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… or what has to change to make the iPhone/iPod Touch a viable platform.

I like many of you out there with a brand new iPhone 2.0 have been in love with the App Store. I’ve downloaded my fair share of both free and paid games, and have been amazed at the quality of the launch software. Like all things however, it hasn’t been a perfect experience.

I’ve collected my thoughts and gripes into one long post that I’m hoping iPhone/iPod Touch game developers will see and take to heart. While it’s likely that this won’t be seen by many, I want to speak my peace mainly so I can stop all my bitching to friends. Below you’ll find my three top gripes, and my solutions that would make iPhone/iPod Touch gaming a wonderful experience to be had by all… in a perfect world at least.

Oh tilt we love you, but why do you hate us when we’re laying down?

When Apple unveiled the iPhone for the first time, the fact that it includes accelerometers was a huge thing for us gamers. Having these inside the phone meant that the iPhone could be used as a pseudo-Wiimote if games ever shipped for the platform. When the SDK was announced at the WWDC conference and Super Monkeyball was shown, all the gamers in the audience started grinning from ear to ear. Fast forward to today where you can download dozens of games on the App Store that use these accelerometers as a control method and you’ll find that it works pretty well.

It was Super Monkeyball however that had me scratching my head a little bit. No matter how I started the game it was never “level” for me. Meaning that where I would normally hold the iPhone for comfort actually was telling the game that I was tilting the phone forward, sending poor AiAi to his doom. I guess the programmers had a comfortable way of holding their system that differed from mine, and it drove me crazy!

When THQ released de Blob on the App Store this week that all changed. de Blob allows you to use tilt or touch controls, and calibrates the “level” point for you when you start the game. This is a genius addition, and something that I hope every tilt sensitive game includes in their new games and is patched into all of their old games.

de Blob does calibration right

The reality is not everyone plays their games the same way. Some play laying down on the couch, others play hunched over. Some use little movements, some use big. As a game developer including a method to set both the zero point and sensitivity will ensure that your game can be enjoyed by the greatest number of people. I can see games shunned in the future by not including this. de Blob has paved the way for other games, lets hope they choose this path.

To be, or not be silent… that is the question.

This is an iPhone specific gripe, but it’s a big one for me. Every iPhone has a ring/silent switch on the side of it. When I’m in meetings or in other places where noise is a no no I turn this on so that my phone won’t ring. Simple. I was hoping that turning this on before starting a game would mute all of the game sounds for when I’m playing on the bus or at night, bit it turns out that isn’t the case.

I understand that this switch is very phone centric, but if developers would check if the phone was muted while starting up that would be super useful for me and probably others too. iPod Touch users don’t have to worry about this due to the lack of external speakers, but as my wife can attest; the Super Monkeyball soundtrack at 1 in the morning is not a good way to wake up. Please devs, look at this switch when starting. My marriage begs you.

Don’t kill my progress, that’s just mean.

This third and final gripe is actually something I just ran into this morning. The App Store informed me that there was an update to Platinum Solitaire available and I promptly clicked on the Upgrade button. After a short download and painfully long install time (I haven’t covered this particular gripe as game devs can’t do anything about it sadly) I booted up the new improved version to find that all of my progress was gone!

Platinum Solitaire is a go to game for me when I have a few minutes to kill. You gain virtual money in the game by doing well. That money is used to unlock other casinos and games, something that I has almost finished doing. One simple upgrade and all of this work was gone.

It seems that Apple’s method of keeping the application data compartmentalized away from anything else in the phone was at fault here. Save games are forced to live inside the application file itself. When you delete this app or upgrade it, all of your progress will be wiped out along with any saved preferences if the application devloper didn’t choose to store these preferences in the “System Preferences” section of the phone.

While this isn’t a developer only problem, it’s one that i wish was better explained to us users. When an update is available we should be warned that this will delete all of our progress in the game if applied. I’m just glad that I didn’t spend 20 hours playing the RPG Vey only to have my progress deleted on upgrade! This would of been disheartening to me and probably caused me to permanently uninstall the game.

The solution to this is mainly in Apple’s court, but in the interim could be solved by the developers by allowing us to upload our progress to their servers or providing some form of token or password system. I know passwords are very old school, but it could would work well if they were emailed to us from the application. Heck even storing them as a contact in the address book would work for me, providing this isn’t against Apple’s terms and conditions for the SDK.

Losing our saved data is a huge problem for us mobile gamers, and one that has to be solved for this platform to gain any support. Losing work is never a good thing period. I can imagine the uproar when the first productivity app upgrade causes people to lose their work, should we gamers be any less vocal?

So there you have it. Three iPhone/iPod Touch gaming gripes that I have and some possible solutions. I hope that you game devs out there will take a peek at what the community is saying and work to iron out some of these creases. I personally feel that Apple’s mobile platform can be an awesome way to experience gaming, it just needs a bit of work.