Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

the fact this is only on overpriced touch devices instead of available on pc saddens me, the largest demographic who wants to play can't :(, and it's largely available to hipster idiots who will look at it and say “GAY, ANGRY BURDS ARE BETTAR”

I really wish there was a PC version of this game. Freaking expensive iStuff – at least for a Student

how to make sure i will never play your game: make sure it is never released on pc

Well – Like many I'll probably never get my hands on it but it is one of the most intriguing looking games I've seen in a while!

*sad face*…
@fog: I agree.
Why you not release for PC?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Borrow a friend's iPad then. (That's what I did.)

The interface (and world design, really) wouldn't make for a good PC game.

Sometimes you have to strum; sometimes you have to press and hold. You have to rotate the screen very often. Those gestures wouldn't be very intuitive (or nearly as satisfying) on a mouse — or in the case of rotating the screen, it'd be impossible on a desktop / laptop.

Plus your character prominently wields a “megatome,” a cheeky mythical version of the iPad. On a desktop or laptop, that congruence between player and character gets lost.

The game was made for an iPad, so let it be what it wants to be?

It can be what it wants to be, and I can still lament the fact that I can't play it because I'm not rich enough or lucky enough to know someone with such a device that would let me use it in this way. It may be impossible to port to PC, but what I (and probably most people who share my opinion) feel is that it would be really nice to play a superbrothers game like that, and it sucks that we can't for at least a year or if we randomly come into enough disposable income to facilitate getting this game and an iPad or iTouch ourselves.

Why waste all that effort putting an amazing game on an eDevice no one owns or wants? >:I

Or wait a week til it comes out on iPod and iPhone, which apparently everyone in the world already has (minus the above commenters and myself).

I also own no iThings and wish this game was available on PC. Oh well.

They're releasing it on Ipad because apple is probably paying them a nice chuck of change. They did it for the money they would get, something they probably wouldn't get in pc waters. But no one in their right mind buys an ipad, considering they have less features then a 10 year old tablet pc, so the number of people who play this game is going to be limited to hopeless apple fanatics, idiotic early adapters, or people with so much money they don't know what to do with it.

Here's hoping that whoring one's self out to apple is worth it.

You all are the reason why we can't have nice things.

So I watched the demo reel a while back, in which the hero wanders through stunning gorgeous terrain for a while and then suddenly gets jammed into a winking-ironic Mike Tyson's Punch-Out knockoff for some reason. If it keeps on being elbow-to-the-ribs retro references like that, I don't have to feel too bad about not having an iPad.

(But I love all you dudes trying to dry your tears with “at least I'm not a filthy subhuman iPad owner”. Those grapes were probably sour anyway, right, guys?)

I'm still trying to determine the purpose of the iPad. For the price, I could easily buy a brand new laptop with far more capabilities. While I can see the justification with the iPod Touch or iPhone (access to the cloud wherever you go, and in the case of the iPhone a phone), the iPad just seems like a giant iPod touch without the pocket-sized form factor. True, it may be slightly more portable than a full-fledged laptop but I don't think it's by much.

Seems like a pretty cool game. I don't know if they've released for the right audience though.
I'm not knocking their decision to make it for iPad, but I think the dev's are really limiting the game's potential. Especially as a game that seems to be geared towards ambience, I don't really see how the iPad can communicate it as effectively as a PC might. I might be wrong here, but on a small, portable medium, wouldn't it be a less immersive experience than say, a larger screen with surround sound?
As far as control goes, surely they'd be able to incorporate some way to play that isn't offputting. Perhaps a gamepad interface could emulate a touchpad feel? Albeit to an extent, I just hope it's something the creators considered.
I also can't really imagine trying to enjoy this style of game in any situation where there might be people around to detract from the experience, say, outdoors, at work or on the bus.
Normally I wouldn't comment on this kind of thing, I know the dev's have their reasons and I'm not saying they were wrong to go about it the way they have. But whenever I see a page like this, for a game like this, on a platform like this, where the majority of commenters are in the “interested but unavailable” mode… I do have to wonder why the end user was chosen over others that seemingly show more potential to receive it.
Anyway, that's my rant. I'll be butthurt about it quietly now.

But whenever I see a page like this, for a game like this, on a platform like this, where the majority of commenters are in the “interested but unavailable” mode… I do have to wonder why the end user was chosen over others that seemingly show more potential to receive it.

Fair point. Basically, I don't think TIGsource represents their target audience. This is a small blog written for an audience of mostly PC gamers and some console gamers (mostly Xbox Live Arcade). They don't represent the really ridiculously large number of people who own iPads–some of whom are probably interested in a game for that platform that isn't yet another PopCap/Nitrome-style slick'n'shallow casual game.

Also, for better or worse, the iPad represents a kind of user interface that you can't really do on PCs or home consoles. If I was a developer who liked to think of himself as ground-breaking and original, I'd be pretty excited to develop for something like that.

It seems awesome game nontheless.!

Yeah because every iPad owner is a hipster idiot…
and every Wii owner is a soccer mom…
and every 360 owner is an angry kid…
and every PS3 owner is a spoiled rich brat…
and ever PC owner an elitist douchebag…
/Sigh

What a load of bullshit, no PC release?
This is the epitome of the wolf in sheep's clothing that 'app store' gaming truly is.

The site splooges over how excited they are that it will exclusive to iCrap. lol. Way to stand on the shoulder of giants, rip off the coolest of the flash-based indie games, and then make it sound like their unique vision was given to them from God.

Oh wait, sounds just like Steve Jobs, makes sense.

i want this game, but i dont own an ipad, nor have any friends that own one. no iphone/ipad either. oh well. maybe their next game will have a wider (or narrower in a sense?) release? if this was on PC/PS3/360/Wii, i woulda bought the shit outta it!

Not all of the iDevice users are, like several people here said, jerks, brats, rich people or whatever it was they called them…. Those comments were pretty uncalled for. Where exactly is it written that indie devs should exclusively make games for the PC? Same thing with each of the console releases….

Just makes you look whiny, jealous & spoiled yourselves.

I own an iPod Touch. I mainly game on consoles, or the PC for indie titles. I'll be buying this game when it's released for my device. I understand the butthurt, but there ARE people who own iThings who crave the unique and interesting. Most of the games I see are casual and boring or the equivalent of Facebook games.

I am sick sick S-I-C-K of the spammy Twitter updates about this game. If I wanted that sort of thing, I'd hang out on Facebook and read about people's farming prowess.

The game may be good, but the spammy Twitter updates have given me a very, very poor impression of the brand. if you want people to spread the word – do something interesting – make a creative trailer – hell, just make a good game – but don't do spammy tweet functions.

It's your loss in the end.

Sad to see it not released for PC. Would have happily purchased the game.

It's sad to see so many people typing so much bullshit hate. I'm first in line to call the iPad a limited-use gadget, but you platform warriors are missing the point: an indie made a game and people are buying it.

That's what I call victory, no matter what device it comes on.

It's not PC vs everything else. It's indie vs mainstream. It's two guys in a garage vs corporate behemoths and marketing departments. And it's not really about any of that either. It's about games. Pushing the medium forward through vision, experimentation, and risk-taking. Whoever and however and whatever doesn't matter.

I'll never be able to play this unless they port it to something I actually have access to.

no, more like, not every gamer is a rich spoiled brat.

Most gamers who dont have money can't afford Icrap, whereas most people who have Icrap are the classic “i dont care” nobs influenced extremely easily by media and outside pressures, I.E. the average everyday street dummy.

I.E. u are a hipster

Isn't Gamer Entitlement great, folks?

Absolutely fantastic game, and definitely would not translate well to PC. Shame about the egregious sense of entitlement displayed in the comments here. People make the games they want to make for the platforms they want to make them for. Why get so worked up about it?

“It's two guys in a garage vs corporate behemoths”

That's why it was released on Apple devices, right? I can't tell if you're trolling, or just plain retarded.

Apple didn't have any part in making the game. All Apple did was build a device and an app store and give developers access to it. I don't see how that makes two guys (Craig and Jim) and a small indie game company (Capybara Games) corporate behemoths. How are you conflating developers of software with the company that makes the hardware?

Explain it to me, dude who is probably in highschool and has no game credits on his resume. Teach me all about game development, because I must've missed something.

From the trailer it looks nice but empty, nothing more than an evocative slideshow (admittedly made from pretty tasty audio / video). It constantly kept on hinting that it will become really good around the corner, but it seems it never does. Reviews I've read about the game just reinforce my impression.

But I don't own an iDevice anyway and am not a target demographic so it doesn't matter I guess.

You don't have to be rich to buy an iPad and you don't have to be poor to be “normal”.
So how much money has a gamer to spend on being a gamer?
And by gamer do you mean male single 13-26?
Sorry Quaz but you are just using stupid stereotypes.
You should try to see the world, people and products in a broader picture.

Is there any hope for an Android release? Very much like the look of this, like the above posters I would like it on a format I can play it but I can see why it wouldn't work on PC. I too cannot afford an iThingy, but me and most of my friends now have Android phones (UK network operators just throw them at you) so that would be good.

Or do iPhone exclusive games tend to stay exclusive? In which case, maximum sad face.

Much agreed. PC has always had plenty of issues with pirating and wat not. if it weren't for these 'expensive' devices, indie development wouldn't be booming as much as it is now. i'm no apple fanboy, but i certainly don't see the reason for all this useless hate towards a product that's helping improve the indie scene.

Developers are people too – we have to make money somehow, and if going with the current market is going to help us get there, then so be it. it may sound commercial and consumer driven, but it doesn't have to be. who said u can't be passionate about developing something for such an audience purely for the craft and not the cash?

So much bitching and whining from pre-pubescent douche bags. ur a stain to the indie name.

Spaniel> +1, I'll buy it for sure !

Droid port. Droid port!

O.o How come I have never heard of this fantastic looking game!? Damn, I need to pay more attention and stop viewing the porn in my other tab!

While he didn't have a terrible amount of tact in delivery, Quaz does (kinda) have a point.
There are probably three types of people buying iPads:
1) iZombies (all hail lord jobs!)
2) Bored people with extra cash (if you already own a computer, an iPad is going to already do *less* than your existing machine).
3) Teens and people who don't “do” anything. (If you don't have an existing machine, purchasing an iPad only makes sense if your primary activity is facebook or browsing the internet. Tablets are pretty much exclusively for consuming content).

Especially with that big, exposed, vulnerable screen.

I'm curious now. Do you think that everything released for iOS was developed by Apple?

I agree with anon there. I'm a gamer, but I wouldn't consider buying an iPad for gaming, it just doesn't seem like a viable platform. I'd be better off spending that money on a 3DS and a whole bunch of games for that instead of an iPad and one game. While there's probably a decent number of games with iPads the number of gamers with computers is higher.

My parents are over 60 and live in another country. Both have little to no experience with PCs. I call them always via Skype on their phone. Guess what my father asked me last week?
“What about this touchscreen thing from apple? It seems to be easy to use… could I use Skype with it ? I will also need an Internet connection right? 600 EUR seems ok!?”
You see none of the stereotypes applies here. There is a much bigger audience for tablet PCs. It doesn't matter if it is an Android, iOS or whatever platform. People want an easy to use device that has interesting apps, games and so on. They don't want to bother with install CDs, complicated hardware configurations, drivers, security software, defragmentation, administration etc. I applaud Apple for their foresight. Do I agree with their politics? Well not really… there is no perfect company or a perfect device. But calling people that like to use a certain device bored, iTards, iZombies or whatever is just elitist BS.

No Droid release, no PC release, no non-iproduct release at all.
Hm, I wonder if Apple threw some cash their way.
Anybody not outraged over no PC release is completely missing the point, even worse are those of you who accuse the outraged of being selfish or feeling wrongfully entitled. We're not saying don't release your game on the app market, we're saying release your game on desktop platforms too, there is absolutely no reason not to.
Furthermore, nobody is buying iphones or ipads for gaming, if people want to game with a handheld there are superior options available. This current trend of everyone either pretending or being completely mislead into believing the app-market audience is a viable demographic is not only completely deluded, but helping to shape independent game development into a terrible thing.

“…release your game on desktop platforms too, there is absolutely no reason not to.”

Consider the additional redesigning of game mechanics that releasing on different platforms requires. PCs don't come standard with a touchscreen. There are things you can do with them that you just can't do on the PC. Same goes for consoles vs PCs or any other pair of platforms. Depending on the platform, it may take just as much time to port as it did to make the game in the first place. This is a small team. They didn't even put out the iPhone version at the same time.

So when you refer to yourself as outraged, you are effectively mad that they only made one game instead of 2…or 3…or 4 all at once. Seeing Steve Jobs cackling in an alleyway and handing them large bags with dollar signs on them is not a logical conclusion. The much simpler explanation is that they just didn't have the time or resources or interest to spend to make a cross-platform release.

One last thing, this app market hate has got to stop. There are people with wallets there and they pay you in real money, just like anywhere else. Saying app stores are not a viable market is ignorant, disingenuous, or both. App stores are not killing everything. Games for other platforms are still being made. Heck, I hear Nintendo just released a new handheld of some sort. Why would they do that if it Apple was eating everybody's lunch?

“released on apple devices” synonymous with “developed by apple”. These posts are just making me upset now, nobody can be this ridiculously slow.
'Simply pointing out the lunacies in Shypdir's idiotic rant.

Wow. So you really do believe that all iOS apps are developed in-house by Apple?

That's kind of amazing. I'm not sure what to say to that. I thought I was making a joke up there.

I'm trying really hard to be nice and patient with you, but you're wrong. You're as wrong as you could be without coming back around the other side and being right again. I worked in the industry and Microsoft didn't develop our games, they made the hardware the game ran on. Our publisher didn't develop our games, they paid for them and marketed them (and believed in them, etc). We developed our games. There's a whole ecosystem of people that are involved in putting a game out that you're just not understanding. That ecosystem is different depending on what platform(s) the game is for.

I've been snarky because you've called me a bunch of names, but I really do want you to understand. Hell, I want you to understand it, get excited about it, and learn how to make games. I want everybody to at least try it. You're already here, take a lurk around the forums and ask how to get started.

It's up to you: keep posting rude, ignorant things on the internet; or educate yourself and maybe discover a hobby you never knew you'd like. It's one thing to make Mario jump by pressing a button; it's a whole other world to make Mario.

Many people here seem to fail to see that the iDevices, like them or not, are one huge frontier for innovative gameplay design.

That's due to an unique junction of: peculiar input streams (dual touch screens, dynamometers, …), unified *stardardized* hi-quality hardware, easy to use and cheap distribution, different fruition of the product by end users (hand held devices).

So, if you want to personally (or have to) stay out of it, fine, but let Superbrother and others exploit all that, explore new revolutionary possibilities and widen the array of gameplay paradigms as we know them, for the good of all.

I don't quite agree with you on a few points.
It's true that mostly no one buys iWhatever primarily for gaming, but that doesn't mean good games shouldn't be released for iOS. Even exclusive to iOS. As far as I gathered, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP isn't a particularly 'big' game in terms of length or content, and as such I find it to fit perfectly into the overall app market.
They possibly could adapt the mechanic to suit the PC, but as someone else mentioned, that'd take time and more money, and the feeling wouldn't be the same anyway, since this was developed with touch-screen controls from the start (just like playing a DS game on a PC emulator isn't the same as the real thing, for crude example).

If Apple did throw any money at them to make it exclusively for iOS, so what? That doesn't lessen the game's value, in my opinion. Just narrows the public. I could cry till I die for all the games, on all the platforms, indie or mainstream, that I wasn't/won't be able to play in my lifetime. If we were to follow the same reason, 'no reason not to release on desktop platforms' then it'd apply to some bigger games, done by bigger, more experienced teams, with more funding, that never make it to desktop platforms.
Some teams and individuals make games cause they can & like, just for pure pleasure, some want to earn money doing so…. if Apple really did play any role in making this game iOS exclusive in the first place.

Furthermore, I don't think the App market is killing anything. Be it creativity or whatever you wanna call it. If anything, it just gives us another option, with its own limitations to develop games. Just like Nintendo's DS (3DS), or PSP, Wii, PC etc. have their own limitations and challenges. Just let the people make games on whatever system they want – play them if you can, and if you can't, well…. you can't.

True dat. S&S is a game which is designed specifically to the strengths of the device that it is released on. It would not work on a PC. It is not a flash game, it is an entirely new vision of what a game can be, taking full advantage of the differences between the iPad and a PC.

i'm a hipster idiot, and I think this looks awesome.
luckily I have a second-hand iphone, so I'll be able to play it, because I could never afford an ipad. But I would rather play it on computer, if it were released for it.

Then again, the gameplay might not be conducive to PC anyway. If they designed a game around touch hardware, it might make sense to release it on touch hardware.

it's too bad they're ignoring a clearly superior demographic by not releasing it on the system you want them to.

You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple did send the developers some cash to make it exclusive. And so what? Good on them I say. It's not about greed and selling out, it's about staying alive in a cut-throat industry. They obviously chose the path they thought best. These two guys spent a lot of time and energy making a game with love and want to be rewarded for their work. What's wrong with that? Do they somehow 'owe' PC gamers something?
Gamer entitlement indeed!
I will buy it on my touch when it comes out.

What a bunch of whining babies.

“Nobody plays games on the iPad! The iPad sucks for games”
“Oh noes, the iPad now has exclusive games designed for it that I want to play!”

They even have the nerve to charge ACTUAL CASH MONEY for you to play it! Outrageous!

rather than mudslinging could we agree it would be nice to see this on other platforms?

somehow i dont see that sort of payment matching the sales they would find on other platforms.

unless it uses multitouch, i dont see how you can claim that

some people might find they cannot justify buying a new system just for an exclusive or two they are interested in. I would never buy an iPad because i am keenly aware that i have no need for such a device. if s&s comes out for nothing else, it will be a shame both because some of us wont buy an ipad just to play it, and because superbrothers would be losing those potential sales

The same argument could equally be applied to any platform.

If the iPad gains enough exclusive games that you are interested in, at some point you may find yourself wanting one after all. It's just the same as buying a PS3 or anything else that has exclusives. You know, if you never bought a Dreamcast, then that's a shame too, because there are some excellent games on the Dreamcast.

As to whether Superbrothers feels like it's worth porting a game over to a system that might not actually be appropriate for it, which may not attract so many sales and is likely to see a significant amount of piracy, I guess is entirely up to Superbrothers.

It's really no different to moaning about how Nintendo haven't released the new Pilotwings game on the PC. (Ok, so it's a little bit different since Nintendo also own the device, so of course they would never – but from the consumer's point of view it's the same deal).

Sure, I guess so. But it's also nice to see developers fully commit themselves to one platform in order to make full use of its particular featureset, sometimes.

Maybe an Android port would be more appropriate.

It does use multitouch. I've played it. It doesn't use it a lot so far, but it does use it.

It seems more reasonable to purchase multiple consoles than it is to purchase multiple tablets or multiple phones. Home consoles can all sit on the same shelf, but portable hardware all competes for the same space in my pocket or bag.

I don't know if there's any cross-platform way to make games for Android and iOS, but if there is I hope it becomes more popular because the game situation on Android really kind of sucks now.

Heh, you don't have to carry them all around at the same time! I have a whole stack of different handhelds; they all sit on the shelf too :)

As for cross-platform compiling, well it's only just come out last month, so it's still a bit green, but I have started playing around with Monkey (http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz) which cross-compiles to Android, iOS, Flash, HTML5, Win & Mac (via openGL) and XNA (Windows & Xbox 360). Needless to say, that's pretty cool.

Now that you mention it, I've got a pile of old handheld gaming devices too.

But…I dunno, it just seems different today. I've got a Droid, a ThinkPad, and a Kindle all competing for space in my bag. Carrying a dedicated gaming device like a 3DS or an iPod Touch doesn't make anywhere near as much sense to me as it did a decade ago.

It might just be that I'm old. ;-)

Everyone has a point here, pro i and contra i. The truth it's a pity Android has little good games, and everybody innovating prefer to go to i. Such a pity, because Android has flash and usb, (today flash is indispensable for a gamer).

I don't know what you're going on about – your parents clearly fall into category 3 (pure content consumers who don't really need a computer to “do” anything).

Furthermore, I am not implicating that all consumers of Apple products are “iZombies” – but it would be silly to suggest that there are not Apple fanboys who will purchase any and every Apple product – they are “iZombies”. While a pejorative may be unnecessary it is really just trying to capture the specific sect of fanboyism with an apt moniker.

It's pretty and all but I'm not gonna throw down several hundred to buy a repurposed tablet pc with a shitty operating system and gimmicky features just to play something that looks like the equivalent of a flash game. It think going for an ipad release is just bad business, I mean, look at the thread. Look how many people are complaining because they don't have an ipad but want to play this. Look how many people actually have an ipad here, it's like 2 out of 70 people.

They may have gotten some sweet kickback money out of apple, but I doubt it would equal the money they could have gotten selling this for pc. Notch is up to what, 33 million now? If he released for ipad we would never have heard of him. ipad just seems like way to limited a market to be a sound business market.

As per problems with interface, I'm not seeing it. True, I don't have a touch screen on my pc, but I have the thing the touch screen is a less effective imitation of : a mouse. I can point and click just as well as you can point and poke. As for rotating the screen or something, why not just bind that to a key? Press F to flip the screen. As far as I'm aware of the ipad doesn't have any features which couldn't be replicated on a pc release with a little bit of work.

I dunno, I don't feel entitled to this game or anything, and I don't even feel like I'm really missing out on much as it is, but I worry that Superbrothers is putting a lot of time and effort into an exclusive console game that simply won't reach the markets they want it to. I mean, pc gaming is the backbone of the indie gaming world, no where else is it so prevalent, profitable or established. Leaving these safe and bountiful waters for the relative dead sea of the ipad just seems like a voyage destined for tragedy.

Yeah because bitchy indie game fans who complain about *anything* not being on the PC, and complain whenever something isn't given away for free for that matter, are such a lucrative market. Yessir, if you want to get rich you should definitely target the TIGsource community. That's why nobody is making iOS games, because the PC game market is so much more profitable.

Oh wait, no, *everybody* is making iOS games. I wonder why they would choose to publish their games in such a dead sea. Oops, wait again, the iPad is predicted to sell 28 million units this year.

Sure, I know, your average typical PC game like Minecraft sells way more than 28 million units, which is why most people who release indie PC games are multi-millionaires. But occasionally, an indie game released on iOS, like say Angry Birds, does reasonably okay too, so it's not completely impossible to make at least a little bit of money on iOS. I mean, it's nothing compared to the fortune most PC game developers rake in, but you could live on it.

But yeah, I suppose Superbrothers could have chosen to sell out and release on the PC and become rich like everybody else. As you say, they could have just added key bindings instead of using the tilt controls. And if the game uses multi-touch, well, you can always plug in a second mouse for that. But perhaps they wouldn't have gotten so much attention if it was a PC game anyway. After all, it just looks like a Flash game, whatever that means.

“iOS installed base will be at least 250 million by the end of 2011 if current iOS sales rates stay the same. However, iOS sales rates have been doubling every year so this figure is enormously conservative.”

http://www.mobilebusinessbrief…

I believe Minecraft is coming to iOS and Android:
http://kotaku.com/#!5766336/of…

I have to wonder–won't the Redstone switches count as an license-violating “interpreter” ;)

Lots of folks have made money on iOS, and the platform does have some technical advantages over others.

But I would never release anything on iOS, game or otherwise. I never want to be in a position where my income is dependent on Apple's arbitrary app store decisions. iOS is like Singapore–everything is beautiful, clean, functional, but step out of line or speak out of turn and you're gonna get caned. iOS might be a place where indies can make money, but it's no place for indie culture.

i bought an iPod Touch just for gaming. You have been proven wrong. And yes, JUST for gaming. I already owned a perfectly suitable (and, in many ways, superior) mp3 player. I just wanted access to the Touch games.

I already own every other system I can think of save the PSP and Nintendo's new 3DS. So why not buy it if there are games I want to play on it?

“most people who release indie PC games are multi-millionaires”

You, sir, are hilarious. +1 internets to you.

Yes, I do understand, but just because you don't see it doesn't make it not so. Maybe apple really did make it worth their while. Like I said, the brothers made a certain choice with all the information they had, which we don't have. Clearly it was in their best interest to do it that way. And perhaps money is not 100% of their goal.

1. Number of ipads sold=/= specific game sales. You can tell me how well that scavenged tablet pc is doing till you're blue in the face, but that doesn't equate to game sales.

2. Angry birds, along with 99% of the iOS market of games are just time wasting programs themed a round a single concept, ie hit shit with birds, cut fruit, drop candy in a lizard's mouth etc. It's casual games, the kind of pop-cap shit that is ruining the indie scene by transforming it into a gimmick extravaganza. S&S certainly doesn't seem to fit into that category though, so chances are it won't sell well because it's not what the iOS market seems to want. I hope I'm wrong and it brings some actual value to the iOS game market, but something tells me the hipsters, business men, and causal gaming moms that use “angry birds” to while away 10 minutes waiting for the bus won't like an un-ironic adventure game.

3. Note that I never said that PC game makers all got rich, but it's certainly easier to get known when you're selling for a console that almost everyone has. I may not have a ipad, or whatever 10 year old technology apple is pushing currently, but I have a pc, as does practically everyone else.

4. Why not release across multiple platforms? The only reason why this is ipad exclusive is because they decided to make it that way. It doesn't need any of the gimmicky actions they added to make use of the ipad's technology any more then killzone 3 needed to make use of the Playstation Move. Release on multiple platforms and you'll get all that glorious ipad money as well as all the pc cred.

5.When it comes right down to it, the Ipad is not a serious gaming console any more then any cell phone is. Why? Because it is neither marketed nor designed as one. When you want to buy a gaming system, do you think “oh, I'll get an ipad”? No, you don't. The games on the ipad are just extras. It's graphics trail the Wii, it's top selling games are just reiterations of the same tired flash games which clog the Internet (angry birds is just a physics building destroyer, Medieval is a lack luster and shallow 2d rts, pinball is fucking pinball, and sudoku is just sadoku), and it lacks the sophistication of control or power to create really in depth or complex programs. Not to mention that the iOS market and Apple in general are not friendly to indie developers. Face it, ipad may get games, may even get some good ones, but it will never rise to the level of consoles built with gaming in mind, or meet the versatility of a good desktop pc.

Also, replying to people in a snide manner like you did, only reinforces the stereotype that all ipad owners are insufferable pricks.

I'm not even an iPad owner, and I couldn't care less about reinforcing your prejudices (based, as far as I can tell, on no hard evidence whatsoever, just your own feelings about how things are, speculating on sales figures you don't have for a game you haven't played for a market you haven't researched).

Talking about “serious gaming platforms” is a joke. The Kindle is the furthest thing imaginable from a “serious gaming platform”, but there are still people who make a tidy living making games for it. Who cares whether you think it's a serious platform or not? Not these developers, or their customers. No need to fly into a nerd rage any time somebody develops something you might want to play on a platform you don't own.

Also, your points 1 and 3 contradict each other.