Apple Texas Hold'em

[retroneo]

Apple has released Texas Hold'em along with the Remote Application.

Immersive first person and top down gameplay.
WiFi up to 9 players
Visually stunning graphics
Accelerometer support

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284602850&mt=8


49 minutes till iPhone launch in New Zealand....

 

[dboss777]

a video made by me
[url]http://daco77.free.fr/pokeriphone.avi[/URL]

 

[retroneo]

So these rumours were true:

https://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/05/20060527015327.shtml

Gamespot claims that according to a recruiter they have been in contact with, Apple has been heavily recruiting under the iTunes division for "C/C++ coders with a 'gaming background.'"

The exact project planned is reportedly "super secret" with no details provided to the engineer.

Apple's hiring manager is reportedly Mike Lampell, a game developer/director who had been laid off from LucasArts in August 2004. Gamespot was unable to verify Lampell's current employment location. Based on these details, Gamespot speculates that Apple may be serious about game research and development.

Apple has previously been known to be recruiting for OpenGL programmers to optimize the Mac OS X's 3d graphics implementation. Meanwhile, other job postings indicated that Apple was recruiting specifically for 2D/3D graphics programmers with ARM7 RISC (iPod) processor experience. This job listing triggered speculation that Apple was working on more iPod-specific games.

 

[grazzyman]

Monkey Island on the iPhone...now that would be good! Lucasarts made some brilliant games of that type....let's hope!

 

[kwjohns]

a video made by me
[url]http://daco77.free.fr/pokeriphone.avi[/URL]

You should post that to vimeo or something. Going to take over an hour to d/l.

 

[rglatter]

when it says wifi for up to 9 players, do you think that means local wifi players, or over the internet wifi players? It would be really cool if it was over the internet like poker stars style.

 

[SirOmega]

I spent three months developing a Texas Hold'em game myself for the iPhone, so to be kept out of the launch (I'm not one of the 4000) and then see Apple release their own Hold'em pisses me off something fierce.

Its tough to want to finish it if I have to give it away for free to compete.

And yes, I pretty much have to give it away, because who would you buy from? Either Apple, Inc. or some no-name indie developer.

 

[plumbingandtech]

I spent three months developing a Texas Hold'em game myself for the iPhone, so to be kept out of the launch (I'm not one of the 4000) and then see Apple release their own Hold'em pisses me off something fierce.

Its tough to want to finish it if I have to give it away for free to compete.

And it never struck you that the idea was not very unique and that there would prob. be multiple card games on launch? (and didn't apple have a card game for the iPod?)

 

[SirOmega]

And it never struck you that the idea was not very unique and that there would prob. be multiple card games on launch? (and didn't apple have a card game for the iPod?)

Yea, but I figured if I was a part of Launch it wouldn't be a big deal in that I could get something for my efforts.

But I guess thats where things went south. I wasn't figuring that Apple would be so stingy with the dev certs and that I wouldn't have had to compete directly against them with the same game.

And there were some Hold'em games for the iPod 5G, but I dont think Apple made one.

 

[ConAim]

OMG, This seem to be an UNFAIR practice from Apple. I bet 10/1 that they will reject your App rite at the door when you submiting it. Better get ready to go to Jail.....

 

[plumbingandtech]

OMG, This seem to be an UNFAIR practice from Apple. I bet 10/1 that they will reject your App rite at the door when you submiting it. Better get ready to go to Jail.....

And you would lose that bet as there other card games on the store.

 

[ConAim]

Ofcouse "other card game" is allowan, but do you see any "other Poker multiplayer card game"?

 

[kwjohns]

I spent three months developing a Texas Hold'em game myself for the iPhone, so to be kept out of the launch (I'm not one of the 4000) and then see Apple release their own Hold'em pisses me off something fierce.

Its tough to want to finish it if I have to give it away for free to compete.

And yes, I pretty much have to give it away, because who would you buy from? Either Apple, Inc. or some no-name indie developer.

I think people will buy the better game.

 

[SirOmega]

I think people will buy the better game.

But you dont know which one is the better game until you buy them.

And if your choice is Apple, Inc. or Brand X for the same price, which one are you going to pick?

 

[plumbingandtech]

Ofcouse "other card game" is allowan, but do you see any "other Poker multiplayer card game"?

You are kidding right?

You do know about monopoly laws right?

You are saying apple would risk a class action lawsuit costing them millions just so they can have the exclusive on texas multiple player hold 'em.

 

[SirOmega]

At first I thought ConAim's post was sarcastic. But apparently not...

 

[plumbingandtech]

SirOmega.

What about your poker game but changing the characters to a "space casino" theme. With aliens for players and maybe some spin on poker like "High Andromeda Draw" or "Saturn Rules in effect"

Just tossing it out there. Sounds like you have the core almost done, you could set yourself apart by doing something like just changing the art and some rules and you may have a whole new game on your hands!

 

[Farani]

If this WiFi multiplayer turns out to be able to play people other than just on your own network, I'll definitely be picking it up. That's what I was hoping for... online multiplayer gaming over a network.

 

[SirOmega]

Thats a good suggestion, and I definitely appreciate the help.

I guess I'm kind of gun shy right now about diving back in. I'm leaning towards waiting until I get my developer cert at this point before starting up again. I could have a few more of my ideas pop up on the AppStore between now and then and I really don't want to have to go through this again... especially if I pay another $1,500+ to get more artwork done (I'm a developer not an artist, and all the art I had for my game is either going to have to be repurposed or scrapped and I eat the loss). Or if nothing else, the "rules" get written and nothing else and I have to stick the art in at the last minute (though I need to give my artist some lead time).

I still have two other game ideas in the pipeline in various states (though for those games I need to learn OpenGL - for the Hold'em game I made I actually did it all in 2D/UIView/UIController stuff. The game performed just fine, and I had a few animations thrown in).

 

[ConAim]

I can feel your pain man. In fact, my friend is also working on a Poker game like this on iPhone and no way that a developer like you can compete with this. It just like competing against Window Media Player + Windows, but much more strict platform. Yes, it's monopoly and it does risk a lawsuit, but does big players like Apple, Microsoft give it up?

 

[Shot22]

I can feel your pain man. In fact, my friend is also working on a Poker game like this on iPhone and no way that a developer like you can compete with this. It just like competing against Window Media Player + Windows, but much more strict platform. Yes, it's monopoly and it does risk a lawsuit, but does big players like Apple, Microsoft give it up?

Umm....Apple doesn't have the only Texas Hold'em app in the App Store. I've been able to find at least two more. So, I'm not quite sold on the idea that Apple is trying to eliminate competition for the Texas Hold'em game.

 

[madmaxmedia]

If this WiFi multiplayer turns out to be able to play people other than just on your own network, I'll definitely be picking it up. That's what I was hoping for... online multiplayer gaming over a network.

If Apple's multiplayer is only over a local network, then this could be a great differentiator for a 3rd party poker game- online play over the internet.

 

[SirOmega]

If Apple's multiplayer is only over a local network, then this could be a great differentiator for a 3rd party poker game- online play over the internet.

Yea, one of the ideas I'm thinking about is trying to partner with an online poker website - I'd basically sell them my app for them to integrate. Its likely though, that most of the free online poker sites have already applied and are making a game themselves and are just another one of the 21,000 developers who have applied but are not yet accepted.

 

[kwjohns]

But you dont know which one is the better game until you buy them.

And if your choice is Apple, Inc. or Brand X for the same price, which one are you going to pick?

Reviews????

 

[madmaxmedia]

Yea, one of the ideas I'm thinking about is trying to partner with an online poker website - I'd basically sell them my app for them to integrate. Its likely though, that most of the free online poker sites have already applied and are making a game themselves and are just another one of the 21,000 developers who have applied but are not yet accepted.

Perhaps, but you never know. It's pretty early in the game. I think it's a big plus that you basically have a game engine already developed.

Even if you couldn't find an online partner, an iPhone poker game that allowed you to play with other iPhone poker gamers would be cool. There'd be a whole 'nother level of development with the online system, if you wanted to go as far as having buddy lists, occasional tournaments, etc. But there's probably a lot of ideas you could brainstorm.

You could also give away the game for free for say a month, just to drive up the user base. Then after that you could charge a nominal fee, the idea being that it would then be worth it because you could find a lot of people online to play against.

Was your project originally designed to be player vs. computer, or player vs. player?