4 ms·
So a game controller is a (rather terrible) mouse? Who said anything about a mouse? I haven't use a mouse to interact with my computer (out side of games) in y
by tstrimple 13y ago
So a game controller is a (rather terrible) mouse?
Who said anything about a mouse? I haven't use a mouse to interact with my computer (out side of games) in years. Windows 8 "modern" apps are designed to work well in touch environments, and they succeed at that. And yes, there is a lot of overlap between how you use a touchscreen device and how you use a controller. Many UX concepts are the same when using either input method.
This information density thing comes up a lot, with absolutely nothing to demonstrate or prove it.
Perhaps we have a different definition of information density. The Windows Phone home screens can provide you with a lot of information without launching a single app. iOS provides a wall of icons to launch apps. Android has widgets, and some of them are beautiful and work well. Live tiles are much more consistent though and trivial to add to your application which means they are included more often.
XNA Studio is yet another example of unifying technologies in poorly considered ways, and that alone close to killed independent game creation on the Xbox.
No, Microsoft policies and practices are what almost killed independent game creation on the Xbox. XNA was a great engine for building games and that should be evident by the interest and support around MonoGame. MonoGame is probably the best engine to build a cross platform game at this point. Using MonoGame you can support iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Linux, Windows 8 Store, Windows Phone 8, PlayStation Mobile, and OUYA. I wouldn't be surprised if Xbox One and Playstation 4 were added to that list soon.
Hell, they care more about abstractions that make it easier to port between the Xbox One and PS4, and eventually to iOS and Android.
The abstractions already exist for iOS and Android. Using Xamarin you can use C# to build apps for iOS, Android, Windows (desktop and mobile) and OS X. As I said above, MonoGame will likely fill a gap enabling you to write a game that targets both PS4 and Xbox One. Granted, AAA titles aren't going to be interested in MonoGame because they are trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the system, but it's a fantastic option for more causal or indie games.