Introversion

Personally, I don't feel PA is a console game. It's not fast paced, it's not action orientated, and it requires a level of attention not really suited to console. I'm an avid PC gamer and console gamer and I think PA is perfect for PC and will be well suited to iOS and Android, but not a console.

Even the basics, such as the GUI, would create problems both massive and complex that would need to be solved to make it workable on a tv.

Just worried IV are going to end up in the same trouble as they did with Darwinia. That was fucking awful.

Thoughts?

similar to putting an RTS on console

just not as fun as with a mouse and keyboard.

Yeah, it really doesn't seem like a good match to me. If they want to try, though, it's their game I guess.

+1

Agree. I don't understand the recent trend to try and put rts and other games like this on console. I mean I understand that you are opening a new audience, but I feel that if this type of game is your thing, you own a pc and will play it on that.

I haven't followed these guys before this game, but they have made a fan out of me. I would much rather they focus their time and resources creating a new gem they can sell to pc versus recrafting this to sell a couple more.

I guess the question is less 'are they better on pc' and more 'do they sell on console'.

I was a console guy until the PS1 meaning I mostly played action games, but I LOVED strategy games and put up with a lot of really terrible interfaces in order to play them.

If they can produce PA for consoles, and it sells well, more power to them. I'm not buying it since I'm a PC guy but hey.

I get that they might want to expand to consoles solely to increase their revenue stream and keep introversion going. That follows.

But for this particular game, consoles make little sense as a method of adaptation.

The issue is control. This is a large sprawling map based management sim and building/architecture/design game - you pretty much NEED a mouse to achieve the precision you want in your layouts. The rest is all doable in a console - menu manipulation, time manipulation et cetera - but all the building of rooms and designing of wall layouts and all that simply won't feel right with a pair of joysticks on the modern gamepads of the X-BONE and the PS4.

That said, there are port possibilities that aren't terrible, but aren't necessarily great either.

Tablets/mobile devices - the game's interface would work much better on tablets, yes. Hell, there are elements that are already kind of tablet associated, like edge of screen scrolling. However, there will be player design precision problems again due to the imprecise nature of touch screen controls. These can be ironed out (likely with a more consistently zoomed in camera) but then there's the other issue: market viability. I simply don't know much about how well design sims do on these platforms, but certainly, the biggest hits on these platforms are the furthest thing from the type of game PA is.

Funnily enough, the one port possibility that actually seems like it might make more sense is the Wii U.

There are a lot of games that are mouse driven where the pointer-remote of the Wii has been very good at emulating the properties of the mouse. It's a pretty decent analogue actually. The Wii-U still has the WiiMotes as a main input, so PA could work decently with it. The new Wii-U Touchscreen controller however would have all of the problems that the Android/Tablet versions would have though. Actually the biggest issue with the Wii-U would be that you'd have like five different control implementations you'd need to stick in the game due to all the different contol methods, which could end up highly frustrating and time consuming and make the venture not worth the time.

I really hope they stay away from that. At least don't slow down the pc game to make it happen.

SonofSuperJoe wrote:I get that they might want to expand to consoles solely to increase their revenue stream and keep introversion going. That follows.

But for this particular game, consoles make little sense as a method of adaptation.

The issue is control. This is a large sprawling map based management sim and building/architecture/design game - you pretty much NEED a mouse to achieve the precision you want in your layouts. The rest is all doable in a console - menu manipulation, time manipulation et cetera - but all the building of rooms and designing of wall layouts and all that simply won't feel right with a pair of joysticks on the modern gamepads of the X-BONE and the PS4.

That said, there are port possibilities that aren't terrible, but aren't necessarily great either.

Tablets/mobile devices - the game's interface would work much better on tablets, yes. Hell, there are elements that are already kind of tablet associated, like edge of screen scrolling. However, there will be player design precision problems again due to the imprecise nature of touch screen controls. These can be ironed out (likely with a more consistently zoomed in camera) but then there's the other issue: market viability. I simply don't know much about how well design sims do on these platforms, but certainly, the biggest hits on these platforms are the furthest thing from the type of game PA is.

Funnily enough, the one port possibility that actually seems like it might make more sense is the Wii U.

There are a lot of games that are mouse driven where the pointer-remote of the Wii has been very good at emulating the properties of the mouse. It's a pretty decent analogue actually. The Wii-U still has the WiiMotes as a main input, so PA could work decently with it. The new Wii-U Touchscreen controller however would have all of the problems that the Android/Tablet versions would have though. Actually the biggest issue with the Wii-U would be that you'd have like five different control implementations you'd need to stick in the game due to all the different contol methods, which could end up highly frustrating and time consuming and make the venture not worth the time.

if done right it shouldn't be too bad...take the sims for instance...building walls on that isn't to hard using a joystick...we would just need to change the way rooms are placed slightly...instead of clicking than dragging than release...change it to you click a square and the box will follow your cursor and click again to place the room

personally though i would just play on the computer...however tablet play intrigues me abit

I would love PA be ported to PS4 once they finish the PC ones. PS4 has much stronger processor to handle big games, so why not PA? By the way, it also has touchpad, which is similar to mouse of PC.

Personally i think its the total wrong way to turn for Introversion. I would first try to complete PA on PC/mac/Linux and make it as good as possible before even thinking about porting to console or android/iphone. I think they are too early and taking 1 month of the development could just bore the heck out of the community.

CJH wrote:Personally i think its the total wrong way to turn for Introversion. I would first try to complete PA on PC/mac/Linux and make it as good as possible before even thinking about porting to console or android/iphone. I think they are too early and taking 1 month of the development could just bore the heck out of the community.

Are you sure it isn't just a feasibility study to see whether it's suitable or worth porting, and how long it would likely take, so that the producer can plan ahead and work out what to tell the prospective retail partners he will be approaching? I got that impression, since after the month looking at it, they said they'll be back to regular updating for the PC version.

thekillergreece wrote:I would love PA be ported to PS4 once they finish the PC ones. PS4 has much stronger processor to handle big games, so why not PA? By the way, it also has touchpad, which is similar to mouse of PC.

Haha, nice joke. The performance of any console is nothing against an "up to date" gaming pc. The reason why most people think the console is as powerfull as any gaming pc, is because the games available on the console are specially optimized for the hardware of the console.

BTW: in against porting it to any console, at least not until it's finished. If they would create a console version, they would have to debug / update both at the same time and (in my opinion) loose some of the time they could spend on improving and updating the game itself.

Yes, there is always the money aspect, but in my opinion, if the game is successfull, there should not be a problem to stick with the pc version for now and later, once the game is "finished" to create a version for the various consoles out there.

Drakexz wrote:
Haha, nice joke. The performance of any console is nothing against an "up to date" gaming pc. The reason why most people think the console is as powerfull as any gaming pc, is because the games available on the console are specially optimized for the hardware of the console.

Therefore console(PS4) are stronger. And I did not say stronger than PC. Well, stronger than most computers(Low and medium)

Anyone remember Starcraft for the N64? No? Me neither.

No way!!! I own an XBox, and I love it. But I'd never think of playing PA on it!

I remember that I played "Syberia" on my PC. I loved it. Then I got hold of Syberia 2 for PlayStation II. I just gave up on it: couldn't enjoy playing it with the gamepad.

Also, controls aside, what about mods, saves, ecc.? Consoles are a sealed-system, they don't make it practical to access mods files, zip saved prisons and share them with friends, ecc.

Also, I don't see any benefits in a console version vs a PC version. PA is a light-weight game, and I am glad that I can put it on my netbook at any time, so if I have to travel somewhere I can bring it with me (unlike an XBox/PlayStation!).

As for the iPad/Android tablet version ... well, I'm not personally interested in it but it does sound a good idea. For those who do love tablets (unlike me) it would be nice to play PA on it. Also, touch-screen support should provide a nice way to play PA -- my netbook as touch-screen, but I haven't tried PA on it yet. I wonder if it can be played via touch screen (I hate the mouse-pad of netbooks and laptops, its either mouse or keyboard).