First Person Shooter

Unity Engine
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1

Hello,

I have been developing a FPS for 2 months now, and hope to have it complete within another 5-6 weeks. This is my first game I have ever made and I’m learning as I go.

I have a question; I love first person shooters on the PS3 so I thought that’s what I’d make for the iPhone. It has a very detailed plot, very intense storyline. I just don’t see many FPS on the App Store. I see a few, but not many. Is this a good thing for me (not much competition) or a bad thing for me (not very popular with the iPhone user). I wonder if FPS are very popular. I will continue to make the game and finish it, I just wonder if a demand exists for a FPS.

Thanks,

2

The demand always exists for a good game, regardless of genre. Having said that, there are a few reasons you don’t see too many shooters on iPhone.

  1. Controls. We’ve all gotten used to dual thumbsticks for FPS titles. An iPhone has no controller, so you either need to deal with clumsy tilt controls or take up a third of your screen for virtual joysticks. It’s also very hard to use both thumbs and still have a finger free to shoot.

  2. Hardware limitations. For a long time now, first person shooters have generally been at the forefront of graphical technology. When you compare the graphics of Crysis, Bioshock, etc. to other games out there, the shooters tend to be of higher quality. The lack of need to render the player character as well as the linear nature of shooters tends to allow for more liberty with environments. Therefore, when people see a 500 poly hallway on an iphone shooter, they tend to think it looks bad even when the graphics would be perfectly acceptable on something like a puzzle game.

  3. Target audience. FPS games are generally targeted towards hardcore gamers. The iPhone is used by a much broader audience. Same reason why you see so many more FPS on PS3 than you do on Wii.

3

Good points. Thanks for the reply. I have tried to make the environment look very good. The wife is a graphic designer, so that helps with textures. It’s all very detailed, and I have 2 to 3 enemies shooting at you at a time and I maintain 25-35 FPS on a 3G phone. So it’s very smooth and the game loads very quickly. Any more then 3 enemies and it gets too overwhelming fighting all of them off. 4 guys shooting at you and you tend to die very quickly (it’s a slaughter). I also have over 10 different kinds of enemies in the game to offer variety. Each level also looks different then the one before. I have also tried to capture the true game play of a console FPS, for instance, your health regenerates slowly after being shot. The wife and I are working hard to make it an awesome looking and intense game.

The controls are an issue; I’m, of course, using the two thumb approach. It does take some real estate, but all the action tends to be in the center of the screen.

I know the iPhone is a “take out of your pocket at the bus stop, play for 2 min, and turn it off”, kind of a device. I wonder if a “take out of your pocket ON the bus, play for 5 min, and turn it off” game has a place on the iPhone.

4

occlusion culling example for iphone has controls code…small circles that don’t take much of a real estate. Also, Wolfenstein 3D for iPhone has the best FPS controlls so far…and it’s an open source…if you get my drift.

5

Just curious, could you post some screenshots?

6

Poof :arrow: Mani exiting stage left to download Wolfenstein code- Thanks!