some old dialogue that has been missed.

peppermints · Oct 16, 2019

Is Grindstone buggy for anyone else after the latest update?

I'm stuck on the boss level 45. No enemies are spawning for me. Can't progress at all since it's a boss.

sabertoothzombie · Oct 16, 2019

infiniteloop said:

I've been waiting for this game for a while

infiniteloop · Oct 16, 2019

So Friday looks like the weekly release date for games.

Bebpo · Oct 16, 2019

Why would games on apple arcade not have cloud saves?? I just upgraded my ipad for this and my hour or so in Shinsekai save didn't transfer and I'd rather not start all over. Any way to manually move a save from one ipad to another if there are no cloud saves?

Every other game I've tried has cloud saves, so dunno what is up with this one.

manchego obfuscator · Oct 16, 2019

infiniteloop said:

I'm pretty sure this was previously announced for Apple Arcade, but man, they're securing so many great games that are right up my alley, and so few of them are games I wouldn't greatly prefer to play on PC. but I'm still playing the launch games so I can't complain too much

finished Get Out Kids the other day. it's reasonably charming but the gameplay isn't particularly interesting and the story takes some weird tonal shifts that the art direction and low budget can't quite sell

Saucycarpdog · Oct 16, 2019

Interesting Kotaku article about Grindstone:

https://kotaku.com/i-wish-i-could-j...flow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter

Luke_wal · Oct 17, 2019

Okay, so I just subbed today. After playing Grindstone on my iPad for a couple hours, I downloaded it on my phone and went to play it for the first time. When I opened it up, though, I found my progress didn't sync! What do I need to do for cloud saves to work?

MattAces · Oct 17, 2019

Luke_wal said:
Okay, so I just subbed today. After playing Grindstone on my iPad for a couple hours, I downloaded it on my phone and went to play it for the first time. When I opened it up, though, I found my progress didn't sync! What do I need to do for cloud saves to work?

make sure you're using the same gamecenter account, itunes store and gamecenter account may be different.
i was frustrated about the save last time too and then realize I signed into a different game center on my ipad.

Kaz Frankenstein · Oct 17, 2019

Finished Tangle Tower yesterday. I loved the aesthetic and the voicing, and the mechanics were pretty fun, but i didn't find the story very engrossing, and the variation on similar names just left me confused for most of the run time. But a very high quality game no doubt.

Started inmost last night. Seems graphically gorgeous, and the animations are top notch, but the touch controls feel very frustrating already (about 1hr in). I'm guessing a game pad would really help with this, but i am yet to find a convenient way of playing an iPad on my lap using a controller. And i don't have an iPhone.

Sub is due to renew tomorrow, i will be keeping the service as there are a number of games that interest me that i have not got around to playing yet.

Kirksplosion · Oct 17, 2019

Kaz Frankenstein said:
I'm guessing a game pad would really help with this, but i am yet to find a convenient way of playing an iPad on my lap using a controller.

Heh, I'm glad it's not just me. Felt like a dunce not being able to figure out a comfortable position. I played through Sayonara Wild Hearts in one sitting with the DS4 and found myself trying out different sitting/laying positions every 15 minutes or so. It's just awkward.

manchego obfuscator · Oct 17, 2019

ErrorJustin said:
I absolutely adore Apple Arcade but it has a problem with unfinished games.

There are several that literally just stop.

The worst is Way of the Turtle - it ends just before you enter the final region with "coming soon!" appearing on screen. Down in Bermuda stops after just a couple puzzle islands. Outlanders has just 7-8 total scenarios in it. Shantae is objectively just a demo. These two are less egregious since they aren't story-based games, but Mini Motorways and Tint are also clearly unfinished. Tint in particular is still tutorializing new puzzle concepts in the final couple levels.

Making a short game like Assemble With Care or Possessions is fine. But launching your story-based game without its ending is something else.

It's clear developers either figured out for themselves (or were explicitly told by Apple) to get something up for launch and then fill in the rest after.

I want to reiterate here that mobile games growing and changing over time is not the problem -- it's awesome and one of the best things about mobile. But a few too many of the ~25 games I've "completed" aren't complete at all.

Makes massive, full experiences like Shinsekei and Bleak Sword all the more impressive.

You mentioned Possessions, but it's another game that belongs in that category. Just abruptly ends after you complete the third act, no ending cutscene or anything.

Orb · Oct 17, 2019

I accidentally let my subscription renew even though I never really found any game on the service that I was very into. The only one that really clicked with me was What the Golf, and I think I'd rather just pay a one-time cost to have it forever.

infiniteloop · Oct 17, 2019

hyped for this one. Loved Heroki.

DassoBrother · Oct 17, 2019

I've renewed for one month but cancelled after that. I'll try to keep an eye on new releases but not much has grabbed me after finishing Grindstone and Tangle Tower. I'm hoping to play Inmost and maybe Pilgrims and Blackwell Conspiracy.

Kaz Frankenstein · Oct 17, 2019

Kirksplosion said:
Heh, I'm glad it's not just me. Felt like a dunce not being able to figure out a comfortable position. I played through Sayonara Wild Hearts in one sitting with the DS4 and found myself trying out different sitting/laying positions every 15 minutes or so. It's just awkward.

Add a lap friendly cat in to the equation and you have a disaster on your hands....

grmlin · Oct 17, 2019

I cancelled, too.
While some games are good, the service feels very rushed to me. I'll keep buying premium games instead, but I hope arcade evolves so I can justify the subscription. I love the idea of ad and bullshit free games. Games for kids would be great, too. There simply is nothing they want to play.

ErrorJustin · Oct 17, 2019

Min

grmlin said:
I cancelled, too.
While some games are good, the service feels very rushed to me. I'll keep buying premium games instead, but I hope arcade evolves so I can justify the subscription. I love the idea of ad and bullshit free games. Games for kids would be great, too. There simply is nothing they want to play.

I mean everyone has different tastes and different concepts of value so to each their own but I honestly am having a hard time fathoming this attitude. I've played Apple Arcade every single night and there's still cool games I haven't even loaded or tried yet.

You played all of these? These are my favs:

What the Golf
Grindstone
Tangle Tower
Chu Chu Rocket Universe
Dear Reader
Hexaflip
Bleak Sword
Inmost
Shinsekei
Where Cards Fall
Over the Alps

grmlin · Oct 17, 2019

I totally understand that the service is great for some. But it's not for me... And while there are some pretty good games on it (even if I don't enjoy them, that doesn't matter), many of the games don't feel like the 10€ games I buy normally. Hard to describe, sorry.
I really hope the service changes the world of mobile gaming, it's time.

infiniteloop · Oct 18, 2019

new gamezzz

- Ballistic Baseball
- PAC-MAN Party Royale
- Things That Go Bump
- Manifold Garden

infiniteloop · Oct 18, 2019

lol Manifold Garden is 3.1 GB

Duane · Oct 18, 2019

Is there anything good on the MacOS version that plays well on it? I installed Handle With Care, but it was so clumsy not to use touch controls and I wound up finishing it on the iOS version (cross saves, that was nice).

I dunno, no biggie, but it would be cool to play something on my MacBook from the MacOS Arcade.

jasius · Oct 18, 2019

I have an ipad 6th gen, is now a good time to get the Apple Arcade trial or should I hold off? Is there any HUGE release coming to it anytime soon?

Zaph · Oct 18, 2019

Manifold Garden sounds like a banger. Any opinion how well it works with touch, or is it built with a controller in mind?

manchego obfuscator · Oct 18, 2019

just tried Manifold Garden for a minute, and it's rough. Even on iPhone 11, performance is poor (it targets 30fps but has trouble maintaining it, even in the very first room), and visually, it's a sub-native-res jaggy mess. It's playable, but I'd strongly advise holding out for the PC or console versions instead.

eyeball_kid · Oct 18, 2019

manchego obfuscator said:
just tried Manifold Garden for a minute, and it's rough. Even on iPhone 11, performance is poor (it targets 30fps but has trouble maintaining it, even in the very first room), and visually, it's a sub-native-res jaggy mess. It's playable, but I'd strongly advise holding out for the PC or console versions instead.

That's too bad, the preview made it look interesting. Also not sure how they got flat-shaded polygon levels to be 3GB.

manchego obfuscator · Oct 18, 2019

eyeball_kid said:
That's too bad, the preview made it look interesting. Also not sure how they got flat-shaded polygon levels to be 3GB.

speaking of flat-shaded polygon levels, the poor IQ really hurts the art direction - this sort of art style particularly benefits from a clean look to sell it

bananab · Oct 18, 2019

I was surprised by all the jagged edges and thought it must have been downscaling due to the age of my device (7+). Interesting that's not the case. Previews looked gorgeous but it's pretty ugly in action.

Kirksplosion · Oct 18, 2019

manchego obfuscator said:
just tried Manifold Garden for a minute, and it's rough. Even on iPhone 11, performance is poor (it targets 30fps but has trouble maintaining it, even in the very first room), and visually, it's a sub-native-res jaggy mess. It's playable, but I'd strongly advise holding out for the PC or console versions instead.

Aw man. That's super disappointing. Guess I'll keep it on the Steam wishlist after all.

jordn613 · Oct 18, 2019

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SJZT7Q7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I felkt silly the first day I used this but it's a real game-changer. I use it laying in bed, as a stand on my coffee table sitting on my couch, on a kitchen table, uh, other places...

chrominance · Oct 18, 2019

manchego obfuscator said:
You mentioned Possessions, but it's another game that belongs in that category. Just abruptly ends after you complete the third act, no ending cutscene or anything.

It does at least feel mostly complete. Like I feel like the lack of an ending cutscene is intentional, not an issue with the development being rushed. Whether the ending is satisfying is a different question, of course.

buzzjive · Oct 18, 2019

manchego obfuscator said:
just tried Manifold Garden for a minute, and it's rough. Even on iPhone 11, performance is poor (it targets 30fps but has trouble maintaining it, even in the very first room), and visually, it's a sub-native-res jaggy mess. It's playable, but I'd strongly advise holding out for the PC or console versions instead.

Hey there. I've been working with Will on this to get it released. The game was originally made with PC release in mind and consoles are still in the works. In the meantime, Apple Arcade was interested as well and we pushed to get it to run on the devices that Apple Arcade supports. The PC version and the Apple Arcade mac version both have video quality settings which includes 14 presets (which can be customized further on those builds). From there, we basically took those presets and assigned them to Apple chipsets on iOS and tvOS. The iPhone 11 wasn't out as we made our submission builds and we just basically bumped it up one from where our current max was. Sounds like it isn't using great settings. We certainly plan to support the game extensively and will constantly look to improve the quality. The XR runs it pretty well and the iPhone 11 should definitely be capable if we have it configured properly. We will certainly look at that for our first patch.

As for the 3.1 gig size, the breakdown is almost 1 gig of audio - composed of a lot of dynamic music - and about 90% of the rest would be polygonal geometry for our 100+ scene files. Compressing the geometry any further than we are made things look pretty rough and compressing the built assets made the loading take too long for our world streaming. All platforms use the same assets.

manchego obfuscator · Oct 18, 2019

buzzjive said:
Hey there. I've been working with Will on this to get it released. The game was originally made with PC release in mind and consoles are still in the works. In the meantime, Apple Arcade was interested as well and we pushed to get it to run on the devices that Apple Arcade supports. The PC version and the Apple Arcade mac version both have video quality settings which includes 14 presets (which can be customized further on those builds). From there, we basically took those presets and assigned them to Apple chipsets on iOS and tvOS. The iPhone 11 wasn't out as we made our submission builds and we just basically bumped it up one from where our current max was. Sounds like it isn't using great settings. We certainly plan to support the game extensively and will constantly look to improve the quality. The XR runs it pretty well and the iPhone 11 should definitely be capable if we have it configured properly. We will certainly look at that for our first patch.

As for the 3.1 gig size, the breakdown is almost 1 gig of audio - composed of a lot of dynamic music - and about 90% of the rest would be polygonal geometry for our 100+ scene files. Compressing the geometry any further than we are made things look pretty rough and compressing the built assets made the loading take too long for our world streaming. All platforms use the same assets.

thanks for the explanation and the transparency, and I figured the protracted development cycle might have been an issue. Hope you guys can improve it so those that want to play on iPhone 11 (I'd rather play it on PC anyway) get a better experience.

eyeball_kid · Oct 18, 2019

buzzjive said:
Hey there. I've been working with Will on this to get it released. The game was originally made with PC release in mind and consoles are still in the works. In the meantime, Apple Arcade was interested as well and we pushed to get it to run on the devices that Apple Arcade supports. The PC version and the Apple Arcade mac version both have video quality settings which includes 14 presets (which can be customized further on those builds). From there, we basically took those presets and assigned them to Apple chipsets on iOS and tvOS. The iPhone 11 wasn't out as we made our submission builds and we just basically bumped it up one from where our current max was. Sounds like it isn't using great settings. We certainly plan to support the game extensively and will constantly look to improve the quality. The XR runs it pretty well and the iPhone 11 should definitely be capable if we have it configured properly. We will certainly look at that for our first patch.

As for the 3.1 gig size, the breakdown is almost 1 gig of audio - composed of a lot of dynamic music - and about 90% of the rest would be polygonal geometry for our 100+ scene files. Compressing the geometry any further than we are made things look pretty rough and compressing the built assets made the loading take too long for our world streaming. All platforms use the same assets.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. Being able to interact with devs directly is always a great part of Era. I figured a decent chunk of the 3GB might be audio after I wrote that.
I have an iPhone 11 Pro so I look forward to playing it once you've adjusted the presets!

jefjay · Oct 18, 2019

Manifold Garden - The jaggy graphics are jarring at first (XS Max), but otherwise the performance is fine. I do recommend a controller, but that might just be personal preference as I can't think of a single game I liked dual-analog touchscreen controls. The game itself seems really neat (played ~45 min). It definitely gives me Antichamber vibes, which is high praise as that remains one of my favorite puzzle games. This will probably the first non-launch game I'll dive into.

Pac-man Royale: Without matchmaking this game is useless. What do I look like? Someone who has friends?

Things That Go Bump: Mixed feelings on this one. The idea of tacking together household objects you find lying around to create a fighting machine is interesting. But combat itself seems to simply be about spacing and button mashing... I only found 1 other person playing online (if this game can have matchmaking, what's your excuse Namco?) and it was fun, for a game or two.

J 0 E · Oct 18, 2019

Grindstone <3

Vuze · Oct 19, 2019

Man, the Sayonara Wildhearts OST is so good, I love it :o
It's just too bad the tracks are so short

Kaz Frankenstein · Oct 19, 2019

Finished Pilgrims today. Found it a bit disappointing to be honest compared to their previous works.
Started Manifold Garden. It's confusing as hell but it's certainly got my intrigued. I'm playing on a 2017 iPad 9.7 and it looks great to me, which surprised me from other comments I have seen about performance on more recent iOS platforms.

TeenageFBI · Oct 19, 2019

MattAces said:
make sure you're using the same gamecenter account, itunes store and gamecenter account may be different.
i was frustrated about the save last time too and then realize I signed into a different game center on my ipad.

Also, make sure iCloud Drive is enabled on both devices.

Apple Arcade |OT| Here's to the Gaming Ones

Unshakable Resolve

Sky Van Gogh

One Winged Slayer