iPhone gameplay video

[KylePoole]

Work on the iPhone port is progressing as planned, and it is now fully playable on the simulator. Since a video is worth 1000 pictures, here's a link for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJWejVTspYQ

And here's a new set of screenshots with discussion about the changes and progress...



The campaign selection screen works nicely now, with the image scaled to fit the preview area.




The font on the campaign intro text was increased to make it more readable on the device.




I did away with the Pango dependencies, so it took a bit of recoding to get the in-game messages to look right. With a lot of text, the window can get a bit high, but it still works ok I think... I kept the portraits relatively large, because I like them so much




Hardcore players might notice a button and some info missing, but there is only so much screen space...




Touch controls have been implemented. Since there is no mouse hover, you tap once to change the walk/attack spot, then tap again to confirm. You can quickly and easily move the map around by dragging your finger.

I think the minimap is a bit microscopic though, I might have units show up as 2x2 pixels so they are easier to see...




The unit info panel is small, but still manages to cram in a lot of info. Hopefully you have good eyesight

I decided to place the "Next Unit" at the bottom because it is easy to get at, while the "End Turn" is at the top right so you don't hit it by mistake. Obviously a lot of status info was removed on the top bar, but hopefully you can manage without them...

[Ken_Oh]

Very well done!

[Aethaeryn]

Looks nice.

What are you going to do about the right click function? Some custom content use it extensively, for instance.

[Max]

Touch controls have been implemented. Since there is no mouse hover, you tap once to change the walk/attack spot, then tap again to confirm. You can quickly and easily move the map around by dragging your finger.

who do you select the unit to attack? do you have to move there first? are you still able to cancel/undo the attack? (this is done quite often to have a look at the damage calculations).

look great, btw^^

[KylePoole]

Looks nice.

What are you going to do about the right click function? Some custom content use it extensively, for instance.

Can you give me an example of the custom content to test? For the context sensitive menu, eg recruit and recall, you can double tap a square when a unit is not selected. And since there is no right click to unselect a unit, tapping on an already selected unit will de-select it.

who do you select the unit to attack? do you have to move there first? are you still able to cancel/undo the attack? (this is done quite often to have a look at the damage calculations).

When a unit is selected, tap the spot you want to move to. Or you can tap on the unit you want to attack, and it will show just like a mouse-over. Then tap on the same spot again to execute. You can still access the undo function from the menu button at the top left, although I still have to iPhone-ify the menu...

[Ken_Oh]

Looks nice.

What are you going to do about the right click function? Some custom content use it extensively, for instance.

Can you give me an example of the custom content to test? For the context sensitive menu, eg recruit and recall, you can double tap a square when a unit is not selected. And since there is no right click to unselect a unit, tapping on an already selected unit will de-select it.

There is actually some mainline content that uses right-click commands. Go into multiplayer and play A New Land.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Can you give me an example of the custom content to test?

Dead Waters, the scenario "slavers" has a right click option to begin a slave revolt which is key to finishing the mission.

[KylePoole]

Great thanks guys, I'll make sure these work on the iPhone too.

[KylePoole]

I can confirm that the right-click context menu works by double-tapping. I'll have to add in an automatic text replacement for "right-click" -> "double tap"

Wow I got hooked by that A New Land map and was playing it for most of the day... Finally set up a defensive perimeter with towns + moats and totally cleared out the map by turn 75! Great game...

[Kalajel]

This all looks very, very nice! I only have one (very) minor nitpick and it's concerning teh "end turn" and "next unit" buttons placement; while I think putting those two buttons as far away from each other as possible was a great idea; I can't help but notice that the "next unit" button is located where the "end turn" button is located on the computer version… Shouldn't the locations of those buttons be switched to avoid confusion?

[KylePoole]

This all looks very, very nice! I only have one (very) minor nitpick and it's concerning teh "end turn" and "next unit" buttons placement; while I think putting those two buttons as far away from each other as possible was a great idea; I can't help but notice that the "next unit" button is located where the "end turn" button is located on the computer version… Shouldn't the locations of those buttons be switched to avoid confusion?

I thought about that, but the "next" button is used like 10x more than the "end" button, and tapping the next button has no bad side effects, while the end button can be disastrous if you tap it by mistake. Ergo, the next button should be in an accessible place and the end button should be tucked away out of reach... But aha! You will say that people will tap on the minimap, and might tap on the end turn button by mistake, while nobody taps near the bottom right corner. Okay, I guess I'll switch them for a few days and see how it feels...

Anyways, the most confusion I have when going back and forth from the Mac and iPhone versions is that I try to drag-scroll the map on the Mac version but it doesn't work, have to use the arrow keys!

I also need to increase the font size for the floating damage numbers, it is too hard to see right now...

[Huston]

since the mini map is so small, why don't you scrap it and put the missing stuff from the status bar there? i know i can't make anything out on the mini map and my vision is perfect.

[Aethaeryn]

since the mini map is so small, why don't you scrap it and put the missing stuff from the status bar there? i know i can't make anything out on the mini map and my vision is perfect.

But at least the mini-map shows you which direction to head because it shows you where you are on the map.

[HenryBird]

This entire project looks phenomenal, bravo!

[Kalajel]

since the mini map is so small, why don't you scrap it and put the missing stuff from the status bar there? i know i can't make anything out on the mini map and my vision is perfect.

But at least the mini-map shows you which direction to head because it shows you where you are on the map.

How about making a "map" button then? You click it and the battlefield switches to s full-screen version of the mini-map. To return to the battlefield you either tap somewhere on the map (where you want to check up on things) or include a "resume game" button…