tl;dr upfront: We’re two devs (pandaelf.com) working on an app called everyAir (everyair.net). It’s a remote desktop that’s fast enough to let you play fullscreen SC2 on your iDevices. Check out our video for SC2 in action. We’re looking for feedback from the TL community to find the right UI/controls to make playing SC2 enjoyable on touch devices. We’ll give free coupons to anyone that emails us, but we’re limited by Apple to 50 per version so they run out fast. You probably won’t ever get an Artosis GSL winner interview rocking an iPad, but we think that gaming on touch devices can evolve beyond launching birds and slicing fruits.
The longer version:
We’re two former BigCo engineers turned indie devs risking sanity and savings pursuing “the dream.” Our company is called pandaelf (pandaelf.com). Naturally, we’re huge nerds, and of course SC2 fans.
We’ve recently released an iOS app called everyAir (everyair.net). It’s a remote desktop that’s fast enough to play games and movies. The framerate and image quality easily supports full streaming video. For example, you could very easily watch Artosis getting trolled by all the Grack (Hi, MichaelGrackson!) name variants.
All of that brings us to this post: we want feedback on how to make our app better so that SC2 is enjoyably playable. We want to find out how to make gaming on touch devices be something more than launching birds or slicing fruits.
Check out our video and you’ll see it in action:
We're well aware you're never going to achieve 500APM and insaaane marine micro on a touch device, but we suspect that with some skills and practice, it is doable to at least beat decent opponents. For what it's worth, we're both mid-diamond level players, and on a new account we were able to beat silver level players with 1 base all-ins.
Part of the motivation behind the app is to make it so that desktop games are playable on touch devices. Additionally, we're trying to figure out what kinds of UI will really support complex games so that in the future we can make a game native to these devices. Complex games can, and will, exist on touch devices, it's a matter of making the right game with the right interface.
While it’s going to be really hard to dethrone mouse and keyboard, there’s large potential for evolution in this area. One interesting use we’ve already found is to turn the iPad into a display for just your minimap (which makes it significantly easier to spot unit movement). Will something ever replace mouse/kb? We’re not sure, but it seems likely.
All that said, everyAir definitely lets you play SC2 right now. You can perform all you need: left click, right click, and click drag. It’s all done via taps, gestures, and our double d-pad controllers. We need feedback to make it better, however. And that’s why we’re here.
We’d love to hear feedback: Since the app isn’t free, if you email us : hello@everyair.net we'll hook you up with a free coupon. Apple only gives you 50 at a time so we'll hand them out while supplies last (they do go fast). Additionally, thoughts and input on the app and on the general topic are also very much appreciated: could someone win a diamond game only using an iPad/iPhone? Can we ever hope to see someone win a GSL season not using a mouse/kb as primary input device?
We’re committed to making this the best gaming experience possible, and we need critical feedback to get there. Gamers are by far the most critical audience, so, please, bombs away!
I really don't want to destroy your hopes but I don't think a lot of people will want to play sc2 on their iPads, it just seems too hard no matter what controls/gestures you use. I am, however, pretty sure that if this app lets you view replays on an iPad or iPhone, you're gonna have a shit ton of new customers.
Whoa, that's sick cool- don't know how useful it would be per say, but definitely cool. I just can't imagine it being worth it to play SC2 on an ipad, maybe customs- but then there's a plethora of other games I could play instead. It seems like doing so would just be playing SC2 for the sake of it, not because it would actually be worthwhile. Again, observing, customs, ect would probably be fine. I think it's cool that you can actually do other stuff though, like watch movies and access your pc.
On December 08 2010 02:30 TeMiL wrote: "It’s a remote desktop that’s fast enough" but it seems like u need a good bandwith in your ipad and in your desktop remoted
What were the connections you were working with, and what was the latency between the two?
I agree with people saying that not many gamers will want to play SC2 on their iPads or iPhones. The different actions you can perform with your units are made to accommodate mouse/keyboard input. I don't know the specifics on the controls of everyAir but I don't think that you could reach the APM required to do the basics (move your army around, and produce units). Personally I wouldn't consider playing SC2 on a touch device if I wasn't able to group units/buildings into a hotkey. Like others, I could see this being incredibly useful to observe games of friends playing at home on their PCs or perhaps watching replays when you have some downtime during your day.
Regardless, I think this is a great idea. I think a few years ago I saw some videos where someone played WoW on their iPod Touch or something but it was faked. It's great to see things like this actually being developed.
I personally don't have an iPad or iPhone otherwise I'd love to help you test it and give you feedback.
Hehe, as a coincidence, I and my friend recently were discussing Starcraft Broodwar's possibility to play on a mobile device )))))))))) Nice job anyways!
On December 08 2010 02:34 RaGe wrote: Wow this is pretty interesting.
How is your replay viewing functionality?
I really don't want to destroy your hopes but I don't think a lot of people will want to play sc2 on their iPads, it just seems too hard no matter what controls/gestures you use. I am, however, pretty sure that if this app lets you view replays on an iPad or iPhone, you're gonna have a shit ton of new customers.
edit: And obsing games of course
Battlecraft, Circle TD etc etc are all perfectly suitable to play on the iPad. So are Obsing games + watching replays. Playing the RTS SC2 though, this will never be a big selling point for this iOS... Perhaps aiming at Heroes of M&M or some other fun turnbased game strategy...?
Of all of the games I've seen ported to iPad/Pod (Cube remake comes to mind), SC2 is the only one which has a remotely suitable user interface.
Honestly, everything seems like it would work.
One finger for left click, two fingers for right click. One finger-dragged: scroll boxes units. Two finger-dragged: scroll the actual screen.
All the hotkeys would have to be selected from the bottom right corner, and the minimap would be really easy to navigate, however I think certain elements of the User Interface would need to be changed and considering it's a remote desktop, that would be impossible. What I was thinking was increasing the size of the army commands box so the buttons would be easier to hit with less misclicks.
If you guys wanna start practicing for such play, try using a trackpad to play SC2. Kinda makes me less optimistic about this idea.
Overall it seems like it would work pretty well, but simple stuff like landing a floating building would require a lot more "clicks" without a hotkey + with the whole touch screen GUI.
Still, interesting idea!
PS: PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY OF THAT ACCELEROMETER/GYROSCOPE CRAP FOR CONTROLLING ANYTHING!!!
edit: Meanwhile, you could attach a keyboard to an iPad, but this is really no different than using a laptop to play starcraft 2.
edit2: How's about an iPod Touch/iPhone version? I could totally watch a game on that screen, in fact I have. It would be more difficult to navigate however, and a lot of navigation would be required to optimize it for iPhone. Pinch to zoom would be invaluable, while keyboard navigation is a little less necessary. Universal Binary!
On December 08 2010 02:33 ScDeluX wrote: It is pretty big for ppl who would want to obs a game in b.net not being on a computer. I can see some uses for this outside of playing.
On December 08 2010 02:57 Kinney wrote: Of all of the games I've seen ported to iPad/Pod (Cube remake comes to mind), SC2 is the only one which has a remotely suitable user interface.
Honestly, everything seems like it would work.
One finger for left click, two fingers for right click. One finger-dragged: scroll boxes units. Two finger-dragged: scroll the actual screen.
All the hotkeys would have to be selected from the bottom right corner, and the minimap would be really easy to navigate, however I think certain elements of the User Interface would need to be changed and considering it's a remote desktop, that would be impossible. What I was thinking was increasing the size of the army commands box so the buttons would be easier to hit with less misclicks.
If you guys wanna start practicing for such play, try using a trackpad to play SC2. Kinda makes me less optimistic about this idea.
Overall it seems like it would work pretty well, but simple stuff like landing a floating building would require a lot more "clicks" without a hotkey + with the whole touch screen GUI.
Still, interesting idea!
PS: PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY OF THAT ACCELEROMETER/GYROSCOPE CRAP FOR CONTROLLING ANYTHING!!!
edit: Meanwhile, you could attach a keyboard to an iPad, but this is really no different than using a laptop to play starcraft 2.
why would you attach a keyboard? You could use a laptop if you were going to do that. iPad would just lag your game out. I dont think you could observe because of the slowness of the iPad. Its cool to see but not useable in the slightest. lol practicing to play on an iPad. . no way this will be anything more than a ploy to advertise the iPad.
EPT
