iPod

Harmonix Designer Outlines the Success of Phase for iPod

Developing an attractive game for a device using just a scroll-wheel for control is quite a feat

By Filip Truta, Apple News Editor

26th of June 2008, 12:40 GMT

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During his speech at the Paris Game Developers Conference two days ago, Phase designer and programmer Chris Foster weighed in on some of the key elements that made Phase the successful casual iPod title it is today. Quite a noteworthy statement coming from Harmonix's man said "Design is making bad decisions in pursuit of good ones."

In the case of the iPod, a claim such as this one is indeed very true. Just like with Guitar Hero for consoles, Mac and PC, the dots that appear on your

iPod's screen represent musical notes. Players need to click the corresponding wheel button to activate a target at the right moment. The curved lines of smaller dots, known as sweeps, have players gliding their fingers across the click wheel in order to successfully hit a note. Players can choose six themes (Deep Sea, Music Festival, Neon Nights, Sonic City, Robot Factory or Alien Planet) for the background. Since Phase is a music game, it allows the player to shuffle his / her music during a marathon session. Best of all, you create your own stages within the game, by feeding it the existing music on your iPod's hard drive.

Foster noted that the key to the game's success was constantly accepting the constraints of Apple's player, namely the scroll wheel which can't be leveraged into a complex controller. "Embrace your platform's limitations and audience. Don't try to cram in ideas that are not suitable," he said, referring to "the pleasantly tactile" thumbwheel on the iPod.

Pleasant yes, but again, full of constraints: "The audience for iPod is different to that of the PSP and DS," Foster added. "The iPod user is not necessarily a gamer. Complexity is not welcome on the iPod. [...] The user of an iPod would not necessarily invest in fun," he added, noting that iPod users are likely to buy music, not games. "iPod users are listeners first and players second," Foster went on. "No one will play on an iPod for an hour - maybe 10 minutes or just three for a single song while they wait for the Metro."

During his work on Phase, Foster has learned that "design is making bad decisions in pursuit of good ones. It's about making a bad decision and sticking with it until you get to the right one. It can be emotionally draining, but that's what leads you to the things that are good, unique and right," he concluded.

TAGS:

Chris Foster | designer | Phase | iPod game | Harmonix

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