Today was a momentous day for Apple, in which the company went beyond the expected and revealed a handful of its known quantities with sizable improvements and new features. Among the products revealed was the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus with some notable improvements, like a much faster GPU and double the RAM of the previous model. These phones will also debut an improvement on touch feedback called 3D Touch and for video games, it could be a major step forward.
To put it simply, 3D Touch allows the iPhone to measure touches based on force. The phone, as well as various apps, will take different actions depending on whether users lightly tap, tap as normal, or forcefully tap part of the screen. This kind of tactile feedback is a huge boost for phones and accessing shortcuts. But imagine the gaming possibilities this opens up.
Imagine game mechanics that are centered around "peek" and "pop." With more action, RPG, and puzzle games utilizing the idea of stealth or clandestine movements, having the ability to measure force and sensitivity opens the door to further immersion. Consider some of the scenarios that are now on the table. Think about a horror game, in which the environment reacts accordingly to forceful movements. Open a door too hard and watch a monster react by going straight for the face. Consider the idea of sneaking around a facility, using light taps to sneak around, but heavy taps to take out a guard.
But stealth is just the beginning. How about sports? Imagine a soccer or tennis game, where a ball travels a certain distance based on how forcefully the ball is hit. Platforming? Jumping strength and distance can be controlled based on the strength of a user's tap. A shooter? Taps can let users alternate between rapid fire and burst fire.
It may be easy to dismiss 3D Touch because it's on an iPhone and there's a large sector of the gaming public that does not take mobile gaming seriously. That's fair enough, but what happens when this technology goes beyond Apple's hands. Imagine any of the big console giants making use of this or similar technology? Imagine Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo putting a twist on this tech for a future console. To a certain degree, all of them have tried to get into touch mechanics in some fashion, with the DualShock 4 touchpad and the Wii U GamePad as primary examples. What if the tech was there for peripherals like those to offer tactile feedback?
Such an idea opens the door to a slew of creative developers, first-party and beyond, to either rejuvenate some of their established franchises or create entirely new ones. It may take years for developers to master this idea. After all, it's a new technology that developers are largely unfamiliar with. It's a new frontier. But with years of seasoning, developers have the potential to take their games to new heights. Even PC gaming can get in on this idea. Think of a PC gaming world where a mouse has 3D Touch tech instituted in it, allowing for a slew of PC gaming developers to institute it into their games.
Even if 3D Touch in the iPhone itself doesn't revolutionize gaming, there's a good chance that the technology itself will lead to something huge in the coming years. What starts off modestly in the mobile gaming space has the potential to seriously change PC and console gaming for the better in the future. While it may not be like virtual reality, in terms of pure immersion, it does have the potential to create some new and interesting gaming scenarios, some that would not have been feasible a year ago. So even if the first few iOS games to take advantage of 3D Touch tech may not be the highest quality, the technology itself is definitely something worth monitoring in the coming years.
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Shacknews
replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Opinion: The iPhone 6S' 3D Touch Could Potentially Change Gaming As We Know It
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Counterpoint: The original Xbox had pressure-sensitive face buttons. Gamers were continually getting the wrong pressure on accident. Only a couple of games ended up using them, including "Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball."
Mind you, that was a controller, not a touch screen, but those buttons had travel. How finicky is this going to be on a flat screen with no travel?-
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The Dualshock 3 (PS3) also had them. Sony finally did away with them for the Dualshock 4. I know the Gran Turismo series used them, but I always just switched to L2/R2 for gas/brake.
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When we play games we are interested in timing in the first instance. Small buttons with short throw being manipulated by a thumb which is good at holding objects at different force but incredibly bad at moving at a constant speed with different force.
When you try to push down with your thumb at different forces you will find that you dramatically change your action speed. -
I remember trying to use that in DOA2, it was fucking impossible
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Ahhh, DOAXVB. Lovely Hitomi, my sweet Irish Rose.
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Mobile gaming and immersion? Eh.
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It's not meaningless. I rather wonder how you distinguish immersion and addiction.
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immersion: deep mental involvement in an activity (so, you can do that with basically any game FFS, hence it's a completely meaningless and overused word in the industry and 90% of game press releases)
addiction: enthusiastic devotion or dependence on an activity or substance (immersion might lead to it but strictly speaking it's a deeply formed habit or even addiction to endorphins e.g. the thrill of repeated frags)
Engagement versus dependence, pretty distinct IMO.
When it comes to games, I think you can have a brilliant story-driven game that you're immersed in but not addicted to (I rarely replay single player games), as well as a grindy MMO with lots of little rewards that trigger steady bursts of excitement and self-satisfaction but you're not heavily immersed in the world or story, it's just a compulsive habit.-
Good one. So are people immersed in their smart phones?
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That's why I'm saying that immersion does not simply mean focusing on something or being distracted. It means something else in gaming IMO.
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As in, in virtual reality and gaming I'd say it's closer to presence than the original definition.
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Go home Shacknews, you're drunk
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Candy Crush Saga: Sore Thumbs Edition.
Pressure sensitive touch input for mobile games will be a gimmick. The reason many like mobile games is because of their "casual simplicity." Tap around the screen to progress. For mobile gaming to be deemed anything but casual, it doesn't need more complex controls, it needs better controls. -
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