iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [61]
The online marketplace
One thing the Internet has done for us is to virtually collapse space and distance between people all around the world. So even though car dealerships have to be physically in the same area to compete with each other, people who create digital goods do not. The Internet has made us all a world of virtual neighbors.
In some ways this is what made the App Store possible, and over time we will see other digital marketplaces appear. We are already starting to see this shift occur. Instead of going to a brick-and-mortar store to buy music, we can buy music online through services like iTunes. While there are many online marketplaces that target the average consumer, there are some that iPhone developers should take note of.
Open Clip Art Library
The Open Clip Art Library (http://openclipartorg) offers an archive of free clip art for any use. There are nearly 10,000 public domain clip art files available on this Web site. There are many ways you can look for the right piece of clip art; for example, you can browse the clip art by tag, by date, or by artist. You can, of course, search the clip art, and there is an advanced search option. There is even a “request a clip art” option that you can use to look for a specific piece of clip art. You can download an archive of many of the library's clip art as a large zip file.
Depending on your game's goals, you may be able to find many of the graphics you need on this single site. Some of the library's most popular categories are animals, cartoons, people, plants, and icons. Sometimes a little creativity will take you a long way. Instead of coming up with the perfect game idea and then trying to find the perfect clip art, consider finding some clip art you really like and then coming up with the perfect game in which to use it. This kind of brainstorming can really open up some new opportunities.
The clip art you see in Figures 5.1 and 5.2 is from an RPG Map collection, which includes over 50 drawings created by Nicu Buculei. We really like the look and feel of all the items in the collection. We also like the fact that you get both a colored version of the buildings and a non-colored blueprint version of the buildings. These would be perfect to create many different games.
FIGURE 5.1
Fantasy RPG buildings, blueprint style
FIGURE 5.2
Fantasy RPG buildings, standard style
Puzzle game
The player sees a 4 x 6 grid of square cards, facedown. The cards are on a table with a nice wood-texture background. The backs of the cards have a medieval fantasy graphic, perhaps a crossed pair of swords or a knight's shield. The player chooses two cards and the selected cards rotate into view. On the front of each card there is a random image from the RPG Map collection that can be seen when selected. The player's goal is to match all of the pairs of cards in as little time as possible.
The game should have a high score feature based on best time. This could be loaded with a default score for new players. The game should take the best time and display it during play at the top of the screen as a countdown. This way the player can effectively race against the current best player, providing additional challenge and bragging rights. When a player makes a correct match, consider playing a reward sound such as a trumpet fanfare and having the matching cards fade away.
When the player makes an incorrect match, you could play the sound of a crowd jeering and heckling someone. (We discuss creating sounds later in this chapter.) Since there are two sets of RPG buildings, you could have the cards start with the blueprint style and then have the normal style come into full view. This would create a great animation that your players would enjoy. Check out Figure 5.3 to see a mock-up of the user interface.
Real-time strategy game
Real-time strategy games have become extremely popular, and it is reasonable to expect that this type of game would do very well on the App Store. Real-time strategy games are very complex