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S&M S2 for iPhone and iPad

Captain CapsizeCaptain Capsize
edited February 2012 in Sam & Max
It is great that new episodes of S&M are coming to the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch. After all the time since S3E01 was released I started to think we had been left out in the cold.

It was a little of a shock that after releasing S3E01 for iPad even before the PC version, Telltale has decided to start porting S2 episodes instead of the remaining S3. Probably it has to do with S3 episodes being too graphically demanding to port to iphone. S3E01 is only available for iPad and it is sometimes laggy in an iPad2, while the recently released S2E01 is even available for the older iPhone 3GS, which allows them to reach a wider audience.

So what i think we will have is S2 (and likely S1) first released for iOS. After that, probably the rest of S3 will be released, maybe with compatibility with the newest iPhones

However, it seems that the S2E01 iOS port was made with iPAD in mind and that the iPhone version was an afterthought:
  • There are black bars in the side of the iPhone screen because of the different aspect ratio
  • Texts are too small to read and select in the iPhone screen (edit: but I prefer it to the ToMI iPhone port, in which you can only see a response text at a time)
  • Graphics look much more pixelated in iPhone than in iPad
  • The game is laggy in an iPhone 4

No wonder that that the game end credits they mention the "iPad team" instead of "iOS Team"

So, while it is great to have a universal app that works in all compatible iOS devices, it would be great if the future episodes had a better integration with iPhone

Also, it would be great if games were saved to iCloud so we could start a game in one device and continue where we left in another

Anyway, I am looking forward to the release of the rest of the S2 episodes. Does anyone know if there is an scheduled date?

Comments

  • Captain CapsizeCaptain Capsize
    edited February 2012
    It seems that the staff has already answered on why no more S3 episodes have been released:



    http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17524&highlight=iphone&page=1
    Psy wrote: »
    The second episode of The Devil's Playhouse was significantly larger than originally intended, both in terms of graphics complexity and sheer data size. Dealing with both of those on the iPad, a platform that we're already pushing to the limit, has made releasing the rest of season 3 incredibly problematic. I won't say that it's not coming out on the iPad since we're still considering it, but we don't have a set date.


    Trust me, we've taken steps to ensure that future games can be ported to the iPad without these problems and we've already demonstrated Puzzle Agent on the iPad... we're not cutting out the platform or anything!


    Ben wrote: »
    Sam and Max 3 was built for the PC, Mac, and PS3. When the iPad came along we decided we wanted in, so we evaluated several options for a launch release. Sam and Max 3 wasn't the only thing considered, but we really wanted to push the platform and release something new and impressive. After many late nights and lots of ARM assembly, we had it running, so we decided to go with it.

    Unfortunately, as Psy said, episode 2 is even shinier than episode 1 and will require even more engineering time to get running on the iPad. I'd love to work on this, but at the moment we have kind of a lot going on. I REALLY want to get it out eventually though.

    When we say future games will be ported to the iPad with no problem, we don't mean every game we make from now on will be built for the iPad. Puzzle Agent was built from the ground with the iPad/iPhone in mind and it runs great. Wallace and Gromit is running much better than Sam and Max on the iPad, so we're certainly not limited to mostly 2D sprite animations. But we will continue to target the more powerful platforms as well.

    There is nothing in the web page about season 2 for iOS although episodes 1 and 2 are already out. Can somebody from telltale comment on eventual plans to port S1?. I want to decide whether I buy them on PC or wait for the iOS port. Thanks in advance

    As for S3, i guess we will have to wait until new hardware can support it ¿Maybe iphone 5(s) or ipad 3/4?
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