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Demiforce Releases "Trism", New Game for iPhone, iPod Touch

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Sat Mar 01, 2008 03:02 PM
from the simple-distractions-sometimes-the-best dept.
Handhelds Puzzle Games (Games) Hardware
Game Set Watch is showcasing an interesting homebrew game called Trism from semi-pro developer Demiforce. The new game is designed to take advantage of the accelerometer in the iPhone and iPod Touch. While making use of this feature isn't new, this game certainly is pretty high on the simplicity and neat-factor scales. In addition to details about the game the site is also featuring a short interview with the developer.
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Demiforce Releases "Trism", New Game for iPhone, iPod Touch 25 Comments More /

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  • Ho hum (Score:3, Funny)

    by carcosa30 (235579) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:08PM (#22610942)
    Imagine that, a casual puzzle game! We don't have nearly enough of these, please write more. What a great use of new technology.

    • Re:Ho hum (Score:5, Insightful)

      by chunk08 (1229574) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:31PM (#22611082) Journal
      Actually, if I had the cash for an iPhone, I would love to play that game. People think puzzle games are simplistic, until they actually start playing them. Puzzles develop your brain (which is the ultimate goal of many geeks, I would imagine.) I love any game where you have to think. Monopoly, Tetris, frvade (www.frvade.com), baseball (yes, the real sport). No, there actually aren't that many original games. Just a whole bunch of clones. This actually looks innovative.
      • Innovative it may be, but the problem space in puzzle games is tiny. When I see the extents of a problem space in a game like that, I'm no longer interested in playing. Multiplayer games are the only ones I'm typically interested in these days, any other kind just seems boring and incredibly lonely.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Brama (80257)
      Remember, its game play has been patented too by the author, as he mentions @2:25 in the interview.

      So much for innovation. Let's show the prior art (tilt sensor games, anyone?)
  • He says it requires a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch and that he wants to sell it via iTunes. Do you think Apple will let folks sell things on iTunes with those kinds of system requirements?

    • Re:I wonder (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rdradar (1110795) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:28PM (#22611062)
      It oblivously doesnt need to be jailbroken when sold via itunes.

    • Re:I wonder (Score:4, Informative)

      by 0100010001010011 (652467) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:29PM (#22611074)
      ...However, as soon as the official iPhone SDK comes out next month, I plan on porting it over to that framework. I would love to get this thing on iTunes as early as possible...

      He's going to wait until the SDK becomes available and then sell it via iTunes, which is how most people are thinking Apple is going to 'release' 3rd party apps.
      • Will he like the pay that he will get from it?

        apple may sell it a $7.99 but only give him $1-$2 and keep the rest. They may also may try to force you pay for any app. So people may still have to hack there phones to get the free apps.

  • iPhone could be a great innovative game platform (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RalphBNumbers (655475) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:25PM (#22611046)
    With a nice big multi-touch screen, 3d accelerometers, proximity sensors, cameras, mics, positioning via wifi/cellular beacons, etc... all in a nice compact form factor, the iPhone and iPod Touch have the hardware to try a lot of really innovative and interesting things in terms of user interface and gaming. I've been looking forward to playing with that stuff since day it was announced last year.

    I just hope the SDK Apple is introducing next thursday is reasonably complete and uncrippled.

    Nintendo's Wii and DS have proved that unconventional control systems and innovative casual games can provide a lot of fun, and make a lot of money. By taking the next step down that road, Apple has the opportunity to finally make it big in gaming (after neglecting, and being neglected by, that market for years and years). It would be a real shame if they dropped the ball.
    • I don't know, it sounds like Apple is going to be nazis about distribution of third party apps...sure there will be ways around it, but I'm looking forward to the freedom of Android. Also, there will be some touchscreen/accelerometer Android devices I'm sure...

  • Waitasec.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Creepy Crawler (680178) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:27PM (#22611056)
    Is this the same guy/group that did the NES translations of Mother and FF2 and 3?

    If it is.. Damn ;) It'll be quality.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by radimvice (762083)
      yup, he sure is the same demi...i remember he developed a pretty cool homebrew Game Boy Color puzzle game back in the day, glad to see he's still at it.
    • Yeah, and he doesn't care about their IP rights, but he was first in line to snatch up a patent on this crap.

  • The game is NOT released yet (Score:5, Informative)

    by mcg1969 (237263) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:42PM (#22611120)
    All that has been released is a video demo-ing the game. If you go to the Demiforce [demiforce.com] web site you will see that the game itself has not yet been released.
  • .. what they're going to call the Japanese port?

  • Patented game design? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by radimvice (762083) on Saturday March 01 2008, @03:45PM (#22611136) Homepage
    The video mentions that he has 'applied for a patent on the gameplay'. Is this a necessary step these days for independent/homebrew developers, so that their new ideas aren't simply snatched up by the big guys for their own benefit? Or is this move something that should be discouraged in the indie scene?
    • It's something that should be discouraged throughout the entire software industry.
    • This guy did homebrew translations of several japanese-only nes games--I hope he gets sued for that as some sort of poetic justice for patenting this new game concept.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by xenocide2 (231786)
        As an afficianando of both the scene and free software, I have to say it's conflicting. On the one hand, many people, Demi included, have taken wonderful games like Picross and made something similar [parodius.com]. On the other hand, I recall hearing that shopping Drymouth around to publishers eventually wound up getting him screwed as someone basically took the work for free, so I can see why he'd take a new approach this time around. (I could be remembering a different guy's troubles, but the scene was small enough tha
    • Remember those movies shot in Austin by Richard Linklater called "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly?" They used a proprietary software tool called "RotoShop" which was developed in Austin by a guy named Bob Sabastien [wikipedia.org]. He patented the technique.

      Had he not patented it, the technique would have been easily mimicked by Adobe and sold as a Premiere plugin. Then the technique would show up all over the place and get over-exposed. Bob's patent ensures that it will appear only in limited use (Charles Schwab comme

  • news that matters? (Score:3, Funny)

    by nguy (1207026) on Saturday March 01 2008, @05:11PM (#22611580)
    And this matters? What's next? Steve Jobs farted, news at 11?

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