and then you go through the top paid games just to find… the same top paid games from the last decade. Nothing of value is being created or getting recognition
Comment on Anon checks out mobile gaming
Paranomaly@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
This really upsets me and periodically bums me out. I used to like trawling through the top lists to see the various games that were on mobile. This is back in like 2011-2013. Typically monetization was either a free/premium version split, or an energy system. Now it’s beyond 99% garbage with 99% of the last 1% being ports. The 1 of 1? Slice and Dice, that game rocks.
StreetCash@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
There could be a vicious cycle where game devs who want to be taken seriously don’t touch mobile games, so as mobile game devs develop skills and experience, they move away from the platform.
Also a lot of the thick frameworks that many devs rely on these days require a lot of computing resources that maybe mobile devices have trouble keeping up with. I could see scenarios where a mobile game is worked on for a while but abandoned due to awful performance in early testing while a similar desktop game doesn’t get killed because it’s being developed on a high end system and later gets optimized to run better on weaker systems.
Though tbh, I have no idea how top phones compare with high end desktops these days and am just assuming that they are way behind, while low end desktops might be more comparable to high end phones for performance.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
I suspect that most of it comes down to passive cooling, most phones dont have active cooling systems like fans so even if it has decent specs its gonna bottleneck rather rapidly.
13esq@lemmy.world 3 months ago
There were brilliant games from the 80’s and 90’s that ran on comparatively primitive machines.
I understand that many people think good graphics = good game and vice versa but I think a interesting story, novel puzzles or original concepts are so much more important than how real a game looks.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 5 months ago
I’ve not seen hard numbers but it really seems a high end phone is pretty comparable to a low end laptop performance-wise these days. Both do a great job of displaying webpages, playing web video and can kinda crunch through an optimized enough video game at a low enough resolution
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Same. I used to play a number of games, and even paid for a few, but the gems are just too hard to find these days.
So now I pretty much never play games on my phone, which does a few things:
- phone battery lasts a lot longer
- my time on my phone is more productive
- I use a lot less data, so I pay less for my plan
- I don’t need flagship phones (not a photographer)
So now I mostly use my phone for:
- phone things (calls and texts)
- audiobooks
- news
- videos - I restrict myself to downloaded videos to help reduce wasted time
I have a Switch and Steam Deck, and quality game selection is much better there anyway.
blindbunny@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Inb4 Gaben announces the SteamPhone
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
That could honestly be cool. If he could get calls and texts to work on SteamOS, I’d probably buy it.
Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
I would bet they add steam phone to the steam deck instead. Would be something new and with everyone just having wireless earbuds it could work.
DragonOracleIX@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
The only games I ever have on my phone now are gachas and paid for games.
Also, I agree that Slice and Dice is awesome. I got the itch version which came with both android and linux versions.
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Slice and dice, magic research (2), Simon tathams puzzle pack, Bart Bontes color series, unciv, pathpix, pirates outlaws…
There isn’t only ports and garbage, you just need to go deeper than the front page (and not ever browse by “free”)
flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
There’s also a good loop hero port
sicarius@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The hours I’ve sunk into slice and dice! That game rocks!
ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yup! I wanted Slay the Spire, but the port is awful and this fills that void.
meliaesc@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The port is fantastic, have you used it since the initial round of upsates?
ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Wait when? The latest experience I had was interminable loading on start and constant save wipes.
Vent@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I bought Slice & Dice after reading this comment and others in this thread and yeah, it’s pretty great. Thanks for the recommendation!
JokeDeity@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
God damnit… Slice and Dice really is good. I end up coming back to it to waste time a lot.