I'm a handheld video game enthusiast. I'm sure of this, because people in the office make fun of how much I use and love the PlayStation Vita (hi, CNET!). The first console I owned was a Game Boy, and I've owned and loved every Nintendo and Sony portable released since (even the PocketStation). I have a long commute, so I always have a dedicated gaming device in my backpack. But lately, I've been spending an exceptional amount of time on a platform I had previously written off: an iPhone.
Now that your eyes have rolled, I want to clarify that I'm not talking about the kinds of games you might traditionally associate with being "phone games," though I do love those--I've played far more than a healthy amount of Marvel Puzzle Quest, and I love playing the cool stuff that crops up in the bespoke iOS scene: Florence, Reigns, Threes, 80 Days, and anything by Zach Gage. Instead, my recent revelation involves the kinds of video games that I would have previously preferred to play on a home console or PC.
Florence is pretty cool. You should play Florence.
Here's an obvious statement: There's never been a better time to be a handheld gamer. The 3DS is filled with great, unique first-party Nintendo titles. If you like Japanese RPGs, 2D platformers, and revisiting the finest titles in the original PlayStation library, the Vita is incredibly good, I promise (that OLED screen! That d-pad!). And of course, the Nintendo Switch is a fantastic hybrid console that redefined what kinds of games I could expect from a portable system.
Now, thanks to my phone, I'm getting that same Switch-style buzz once again. I recently took a vacation, and as usual, I packed my three portable consoles to entertain me during periods of extended downtime. The thing is, you can't always prepare for when or where extended downtime happens. For one reason or another, there were a few times where I felt like playing a video game, didn't have a console on me, and eventually was content to see what was on my phone so I could stop looking at the ocean or whatever for 15 minutes.
Tired of what I already had installed, I browsed the App Store for anything that caught my eye, and a free demo of Sid Meier's Civilization VI was what did it. I'd been thinking about picking it up again on Switch, and was now morbidly curious to see how it ran on an iPhone. As it turns out, pretty well. It was visually impressive enough to pop on the small screen, ran smoothly with a smartly adjusted UI, and didn't appear to have any feature concessions compared to the PC version. It was also the perfect game to play on a portable device: slow-paced and turn-based.
Civ VI on an iPhone--it's better than you think, but still a little pricey.
That experience was a turning point for me, and I learned a bunch of things at that moment. One: 30 bucks is too much money to pay for a second copy of Civ VI, especially when it doesn't have the expansions. Two: Phones are capable of surprising technical performance. Three: The best console is the one you have with you. Four: The convenience of being able to download games wherever is very good. Five: I don't have five things.
I'm very aware that all the people I see playing PUBG and Fortnite on the train, as well as the entirety of China, are eager to tell me how late to the party I am. But ever since then, I feel like I've reconfigured the part of my brain that decides what kind of games would be more suitable as a PC, console, or handheld experience. For certain titles, I've managed to overcome the mental hurdle that stops me from tackling my pile of shame with a newfound curiosity that wants to see how differently they play on a phone.
I really enjoy playing short, focused games. But I've missed out on a bunch because I've always believed that I needed to dedicate a good chunk of time in front of a monitor in order to get through one, and often by the time I get home from work, all I want to do is play more Tetris 99 or, you know, spend time with my family. But ever since I got over myself, I've managed to play and finish a bunch of 2018 games I'd put on hold in a week's worth of public transit rides--games like Donut County, The Stillness of the Wind, and The Gardens Between. I recently picked up Whispers Of A Machine after resolving myself to the fact that I was never going to find the time to sit down at a PC to play it, and as it turns out, my phone is perfect for the point-and-click adventure games I love so much. These more technically conservative titles also perform virtually like-for-like with their desktop versions, which helped eliminate my fears of opting for a "lesser" experience.
Even more graphically demanding titles can impress: I already own two different versions of challenging puzzler The Witness, but never found the courage to finish it. I then bought it for my phone, and I was surprised by how decent it looked. More importantly, I found myself building a different kind of relationship with it--one that I hope will finally help me see the end. If I'm stuck on a particularly hard puzzle, I can easily put it away and mull over it while I do something else. And, because it loads right where you left off, I can take another quick stab at it while I wait for a coffee.
The Witness--I'm not going to let Jonathan Blow defeat me.
However, I'm not completely abandoning my other handhelds--Persona Q2 and Cadence of Hyrule just came out, after all. I'll absolutely chase after any game that gets me excited, but I'm finding that the convenience of form factor also plays a big part in what I now choose to pull out. If it's standing room only on my train, or I want to lie sideways in bed, I'm less hesitant to pull out a Switch. The Switch is great, but it's a little too big in these instances. It really isn't a big deal to pull out a phone. Certain games, like The Gardens Between, Elder Scrolls Blades, and various Dragon Quest ports, have the option to be played with one hand in portrait mode, which I am incredibly thankful for.
The relatively lower price points for the iOS versions of games (unless you're 2K or Square Enix) takes the sting out of having to buy some of these titles for the second time. I'm happy to throw down a few bucks to give myself a portable version of something I know I liked, but want to find more avenues to play. The convenience of being able to download the games over a cellular network instantly helps, too. I had a sudden hankering to play a good tactical strategy game on the way to work the other day, so I redownloaded XCOM: Enemy Within on iOS. It's not as good as XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen, but it was available and ready to be downloaded as soon as I had that impulse. I saw GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain tweet about Pocket Cities, so I gave that a try (I liked it). While I was walking, I heard Giant Bomb talk about Brawl Stars on a podcast, so I downloaded that too (I didn't like it). Everyone is still talking about The Outer Wilds, but it's a game that I can't find a spare few hours in front of my PC to download and actually play. The ability to quickly feed my whims on a phone is incredibly useful.
I came to another realization while thinking about my new habits. When the Apple Arcade game subscription was announced in March, I thought it sounded interesting, but outside of a few games that I was already planning to play on other platforms, it didn't think it was for me. I'm not an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, nor an Origin Access person. I don't want to pay a monthly fee for access to a bunch of games I'm not going to play. I'm a Nintendo Online subscriber, but I rarely play the included library of NES games because I forget to download them until I'm browsing the library on a bus.
He explained: "In the case of video games, it is possible that the average user in those 45 hours might be playing one, two, maybe three titles; certainly not 70 titles. In that event, if you play one, two, or three titles and you play them for months in a row--which often happens in [the video game world]--then a subscription model may not be such a great deal for the customer."
I'm beginning to change my mind, however. I've installed and played over two dozen games on my phone since my revelation, most of which I can access on different platforms--but I haven't. It's been a pretty positive experience that's been assisted by the ability to easily jump between games on a whim and download them anywhere I am.
Apple Arcade is currently poised to include a bunch of games that I was already keen on--Sayonara Wild Hearts, The Pathless, Beyond A Steel Sky, Klei's Hot Lava, and ustwo's Repair--and if they're all going to be readily available on my phone there's a way better chance I'll actually play all of them. I've already got early access to tactical survival game Overland on PC, but I'll be damned if that isn't a perfectly-suited portable game. I can totally see the reasoning behind Apple's big push into the video game space now--they likely want to stay competitive with the likes of Microsoft and Google, of course, but they're also capitalizing on a different kind of gaming behavior which I'm only just cottoning on to.
I can't wait to play more Overland.
An Apple Arcade subscription will also give you access to these games on MacOS and on Apple TV, which seems handy for when I actually have a chance to sit still for a while. Additionally, Apple recently launched the ability to connect Xbox One and PS4 controllers to iOS and Apple TV, which suggests that they're interested in keeping their platform as flexible as possible. That's a nice touch, because if there's one thing I still haven't come around to, it's playing complex action games with a touchscreen interface--I don't know how the people who play PUBG on the train do it.
I'm surprised at how much I've come to genuinely appreciate my phone as a portable gaming device. The convenience of accessibility make it incredible for catering to whims, it runs a variety of the games I personally love to play (and in some instances, ones that can't be found on any other platform), and I can use it in situations where it'd be too uncomfortable to use any other portable. I can't believe it took me so long to take it seriously--I could've actually finished The Witness and become a genius by now, instead of embarrassing myself with a PS Vita for years.
(I'm sorry, PS Vita. I didn't mean that. You're still cool, no matter what anyone says.)
Getting humor in video games right is tough. While games share a lot with the medium of film in terms of visual storytelling, the presence of a player introduces an unpredictable variable that can totally blow a joke. You never know if they will miss the gag, look the wrong way at a crucial moment, or ignore a punchline because they're too busy running, shooting, jumping, or looking for their next challenge.
Humor is a big part of Journey to the Savage Planet, the first-person "explore-'em-up" and freshman offering from Typhoon Studios. Savage Planet puts you in the role of a space explorer hired by the fourth-best space company in the universe, Kindred Aerospace, and dumps you on a strange world where it's your job to explore and catalog the flora and fauna. The creatures are all a bit goofy, like orb-shaped Dodo-like birds that eat slop and poop valuable resources. Interacting with them elicits one-liners delivered by your AI--which is eager to help you explore, but more eager to warn you about limits to Kindred's legal liability should you meet a horrific demise.
The writing is part of the humor of Journey to the Savage Planet, but it's not Typhoon's main focus in getting you to laugh. The game primarily leverages what creative director Alex Hutchinson calls "interactive slapstick," where Savage Planet's systems let you create moments that turn out funny, whether on purpose or by accident.
"I think the problem with humor in video games traditionally is people have tried not to embrace the player," Hutchinson told GameSpot in an interview during E3 2019. "You know, they basically see it as a movie. So all the humor is in the dialogue. And we have what we hope our witty one-liners happening there as well. But I think the true humor in the game is in the actions the player performs, and it's kind of an interactive slapstick where the player can launch a joke that ends up paying off on themselves. If we get these systemic collisions, then I think it's a new form of humor, because it's based on decisions you made as a player and the wacky consequences that float out of it."
Hutchinson was previously creative director for Far Cry 4, a game known for its in-game systems sometimes interacting in unexpected and hilarious ways. Moments like those served as inspiration for what Typhoon is trying to do in Savage Planet.
"In Far Cry 4, there was nothing funnier than seeing a bear on fire rush into the camp and kill your friend after you'd thrown a molotov cocktail 30 seconds earlier, and it was a joke you created," he said while appearing on GameSpot's E3 stage. "So we're trying to get that sense of interactive comedy into the game, because one-liners and things are funny, but they're funny once."
Making A Bet On Laughs
While those moments feel random or unexpected for the person playing, they're not completely emergent from the design side. Hutchinson said the process of creating interactive slapstick is partially about iterating unexpected moments, and partially about working systems into the game that the team knows will lead to funny moments.
Hutchinson described filling an encounter with explosive pods, for instance, knowing that one stray shot could turn a battle with a dangerous creature into a deadly fireworks display that could kill the player, or trigger other interactions they might not see coming. But the player's options are finite, as are the behaviors of creatures and other elements in the game--so from a design standpoint, the team knows how things are going to work, and therefore, is often looking to set up ridiculous situations.
"I think there are some [mechanics and level designs] where you make a bet," Hutchinson explained. "...You bet this is what can happen, and then we have to work on it and iterate to make sure it sort of happens. And then other [funny moments] just start to emerge and when they emerge, you can reinforce them, you know? Then you can make them happen elsewhere in the game, or encourage the player to do them."
Mechanical jokes might be the focus of its humor, but there also is plenty in the way of comedic writing in Savage Planet as well. Kindred's position as the fourth-best aerospace company means that it's perpetually strapped for cash, so despite the fact you work for the corporation, you're also bombarded with its ads.
Those commercials are largely gags--they look like those old TV infomercials in which some hapless actor catastrophically tears open a bag of chips or slams a hammer through a wall, then mugs for the camera to show us how frustrated they are with their own foibles. But the ads shown in Savage Planet's E3 preview, for things like gross space food Grob or a mall for sea monkeys, double as world-building. They set up a satirical universe where even on a distant planet, you can't escape the ever-present force of someone trying to sell you something.
The Gravitational Pull Of The Gun
Several of Savage Planet's in-game ads focus on the items you wield in your left hand as you explore. Those items are meant to yield clever ways to solve problems and deal with the hazardous life you encounter--as opposed to the gun in your right hand, which provides a more straightforward solution.
Hutchinson said he had hoped to keep that gun out of your hand in favor of goofier, nonviolent solutions to problems, like using bait to draw creatures toward other things that might eat them, or planting springy pads in their paths that might send them over cliffs.
"The biggest challenge is always to rise above the noise and to offer something compelling and unique that will hopefully resonate with people," Hutchinson said. "So, you know, we chose to be optimistic and upbeat and colorful and humorous, and also to try and get you to use different tools, you know, than just the gun. Because we're never going to be the best shooter on the planet."
Despite Hutchinson's best efforts, though, Typhoon couldn't manage to keep a gun out of Journey to the Savage Planet, he said. But the studio is still working on making it possible to avoid firing it if you don't want to when the game releases in 2020.
"We tried really hard to emphasize that stuff, but this sort of gravitational pull of a gun was too much to bear," he said. "A player, after playing, was like, 'I love these tools, but sometimes I just want to shoot him in the face.' ... So the goal for the game is to say that you don't have to use the gun, but obviously you can--we'll see how it pans out. At the moment, we haven't figured out a way to make it so you can beat the bosses without the gun. But that would be the goal."
"I have a very soft spot for nonviolent approaches in video games," Hutchinson also said on the GameSpot stage. "There's a joke at the start of Far Cry 4, which is, essentially, if you just listen to [Pagan Min] and wait, he lets you do the thing you came for without having to murder anybody. So these things, I'll sneak it in as much as I can--I wanted to do it again on this game. It's very tricky but we're getting closer and closer. I can't promise that there will be a purely nonviolent way through the game, but there's often a way to avoid [using a gun] if you want."
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