Why Apple Arcade is suitable for No Man's Sky, Oxenfree, SpellTower, etc.

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• Why Apple Arcade is suitable for No Man's Sky, Oxenfree, SpellTower, etc.

More than a year after its launch, Apple Arcade has grown its library of sixty titles to more than one hundred and eighty very elegant, familiar and often contemplative indie games. For Apple, it looks like it's flat out ahead for Arcade with few notable changes, naturally. Apple just added 2 games that are sure to have something for everyone who's been on the service before, from Sudoku and Solitaire to new versions of The Oregon Trail and a revamped version of NBA 21K4. But they all seem to cater to the casual audience Apple originally intended for the service, and releasing its games on Apple Arcade also seems to cater to the developers of those games, who don't need to include microtransactions or split gameplay. Free and paid versions. "For me, as an artist, this means that I can focus more on making great games and that players can start living their lives again without interruptions, without 'snooping in bad company' and without spending more money," the author created. of the game, stated Zach Gage in a group interview. Four of his games, including Really Bad Chess and SpellTower Plus, were among the thirty-two games just added to Apple Arcade.

Apple Arcade continues to appeal to developers

Already before this big batch, Apple had added new games to the service in small drops. A trio of games added in August 3 showcased Apple Arcade's enduring strengths, and its development process provides an insight into why we haven't seen the change in direction in the face of adding more engaging titles. at Arcade Library, as notified in the month of July two thousand and twenty. The 2 new games released in the month of August 3 come from well-known developers and publishers. The first to come to the service is still based on a very popular IP: Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows, an idle narrative game from Devolver Digital. The other 3 come from studios with similar pedigrees: Next Stop Nowhere was made by Night School Studio (Oxenfree), while The Last Campfire is from Hello Games (No Man's Sky). TechRadar caught up with the teams from all 4 games to chat and discuss how they match up with what Apple has been looking for in arcade titles, and why the other games don't. Essentially the 1 slowest-paced games that rely on fine-tuned, narrative visuals rather than fast-paced action and jittery response times. This makes them convenient for touch controls on iPhone and iPad, remote control for Apple TV, or mouse/touchpad on Mac (although all Apple operating systems support PSXNUMX and Xbox One controllers, some subscribers no. Surely they will not go through the inconvenience). And the simpler controls make it easier for younger gamers to get started with the games – gamers, such as children or friends, who don't have to pay for the games if they're tied to a subscriber's family plan. These are the existing benefits of Apple Arcade, but other tenets of the service have guided the games as well. Image XNUMX of three

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(Image credit: Apple / Devolver Digital) Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows, for example, was intended as an inactive game before Devolver Digital approached Apple about including it in Arcade. But the microtransaction-free service allowed game author Jake Hollands to create it as a seamless experience without worrying about intrusive exploit alerts, and unlike other idle games, Tale of Crows has an ending. "The basic idea was to transform it into a 'healthy' idle game that takes that style of play and uses it in a way that can fit the player's life, rather than try to keep it dangling continuously on the screen," Hollands said. . As a result, Tale of Crows is cautious, if not meditative, and takes place XNUMX years before the characters and events of the series, we found that it gave players enough distance from the HBO divisional series while preserving the taste of its fabulous cosmos. And with the Telltale game series being canceled a few years ago, this is one of the only Game of Thrones media (besides George RR Martin's sidebooks) to be released for years. On Apple Arcade alone, that's a win for the service.

Next Stop Nowhere is available NOW, only at @AppleArcade! Time to hit the road and see the stars... Get it here: https://t.co/jqr84u9Ewb pic.twitter.com/JnFzBpkh5o XNUMXth Aug XNUMX More Info Next Stop Nowhere by Night School Studio, The second of the trio, it's also exclusive to Apple Arcade, though it's fair to say that the developer's in-house style - flowing conversations while exploring to dig deeper into the story, like Pioneer's indie hit Oxenfree and follow-up Afterparty - fits just as well. well to Arcade that it is not surprising that Apple has welcomed the presentation of Night School for a new game. "I hesitated enough that a premium game could still survive on this planet," said Sean Krankel, co-founder of Night School Games. But then the studio's first title to start on PC, Oxenfree, came to iOS and reached a new audience. “We weren't just reaching horror and house art gamers, but now on iOS we're reaching creepypasta-reading tweens and a much larger audience. This space game we got into would be a good choice. Especially if we don't need to join commercial exploitation hooks that, honestly, we're not good at. Krankel describes the ``space game'' Next Stop Nowhere as a traditional American road trip set among the stars, following Courier Beckett and his partner Serra as they drive a ``Winnebago space'' through the galactic sprawl in search of the son of the latter.. Conversations and player choices change the plot arc, but it's easy to play on any Apple Arcade device. The only real change Night School has made to the design of the service? Have it players feel comfortable taking a break every ten minutes or so."Whereas for our other games you don't know when to stop, you just lie down and play for an hour, but we semi-intentionally made it feel like there really are chapter hats," Krankel said. In other words, bite-sized pieces, which are a hallmark of other Apple Arcade games. They're easier to use on devices where owners multitask, switching games to other apps.

The Last Campfire ❤️SwitchPCMacPS4XBoxiOS/Mac/AppleTVOut Now pic.twitter.com/yqKbMlqGYFA5 Aug XNUMX Learn More The trio's latest new Apple Arcade game, Hello Games' The Last Campfire, isn't exclusive to the gaming service - Launched on every modern console and PC on the exact same day it hit the Arcade. But the game was designed with mobile devices in mind from the start. Before No Man's Sky, the studio expanded its standalone Joe Danger platform games, ultimately releasing Joe Danger Infinity on iOS in XNUMX. Hello Games' Steven Burgess had approached the iOS version of Joe Danger and improvised an idea for another game while the studio was working on the hit No Man's Sky. Apple approached Hello Games in XNUMX asking for titles that might be suitable for Arcade, and the end result of those discussions brought Burgess' project The Last Campfire to the games service. It may not be a coincidence that Apple has chosen a game with integrated touch controls since its inception. “We wanted the commands to feel native, so we started with touch controls from day one, the first versions XNUMX years ago were on an ipad and an iphone,” said Sean Murray, co-founder of Hello Games. The game accepts controllers, Naturally, and after decades of use, gamers have the muscle memory to navigate with physical joysticks, but not so much with touch screens."We started building the game around what seemed intuitive. We wanted it to feel like it was by touching the screen and turning a lever." In The Last Campfire, players control the admirable robe-wearing Ember through a series of puzzles and lush environments to bring them home. The mood, Murray explained, was like wandering through the woods and then trying to come back after dark. With intuitive touch controls, slick visuals, and a booming theme, The Last Campfire feels iconic to many of the titles Apple has picked up for its gaming service. As Murray recalls the XNUMX meeting when tech giant Apple Arcade explained: “They wanted premium experiences that were creatively designed and native to the device,” Murray said. But, naturally, all that can change.

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The future of Apple Arcade

These 3 games represent the present of Apple Arcade, but not necessarily its future. Apple approached the studios behind these 3 titles at different times in XNUMX, the service went live in September XNUMX, and these games hit the Arcade in recent weeks. In other words, we haven't begun to see the change in strategy that Apple apparently made in mid-April, when it cut certain title contracts scheduled for the service (including one development in mid-April), according to a published Bloomberg report. in July. The tech giant reportedly felt that the cut games would not be compelling enough and that Apple would be looking at arcade titles like the well-known Grindstone that would hook gamers and keep them coming back. Anyone who has played Grindstone can attest to its commitment: the new puzzle game is all about killing opponents of the same color in sequence to rack up big combos, with plenty of extra elements. But anyone familiar with free-to-play games can see how easily Grindstone could pack trading into the app: there are in-game gems and consumable health items that feel tailor-made for players to purchase with real money. It's so obvious that it looks like the game would have launched with in-game purchases if Apple hadn't called. In other words, some of what's so compelling about Grindstone's gameplay loop largely overlaps with the addictive loops that free games incorporate to entice players into spending real money on in-app purchases. Nothing prevents Apple from adding more games to Arcade that use those game loops to support gamers subscribed to the service without betraying Arcade's non-commercial exploitation policy. But that seems to go against Apple Arcade's philosophy of ``creatively designed premium experiences'' that define Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows, Next Stop Nowhere, and The Last Campfire, games that appeal to many of the gamers. Solo titles that make up The Arcade Library include slower, more meditative, and non-grinding solo experiences. It's pretty hard to say how far Apple might deviate from this model, especially given the fact that it took a couple of years for these games to make it to Arcade after being contacted by the tech giant. It may be months or even years before the service finally adds the compelling game genre you're looking for. In the meantime, we're likely to see more games continue the original version of Apple Arcade, and it looks like Apple is holding the course.