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IPAD 2 BUYERS’ GUIDE
IDESIGN
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tricks along the way. No virtual
joypad was needed; intuitive gestures
controlled all the cube’s movement,
even as the levels began to demand
new skills, a brilliant touch interface
that demanded no visual overlays.
Edge quickly became a top pick of
iPhone and iPod touch users before
abruptly disappearing from the App
Store due to a claim from a trademark
troll, sparking a successful industrywide
movement to invalidate the
mark. The game saw multiple releases,
removals, and award nominations,
finally re-emerging permanently
with Retina Display and iPad support.
Mobigame followed Edge up with the
finger-twisting puzzle game Cross
Fingers, a heavily multi-touch title
that could not have been done on
any other platform, and an oddball
title called Truckers Delight: Episode
1. Based upon a deliberately crude
music video that quickly became an
Internet sensation, Truckers Delight
took inspiration from Sega’s OutRun
series of driving games; it’s the only
Mobigame title that doesn’t have
a special iPad mode, and then only
because its art is deliberately blocky -
an ode to the 16-bit generation of
driving games. But as jagged as
the pixels were in Truckers Delight,
Mobigame shifted to more realistic
art for its next two games. First was
the gritty and violent puzzle/action
hybrid Perfect Cell, which has players
control dangerous, flying octopus-like
creatures making their escape from
a secure military base; a swipe-based
control interface becomes more
challenging as players manage three
creatures at once. Then Mobigame
joined with human rights organization
Amnesty International to release the
thought-provoking Bulletproof, in
which gamers are expected to save
a man from a firing squad, presented
from a first-person perspective. Every
title’s control scheme is invisible - and
obvious. While Mobigame remains a
small developer, its ideas are anything
but; already its game designs have
inspired multiple play-alike titles, and
have inspired smaller studios looking
to enter the iOS space. The lesson:
edgy concepts with intuitive but tricky
controls can make great games.
1 Edge on iPad
2 Perfect Cell
3 Edge on iPad
4 Edge on iPad
5 Bulletproof
6 Truckers Delight:
Episode 1
7 Cross Fingers
8 Cross Fingers
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