Gratuitous Space Battles / iPad

I’m not a software developer, but from what I know in general terms about hardware platforms and developing software for them, I think the only way we’ll see GSB on the iPad is if Cliffski makes a deal with a dedicated iOS developer to port the game into the Apple iOS environment. One suspects it would be a LOT of work.

One also thinks it would be a killer app on the iPad.

RC

Big battles in GSB use a LOT of RAM in ipad terms, often over 3-400MB. The ipad just isn’t technically capable of running the full game in it’s current form :frowning:

hey iPad may suck but theres no reason why a mac version of gsb wouldnt run on it…

i only have one proof of that,and its more than what everyone needs…
it runs on the stone tablet calculator that i have at work,and that only runs on a single-gigatwitch chisel
memory might be a problem tho…

general rule applies… if you dont need an app,kill it,free the resources

I don’t know how much RAM the iOS takes up, but the iPads, alas, do only have 512 megs of RAM at the moment. Had to root around for that; Apple doesn’t list that in specs. . .

So I was right: it would take a LOT of work to port GSB into that kind of RAM environment. If someone started now it might work on the next iPad model, which one imagines would have more RAM. . .

One wonders how existing flashy graphics-intensive games work on the iPad. . . .

RC

it will run but it wont be pretty or smooth
just disable all the crap you can before you try :stuck_out_tongue:

also,you might try to look for some software tool to use the solid state memory as RAM… which is relatively easy to do on a PC and the tools can be found with a little effort, but macs… sigh
well,trying doesnt hurt

I’m quite sure the next ipad will have more RAM.

And: Why not scale down graphics and effects a little bit while keeping the game mechanics similar (including the campaign).
I’m very confident that GSB on iPad would be a huge success AND you would be able to gain a huge (and extremely fast expanding) new customer base.

Found this thread on google. iPad 2 has a lot more graphics power and twice the memory. Maybe this is possible now?

That’s very interesting, I had no idea they had more RAM in the new one. That definitely makes it easier, although I’d like any ipad port to be usable on the original ipad too, obviously.

If this ever happens, the game obviously needs to be greatly simplified. Here are some ideas what to do:
in battle:
-get rid of the spark and smoke effects. Also get rid of the shield impact effect, just put shields up.
-get rid of flares?
-fewer fighters in a squadron, maybe 9 or even 4
-no hulks
-no running lights
-no shaders
-grains in the beams, or simplified ones
in the overall game, so that it uses less memory on the iPad (not RAM, just plain space):
-get ride of lesser used modules, like camoflauge (which would also simplify it in-battle because now there is no effect for it ever)
-no challenges: It requires internet connection and though I don’t really know how much space it actually takkes up, I think that the removal of that system would decrease GSB’s overall size.
-fewer scenarios, or only 2 levels per scenario.

I don’t really know much about how the game actually works on the inside, but from reading how it was made, there are many “unnecessary” effects that we like but won’t really be noticeable on the iPad anyways, and will make it run faster without. I really want to see this happen, and I hope this starts some sort of thinking process for you :slight_smile:

idk about no challenges

challenges is prob the main source of replayability in this game…

I heard briefly about this game two years ago when a podcast discussed this as a possibility for Xbox Live or PSN. I was following a thread on TouchArcade where a developer seemed very inspired by your game, mentioned it, and wanted to make something similar on the iPad. As soon as I saw the GSP youtube video, I was in love and desperately wanted this on the iPad.

This game can be done. There’s a hungry audience for it. If it’s a matter of iPad capability, games like these prove that not only can the iPad handle it, but do it WELL:

Land, Air, Sea Warfare (1 man developer):
youtube.com/watch?v=Pshn4JcKAN0

StarFront Collision HD:
youtube.com/watch?v=sivEYmtd-9w

The Settlers:
youtube.com/watch?v=QiqPdADt … re=related

Really hope that you’ll give it deeper thought, Cliffski. I’d love to hand over my money, and I don’t even think that you’d need to sacrifice much in the port. Touch screen gaming and a very personal and portable hi-res monitor changes the tactile feel of games like this. Hell, even Notch is bringing MineCraft to the iOS!

I just bought this game through steam and am enjoying it greatly. I’d feel safe in saying I’d pay another 30+ dollars (counting expansions) to be able to play this on my iPad 2. Especially the galaxy conquest mode.

I would certainly pay a premium price to play this on my iPad 2 as well. There’s some fun 4X games on iOS but nothing that can compare to GSB.

It would of course need to have the visuals cut back like was suggested so it could play on both versions of the iPad but the file size shouldn’t be a big worry, at least if it’s 2GB or under. If you have to delete a few lesser games to make room for GSB then that should be a fair sacrifice.

[size=200]Oh yes. My wish came through. :)[/size]

http://appshopper.com/games/gratuitous-space-battles

And now for some technical questions to Cliffski and Red Marble:

Was anything toned-down regarding graphics and/or gameplay?

Just wandering how stronyg the iPads (2/new) really are in respect for this game.

Performance is great on my iPad2! The UI is difficult to use though. All the scroll bars are too small and/or unresponsive. In the fleet arrangement screen, the loss of copy/paste abilities or ctrl-click selecting makes it a chore to change orders - it’d be fantastic if we could give ships default orders when they’re designed. You can’t keep track of what one ship is doing during battle because as soon as you scroll the map, that ship is de-selected. There’s no way to see a ship’s name in battle. The funny radio transmissions are all cut off due to the small screen. The after-battle stats are difficult to read because of all the clicking involved (it’d be nice to be able to filter by ship class or type). Also, I can’t seem to delete the tutorial ships. I’d like to, because the scroll bar in the fleet arrangement screen is very difficult to get a hold of.

It’d also be nice to be allowed to play our own music, while keeping the sound effects.

But overall, I’m very grateful that this game is on iOS. Thanks!

More UI comments:

When trying to load a ship type in the design screen, the buttons at the top of the dialog box (which I assume sort your ships) don’t work.
In the fleet arrangement screen, it’s really, really difficult to select a fighter that you’ve placed. Moving it is nearly impossible because it requires two successful “clicks” in a row.

I can only recommend the game to those of us with experience in the PC version. For anyone else it’d be a nightmare to find their way around.

The PC version of GSB needed a massive amount of optimising and fiddling to get it to fit in the available memory of the ipad 2, let alone the ipad 1. The ipad is absolutely RUBBISH at clearing out apps that are using memory in the background, which led to a number of stability issues before the patches got released…
Almost all the effort involved was related to reducing the memory footprint of the game, partly by reducing some texture sizes, and also a lot of other tricks. Luckily the screen res of the ipad 1/2 is pretty low :smiley:
we should possibly have done more to redesign the GUI for the ipad, but it was a tough call because we had no idea if anyone would want a game this complex on their ipad anyway.
We did change a lot of dialogs and button sizes to make them more usable, but it’s not as good as it would be if it was totally redesigned from scratch.

Quick question: Is there any chance this Mac App will see conversion to Android? I would love to blast aliens on my phone…