I'm an indie iOS developer, and I'm seriously considering adding a game inside my app. My app is built in Swift, and I've recently read that Apple's guidelines recommend to use HTML5 for mini games.
I upgraded to Hype Pro today (long overdue, I've been using Hype since 2014!)
My question is: what do you think is the feasability of creating a game, to be embedded inside an iOS app, using Hype?
My interrogations revolve around state management & saving progress. I suppose that will involve a lot of JavaScript, and I haven't used it yet inside a Hype project. I'm comfortable with JavaScript, too.
Game will be about farming
My app is fairly successful, with tens of thousands of monthly active users. The goal of adding a game is to incentivize certain actions (that drive retention) + do something fun and educational about sustainable agriculture.
Thanks a lot and congrats to the Hype team for the endurance on this project!
Although, for advanced features on one of my WebView apps, I built a bridge between WKWebView and Swift. That made the app way more powerful, but also way more complicated. Such an approach is also a problem if the app / game is to be ported to other platforms.
Also a big problem… I wasn't able to port those WKWebView games to Apple TV / tvOS.
Another issue is waiting to see what Tumult does with Hype. What exactly is Hype 5 going to do? Is there going to be a Hype 5? If so, when?!
Then there's 3D. While that's technically possible with web tech, that's currently not a native feature of Hype. I don't want to have to fight the software, so I'm not sure if I should build another game with Hype… especially if it's 3D.
And then there's the Physics engine. Hype uses Matter.js, which is pretty good overall, but there are two crippling issues… no constant collision detection, and there's this mysterious loss of momentum. Elements used to bounce indefinitely, but now they don't.
A big issue I'm seeing is that the days of the app store gold rush appear to be over. Personally, I rarely install new apps lately. Apple itself tried Apple Arcade… starting with half-a-billion dollars, according to the article on Wikipedia …but Apple Arcade appears to be a disappointment. At least, my subscription expired months ago and I didn't see a reason to renew. If Apple appears to be struggling, I'm not sure how to successfully compete in an environment like that.
Again, Apple TV… why isn't that treated more like a game console?
I actually have a quite a few ideas for games… at least they're something that I want to play. I also like the Progressive Web App approach, so my apps / games would not be limited to the rules of App Stores and they wouldn't be limited to a single platform.
Additionally, I'm considering making a book about making video games. Lately, I've been thinking about how to make my games better and how to make them more successful — but I have also been debating if it's a good idea to even go in this direction.
It's really challenging to make a good game — especially today. Just juggling the various screen sizes alone is a massive amount of work… portrait, landscape, 4:3 iPad, 16:9 displays, new iPhones with the annoying notch and confusing ratios.
It's not like the old days of Nintendo where it was strictly 4:3 and 2D.
Of course, they had their own set of limitations, but I think video games felt more fun and innovative back then. I'm not quite sure why. There are some modern games that are really good… but with updates they can change… and not always for the better.
Basically, I've been looking for a catalyst… something that makes game development exciting again, not just endless hours of fighting technical issues — many of which are out of my control.
I built a bridge between WKWebView and Swift. That made the app way more powerful, but also way more complicated. Such an approach is also a problem if the app / game is to be ported to other platforms.
Yeah, I think that bridge will be the key part that I should explore now. Thanks for bringing it up. The way I see it: user data/progress will no matter what be syncd with my database/backend. The first challenge for me would be to save it in game, pass it to Swift, then sync it with the database.
I won't be needing 3D nor much of Physics, so that's fine.
Another issue is waiting to see what Tumult does with Hype. What exactly is Hype 5 going to do? Is there going to be a Hype 5? If so, when?!
That's a valid point. For now, I'm looking to build a small MVP, and if it clicks with my users, then I'd probably have to build it in Unreal or another game engine where I can extend the game.
A big issue I'm seeing is that the days of the app store gold rush appear to be over. Personally, I rarely install new apps lately.
Sure, it's definitely more difficult than it used to be. But I'm lucky that App Store editors have continually featured my app, which brings organic growth. While we may not install apps on a daily basis, we're maybe not fully representative of the entire market. The bar is higher than it used to be; you need to ship better apps to get traction. It took me years before I launched mine; after all, there are thousands of cooking apps so why would anyone download a new, half-baked one?
Oh by the way, have you played Balatro? Check it out. I have a feeling that you'll love it.
