As the happy owner of an iPhone 4, Mojang's announcement of a Minecraft iOS title has caught my attention particularly. The iPhone and iPad systems have recently become a popular platform for games, both casual (Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, and Doodle Jump) and "Hardcore" (First Person Shooters such as Battlefield and N.O.V.A.) games. They have proven their ability capability to run games smoothly, especially with the iPad 2's A5 processor (Rumored to be coming in the iPhone 5). The iPhone and iPad have the power to run these games (If properly optimized) with some reduction in quality. I'm writing this thread not only to discuss the possibility of Minecraft on the iPhone/iPad, but also put forward some of my own ideas about how we could play minecraft on iPhone/iPad.
Menu and GUI
Home Screen
This is what you see when you first open Minecraft. The increased size of the selection buttons allows for easier tapping in the iOS environment. Resembles the computer version of the game, no other changes needed, unless certain features (Texture Packs and Multiplayer) are not available in the iPhone/iPad versions.
Note: I'm going to finish this entire thread before I do iPad mockups. It will be a while!
The rest of the GUIs in general should feature bigger buttons, iPhone optimized selections and options, ect.
The Game
A picture says a thousand words. So here it is.
Health an armor are relocated to the top of the screen. Breath goes underneath health. In between them is a button to open the Menu. The joystick in the bottom left controls the player's feet, allowing them to move. The button above it causes the player to jump. The player's view can be changed by either tapping or dragging on the non GUI area of the screen. (Tapping causes the player's view to be centered on that point. However, when you are holding a block or placeable item, tapping will place it.) To destroy blocks, players tap and hold on the desired block with the hand or a tool. To place blocks, simply tap where you want the block to go while holding it. For objects that are consumed, such as food, you simply hold them and click. The button in the top right open the inventory (I haven't thought of an icon yet.). The inventory is larger (Perhaps taking up the entire screen) so that it is easier to select items. Here, players can drag items around to organize them, or tap them to transfer them quickly between the hot-bar and inventory. While playing, you can tap the squares in the hot-bar to switch to that item.
I think putting the jump button on the other side of the screen would be better. Then you could both move and jump at the same time, while now you either have to move your right hand to the left side, or use an index finger or something.
I think putting the jump button on the other side of the screen would be better. Then you could both move and jump at the same time, while now you either have to move your right hand to the left side, or use an index finger or something.
That's a good point. Moving and jumping would be hard.
I think it would make more sense to put the jump button in the right corner right next to the hotbar to allow jumping and moving at the same time using both hands,to be used with platforming.
Looks good, but of course a iOS couldn't handle graphics like that, right?
But anyways, mockups.
It's not really the iOS it's the hardware,and from what I've heard the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4 have extremely capable graphics and processing power that have handled game's way more hardware intensive than Minecraft,also consider the resolution will be scaled down considerably to fit the screen,but he should probably add a disclaimer saying that this would only work on the newest product's from Apple ex. iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
It's not really the iOS it's the hardware,and from what I've heard the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4 have extremely capable graphics and processing power that have handled game's way more hardware intensive than Minecraft,also consider the resolution will be scaled down considerably to fit the screen,but he should probably add a disclaimer saying that this would only work on the newest product's from Apple ex. iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
Perhaps an option to jump by twisting the device towards yourself, at least for phones. For iPads, that would probably be a little clunky, though I wouldn't know.
As for texture packs and mods and thing, I think that until the official modding API is implemented, both of those would be rather difficult to achieve. Though Texture Packs could maybe be applied via networking, sort of like player skins? Maybe through a system like Dropbox uses.
I hope to see an Android version, lets face it, IOs is on its way out, its become bland, and the platform doesn't leave room for very many improvements, not to mention Android is soon to gain market dominance.
If Mojang ports this to Android, I will be the happiest guy in the world.
All these mockups take a while!
As the happy owner of an iPhone 4, Mojang's announcement of a Minecraft iOS title has caught my attention particularly. The iPhone and iPad systems have recently become a popular platform for games, both casual (Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, and Doodle Jump) and "Hardcore" (First Person Shooters such as Battlefield and N.O.V.A.) games. They have proven their ability capability to run games smoothly, especially with the iPad 2's A5 processor (Rumored to be coming in the iPhone 5). The iPhone and iPad have the power to run these games (If properly optimized) with some reduction in quality. I'm writing this thread not only to discuss the possibility of Minecraft on the iPhone/iPad, but also put forward some of my own ideas about how we could play minecraft on iPhone/iPad.
Menu and GUI
Home Screen
This is what you see when you first open Minecraft. The increased size of the selection buttons allows for easier tapping in the iOS environment. Resembles the computer version of the game, no other changes needed, unless certain features (Texture Packs and Multiplayer) are not available in the iPhone/iPad versions.
Note: I'm going to finish this entire thread before I do iPad mockups. It will be a while!
The rest of the GUIs in general should feature bigger buttons, iPhone optimized selections and options, ect.
The Game
A picture says a thousand words. So here it is.
Health an armor are relocated to the top of the screen. Breath goes underneath health. In between them is a button to open the Menu. The joystick in the bottom left controls the player's feet, allowing them to move. The button above it causes the player to jump. The player's view can be changed by either tapping or dragging on the non GUI area of the screen. (Tapping causes the player's view to be centered on that point. However, when you are holding a block or placeable item, tapping will place it.) To destroy blocks, players tap and hold on the desired block with the hand or a tool. To place blocks, simply tap where you want the block to go while holding it. For objects that are consumed, such as food, you simply hold them and click. The button in the top right open the inventory (I haven't thought of an icon yet.). The inventory is larger (Perhaps taking up the entire screen) so that it is easier to select items. Here, players can drag items around to organize them, or tap them to transfer them quickly between the hot-bar and inventory. While playing, you can tap the squares in the hot-bar to switch to that item.
It's super effective!
Pointless thread has fainted!
This is why i love MC fourm's moderators
That's a good point. Moving and jumping would be hard.
But anyways, mockups.
It's not really the iOS it's the hardware,and from what I've heard the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4 have extremely capable graphics and processing power that have handled game's way more hardware intensive than Minecraft,also consider the resolution will be scaled down considerably to fit the screen,but he should probably add a disclaimer saying that this would only work on the newest product's from Apple ex. iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
Mmm, some bad luck for iPod users...
As for texture packs and mods and thing, I think that until the official modding API is implemented, both of those would be rather difficult to achieve. Though Texture Packs could maybe be applied via networking, sort of like player skins? Maybe through a system like Dropbox uses.
If Mojang ports this to Android, I will be the happiest guy in the world.