Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store
Italian company plans RPG for the iPhone
So the first generation of games and apps is in the iPhone's App Store, and as predicted, we've got more than our share of accelerometer races and the usual gaming standbys -- Tetris, poker, and even some nice tech demos like Andy Qua's Cube Runner. But now it's time to iterate and see if we can't start filling some of the promises a great would-be gaming platform like the iPhone offers. How about an in-depth RPG that uses the clock or camera, or a full-length platformer, or a social game that takes advantage of things like location awareness?Italian company KikiTechonlogy dropped us a note to say they're doing their part -- they're working on a full-length, console-style RPG for the iPhone called PanfobiA. Unfortunately, we hope the game's translation is better than their blog post -- they're working towards "performing not less than 100 hours in single player," and "Online Gameing Modality," which is supposed to be some type of online gameplay after the singleplayer experience. The pictures provide a little more hope -- they show a nice sense of art direction and some old-school style RPG characters.
But even if PanfobiA is nothing but vaporware, they've got the right idea. For years, PDAs and mobile phones have had games, but they've all boiled down to poker, puzzles, and putrid junk. Now that the App Store is up and running, we can't wait for a developer to step up and provide a really deep and satisfying gaming experience on the platform.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mandi said 1:58PM on 7-20-2008
Well, if they wanted to be the first RPG on the App Store, they missed the boat. I was just looking at a RPG last night called "Vay" which looks much better than this one. I haven't bought it.... yet.
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slimy33 said 2:11PM on 7-20-2008
BUY IT. It was AWESOME!!! They redid all the graphics and stuff for the iPhone, you move by tapping where you want to go to on the screen, it's EVERYTHING you would want from an iPhone RPG. (The video cut scenes are crap tho, other than the first one skip 'em)
Snowman said 1:23PM on 7-20-2008
A turn based RPG should work great on the iPhone's touch screen.....so I'm interested to see how this turns out.
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Snowman said 1:24PM on 7-20-2008
Not that I know if it will be turn based. :P
aaron said 1:55PM on 7-20-2008
there's already one RPG on the app store, it's actually an old Sega CD port. it's called 'Vay.'
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Big John said 1:39PM on 7-20-2008
Aurora Feint is a nice puzzle RPG, available now and best of all... it's free!
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Kendal said 1:47PM on 7-20-2008
In the meantime, satiate your RPG hunger with "Vay"...http://toucharcade.com/2008/07/17/retro-rpg-vay-arrives-for-the-iphone/
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Nic said 2:10PM on 7-20-2008
Vay isnt available to everyone though...still waiting to see if it appears in the UK iTunes store :(
Snowman said 2:27PM on 7-20-2008
Thanks for the link.
Man the voice intro is really craptastic....really reflects the 80s in the worst way possible....and what the hell is up with the music???
Kendal said 3:17PM on 7-20-2008
Haha, it's old school revamped, but well worth the few $s it costs. It's available to the Australian store, so surely it can't be long before it comes up on the UK store?
I can't wait for assignments to be over so I can jump into some of these games! :)
abetam said 2:34PM on 7-20-2008
It would be awesome if Spiffcode starts spiffing out Warfare Incorporated (http://www.warfareincorporated.com/)
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Snowman said 2:30PM on 7-20-2008
Apple really needs to organize the App store better. Just throwing all the games in one sub menu isn't cool at all. They (the game makers) need to put some demos up, I'm not dropping my cash on a game I don't know only to find out it sucks.
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iball said 2:37PM on 7-20-2008
The problem with the AppSotre version of Vay is that they CHANGED all the voices from the original Sega CD port of Vay. The original had better voices as it was a real Working Designs port. Vay for the iPhone is a port of the original Japanese Vay only they recoded the voices, probably because they didn't have permission to use the Working Designs ones. Also the translation is nackered as well, not as good as the Working Designs crew's translation. I really miss Working Designs. But it gives hope that they will port over the Lunar series as well.
Already got the NES emulator up and running via pwned 2.0 and Cydia....just waiting for the SNES emulator to get my Chrono Trigger on.
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Les said 3:05PM on 7-20-2008
I was hoping RPG stood for Rocket Propelled Grenade. That would be much cooler.
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Dan Woods said 4:28PM on 7-20-2008
Rocket Propelled Grenade; The Ultimate iPhone Accessory. Better than the Horrible Van Remote.
Rob Furr said 12:04AM on 7-21-2008
Now we just need people to port Civ, Starcraft, and Jagged Alliance 2. Then I'd be a happy camper.
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iball said 6:19PM on 7-20-2008
You can have your iPhone Rocket-Propelled Grenades.
I'll stick to my iPhone MK19 automatic grenade launcher.
Having seen both in combat action before, the MK19 literally vaporized the RPG-packing insurgent.
THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
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André said 6:38PM on 7-20-2008
Could be cool if we got a native version of Dofus (which currently is flash based).
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jonas said 7:14PM on 7-20-2008
wow mike (article author), you really don't know much about mobile gaming do you? at least do some googling before stating that it so far only have been "poker, puzzles, and putrid junk" games for mobile phones. there have absolutley not been. thats just way way way wrong. there's even been very successful rpgs out for years now.
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motech said 11:56PM on 7-20-2008
http://daringfireball.net/2008/07/remote_keyboard
i wonder how long it will take TUAW to report on that lil item . .
they usually are about 1-3 days behind so should be any minute . .
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