Why can't I play Avernum 6 on an iPad?

[K_I_L_E_R]

You have no idea how awesome it would be to play A6 on an iPad, it's not like the controls aren't already suited to touch play. With a bit of polish we can have something super awesome.

[Earth]

It would require re-coding quite much.

[A less presumptuous name.]

Jeff would have to put in a good deal of work, and the market is relatively small and prices for iPad games are low. It would be virtually impossible to turn a reasonable profit.

[Student of Trinity]

It's a tough call. There are already a couple of million iPads out there, and if even 1% of them bought A6 for even $6, that might be worth a couple months of Jeff's time. Especially if it gave him a user base that could be counted on to keep buying more of his games in future.

 

Of course, there are a lot more than a million computers out there, and Jeff is not getting anywhere near 1% of them as customers. Maybe the fact that the iPad/iPhone app is relatively young as a platform would let Jeff get a bigger share if he got in early, though. That's the question.

 

Jeff has written about this in his blog, though, and concluded that the answer is, No. My take on this is that a big reason he's still in business after all these years is that he's a conservative businessman who just wants to make a living doing what he likes. He's not looking for a gamble that might make him rich, but might also make him bankrupt. He's spinning a roulette wheel enough as it is, with each new game he releases. He doesn't want to throw six months' work into porting to iPad, when the chances are high that he wouldn't make much money by doing so, and when six months' more work on Avadon will bring him six months closer to releasing it and getting the sales he can more confidently expect.

[Earth]

what SoT said, only way to see Spidweb-games on Ipad etc is that some1 else recodes games for Ipad etc.

 

Also Apple takes their share on sales so ................

 

Acer's and MSI's tablets which have Windows os and x86 processor prolly could run SW-games.

[K_I_L_E_R]

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires

what SoT said, only way to see Spidweb-games on Ipad etc is that some1 else recodes games for Ipad etc.

Also Apple takes their share on sales so ................

Acer's and MSI's tablets which have Windows os and x86 processor prolly could run SW-games.

I did not even think of that. Mouse clicks become finger presses. I will definitely buy a tablet and test Avernum 6 on it and tell you guys how it all works with touch.

[Earth]

A6 might not work well since tablet's graphic adapter ain't that good but A1-A5 could work.

[K_I_L_E_R]

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires

A6 might not work well since tablet's graphic adapter ain't that good but A1-A5 could work.

I'm pretty sure the upcoming ones are more than enough, my only issue is that Jeff may have raised minimum resolution requirements for his recent games.

[Earth]

acer's tablet can get 1366*8/900 resolution so ............

[Randomizer]

Originally Posted By: Basilisk Wrangler

Since we're on the subject- supporting iPhone/iPad is looking less-and-less likely. Apple has some very strict licensing requirements on iPhone/iPad development. It turns out that Steve Jobs doesn't want people to write one piece of code and port it to as many devices as possible. There are specific development restrictions that make it difficult to do this.

On why it isn't happening for another game developer on his website.

[Earth]

Steve Jobs or Jeff?

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires

Steve Jobs or Jeff?

Nah, it's the indie game designer who wrote Eschalon: Book II. Honestly, I don't care for the opinions of random people on the internet (unless they're mine or people I internet-know).

[Ephesos]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Honestly, I don't care for the opinions of random people on the internet (unless they're mine or people I internet-know).

Yeah, but it's a person whose opinion is actually relevant to the discussion.