Abe on the Iphone?

[Xavier]

Heya lets speculate a bit. I'm willing to bet that one of the projects JAW is working on is the port of Abe's Oddysee on the Iphone.

Clues:

(1)

http://twitpic.com/1znf1g hmmmm #secretproject

http://twitter.com/jawltd/status/16967212579

Yep that some very small picture here, but doesn't it look very similar to this one found on JAW's homepage?


To me it looks like Abe's ponytail in front of the moon. This picture really looks like it's inside an App icon.

(2) Meta data in the http://www.jawltd.com/ home page (right click, view source)

meta name="description" content="Developers of video games, for the digital distribution era, PlayStation3, PlayStation Portable, XBox360, PC and iPhone" /
meta name="keywords" content="JAW, Just Add Water, Gravity Crash, PS3, PSP, XBox360, game development, video games, development," /

As far as I know Gravity Crash hasn't been ported on Iphone, so one of their next projects should involve the Iphone, am I right?

(3) When Stewart Gilray announced the partnership with OWI on the PSNation Podcast he got out his Iphone to give a clue on what they were working. I can't believe we missed it but he is simply starting the game on his Iphone. Listen to it, it starts at the 24th minute.

http://www.psnation.org/2010/07/15/e...table-gravity/

[Wil]

I thought I told you to post this in the Spoiler Forum so the surprise wouldn't be ruined for everyone.

Excellent detective work, all the same.

[Nate]

#1 is quite convincing
#2 is less so; they probably want to port Gravity Crash to iPhone, even if they haven't done so already
#3 is largely irrelevant; absolutely everyone has a freaking iPhone these days. If you were going to play a soundbyte whilst being interviewed on a podcast, it's the most likely way to do it.

[Xavier]

#3 is largely irrelevant; absolutely everyone has a freaking iPhone these days. If you were going to play a soundbyte whilst being interviewed on a podcast, it's the most likely way to do it.

Very true, but he didn't seem to be really prepared to do the announcement.

Are you happy with the reaction that has come out on the announcement?

Stewart Gilray: Completely. The reason it came about was a couple of days ago, I did a podcast with some US guys because, obviously, Gravity Crash Portable is out next week in the US and Europe. I did a thing at the back of that and threw the interview in the podcast.

And they said to me, ‘What are you guys doing next?’ And I was like, ‘Oh hell’. So I was frantically typing to Lorne on Skype, just saying, ‘Can I tell people we’re doing this yet?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, but don’t mention what we’re working on yet.’

http://www.vg247.com/2010/07/19/inte...-psp-and-more/

[Nate]

Yeah, but he might use it for a ringtone or something. He wouldn't be the first Oddworld fan to do so.

[Xavier]

That's why I said I was speculating.

And that would make some really weird ringtone...

[Nate]

Actually, now that I go back to listening to it, it would be a wierd ringtone. It does sound actually like it's the menu to Abe's Oddysee as it would sound running on the iPhone... or he used his iPhone to browse to Youtube.

Given that it started straight in the menu and there wasn't the introductory logo or title music, I'm hesitantly edging towards the latter.

EDIT: but then he says 'How about this?' before Abe says 'Follow me', which suggests that he was actually pressing buttons to make it happen. Hrm... not sure now.

[Jordan]

Good work Xav.

I really hope this isn't true. Why waste time on a port for some shitty overrated device. Might sound like I'm being a twat, but I think it's a big waste of time.

[Wil]

Because it's popular and the people it's available to clearly have lots of money to spend on things like awesome games. Money = profit = money = new stuff.

[squeak117]

I think he said that on the (written) interview to make it seem more dramatic. More than likely, he was expecting the question and was probably typing away to Lorne either before the audio interview started, or even during the interview and before the mention of new projects arose.
The audio coming out of the iPhone at that point was probably just audio files he has, or even a hint at Gamespeak as a free app for the iPhone.

Good speculation though! I mean, there's a good chance that Oddworld games made by Just Add Water will be very compatible with the iPhone (just look at Gravity Crash... almost looks specifically made for handheld devices), but I just don't think an Oddworld game for iPhone will be their big announcement (not that you were saying it was).

I do hope I'm right about a free Gamespeak app though. If anything is going to remind people about the Oddworld games and get awareness up, it's Gamespeak.

[Wil]

An app that does nothing but produce GameSpeak would be pretty lame. If there's a iPhone game, it had better be either a port of the originals or a proper new game.

[Gilrod]

I love speculation :-)

Stewart

[squeak117]

There are soundboard apps out there. Sure, it might be lame... but that's why it'd be free. Kind of like... someone downloads the app, goes to their mate and says "Hey man, remember this!?"

*Hello.*
*Follow me.*

... "Holy shit yes! That little green alien dude from Ps1!"

At least, that's what I'd imagine to happen.

[AvengingGibbons]

Firstly, gameplay on the iphone would be awful.. trying to press jump at the right time, on a touchscreen.. it just wouldnt work that well..
Secondly, the icon is a poor choice for the game on iPhone.
Thirdly, the icon has that reflective overlay on it, which is present on webapps and homescreen bookmarks. I'd have thought if it was an actual port of AO/AE to iPhone then they'd use better icon graphics.

[Nate]

I love speculation :-)

Stewart

I hope you're prepared for a pile of negrep for your taciturnity.


Yes, that's a real word. Wiktionary says so and that must meant it's true.

[Josh]

I love speculation :-)

Stewart

JAW is like a 16 year old girl: the ultimate cock-tease.

[The Native]

hello

[Josh]

It's crazy new trend that all the game developers seem to be getting into!

[Gilrod]

@The Native - Hello back

[GlukkonGluk]

My word, so many important people commenting on this thread. Not saying anything interesting, of course, but nice to know they're around, eh? I'm not particularly fussed about an Iphone app, but if it makes them the money necessary to make cool stuff, then I'm on board

[Stranger4002]

Good work Xav.

I really hope this isn't true. Why waste time on a port for some shitty overrated device. Might sound like I'm being a twat, but I think it's a big waste of time.

No; I totally agree, they to quit porting the old shit and get on with some new stuff.

[Josh]

And how shall they fund the new stuff?

[GlukkonGluk]

And how shall they fund the new stuff?

By "porting the old shit"! This guy gets it!

[Jordan]

Kind of annoying if you ask me.

The cockteasing, that is.

[Xavier]

hello

@The Native - Hello back

Aww common guys... quit spamming our forums.

Share something constructive with us instead.

[OANST]

We've banned people for being less annoying than this.

[erwinraaben55]

New stuff should fund itself if it is any good. You just need a sponsor with faith in you and the product to give you the money upfront to make it!

Till now I have taken 0 interest in any Iphone, Ipad, Ipod, or any other mobile device or mobilephone. (only PSP has my interest as a mobile device).
If some Oddstuff comes on any of those I am still not interested. So I dearly hope something is coming for PS3 (psp can do too, but rather not).

With Munch I didn't hesitate to buy a Xbox, but I won't be tricked into that so easily anymore. (Xbox was a big disaster, I only have really played 4 games on it (I own 8), two of them Oddworld, two Halo).


About point two:

I SWEAR I had read that sentence about the digital distribution era on the site last week when I checked out their homepage for the first time. Now I can't find it back again.
Or I have been dreaming again (I do have some of those dream dejavù moments),
or they removed it from the site not too long ago.

[Hazz-JB]

I'm going to be very pissed off if anything new comes out exclusively on a single console/device and not on PC, or atleast on multiple consoles. It was bad enough with MO and SW, but OWI are supposedly sick of doing things that way.

iPhone ports of the Abe games is a good idea though, I would imagine it wouldn't be too difficult with the already low resolution of the games, and it would make a good profit for a relatively small amount of effort, unless the iPhone is a pain in the arse to produce stuff on, I wouldn't know.

[Wil]

New stuff should fund itself if it is any good. You just need a sponsor with faith in you and the product to give you the money upfront to make it!

Don't you think they've tried that?

[erwinraaben55]

Of course they did, apparently it was't good enough then :-). But they also made some really bad choices in the past (going to xbox, going to EA) so they are maybe too careful with picking the right sponsor.