Learning Game Design with Arcade Berg

Less is more – iPhone games

I haven't been home where my PS3 and 360 is for over a week now, so I've had to make due with my DS and the iPhone, so I thought I'd write a short post about what I consider to be some of the great iPhone games I've been playing and what they make right. I've chosen only to include games that have one thing in common; less is more. And just to make clear, this isn't a list of the best games ever for the iPhone.

Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump is a success both in sales and when it comes to reviews. You control it by simply tilting the device left and right and you can fire at enemies by touching the screen where you want to shoot. It's very simple and even people that can barely be called "casual gamers" can master is. A session takes anywhere from couple to 10 minutes, depending on how well you play. My longest game was about 6 minutes.

Addictive to say the least

Rat On a Scooter XL
Yeah, that's what it's called. You're a rat on a scooter out to score by grinding and getting cheese. The entire game is played by touching anywhere on the screen to jump. The strength varies depending on for how long you press it. A game takes a couple of minutes. It's one of many brilliant extremly simple games from Donut Games.

My current highscore in the standard mode is 142.

Hook Champ
One of my favorite games I've ever played on the iPhone. You're a little dude swinging through levels with a grappling hook. You just touch where you want the hook to latch on and a level takes a couple of minutes to complete.

He's a swinger

Dance Dance Revolution S
DDR for the iPhone is just like the DDR-games for consoles and a dance pad but you touch pads on the screen instead. Arrows fly across the screen and you gotta get the timing down for hitting the right direction out of four. "Easy to learn, difficult to master."  One song takes a few minutes to finish.

Dance my puppets, dance!

Dark Nebula
It's a puzzle/action game if you can call it that in which you control a ball by simply tilting the device. The controls are extremly good and very exact and the level design is very interesting. Outbreak Studios is developing the sequel. A few days ago I had my girlfriend, her sister and the sister's fiance try out the game, and all of a sudden they were all playing it at the same time, loving it. One level takes a few minutes to finish.

On several top lists on the web

Now, there are many more games I like but these are a few of them. As you probably noticed, two things are shared among all of them.

They're extremly easy to control and more importantly the game is over after a few minutes, which result in people having an easy time to play just "once more" a million more times.

I like games like Rolando and Asphalt too, but I rarely play them because they feel like they "require" me to invest more time and effort into them. I can play a song in DDR any time. Yesterday when I was out with my girlfriend and she started trying out clothes in a store, I played some Doodle Jump and Rat On a Scooter. 'nough Said.

I think many developers get that part wrong.