I don't get that sentence... It's a nice and positive review though so I won't complain 

Gorgeous. I also wish I had an iPhone so I could play it! Can I ask what you made this in? Any possibility of a PC port?

Thanks! We made it with Cocos 2D, a game framework written in Objective C (the native programming language on the iPhone). The combination of hard-to-port code and an interface that works much better with touch will probably make the game stay on the iPhone (and iPad eventually). Sorry! :/

I see.  I know that a huge part of the iPhone gamers actually are kids on iPod Touch so that might explain their taste in entertainment. Oh, and the only game I actually see people play on their phones at the train/bus is the card game Solitaire.

I guess the potential for PC games must be bigger in the end since almost anyone (in the western world) has access to a PC in some way. I like the focus your game gets on the beautiful screen of an iPhone or iPad though, so I think I'll make some more stuff there mainly for the pure joy of it.

Thanks a lot Jorge!

I'd like more interaction, though. It's nice to find special "characters" going around the same way as you, but I found myself wanting to comunicate or interact with them apart from the fact of just finding them. For example, it would be nice to see some space shuttles inviting you to follow them to show you something, or just asking you to guide them to a certain place.

Interaction with other things is something I've wanted to have in the game but it's just hard to get right. I don't want the comet to talk or write to others, I'd like some kind of wordless communication. I'm working on something like this now, hopefully it will be good enough to put into an update.

Oh! And I'd like to ask something. Have you been inspired by Keita Takahashi's works (Katamari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy)? I think his games have a similar spirit to yours.

Yeah I guess so... not in style or ideas so much as in his attitude towards games which I find very encouraging. He's kind of a notgame-creator, right? He should go "indie" though; Katamari would be so much better without the time limit on the levels and I'm sure that was put in by some suit (or other game designers).

It wasn't spectacular. I think Kometen is better suited for the platform because it is light-hearted and fun.

Ok. Someone was very upset about how depressing they found our game though And I think the way Vanitas turns your iPhone into a box is very clever and well suited to the whole device. I feel that it's possible to create a very special relationship with an object that is so small that you can hold it in your hand. Vanitas clearly uses this to its advantage and we tried to do it in some small ways with Kometen; for example you can flip the device around and see your comet adapt to the new order of the world.

My original thought was if the iPhone is a good way to reach more non-gamer people than through the PC. I guess it's impossible for anyone to answer but maybe someone more qualified could make a guess?

I'm actually surprised over the number of people who seems to enjoy the lack of goal and structure in the game, I was suspecting a lot more furious hate. Maybe it's because there are more "normal" people owning iPhones, I'm used to the views of hardcore PC gamers. Anyway, it gives me some more hope we might be on the right track here

How was the response to Vanitas and The Graveyard on the iPhone? (or anyone else who has made a game for those devices)

Thanks! It's always hard to remember exactly how these things goes but I'll give it a try...

I think we came up with the character and the basic swing mechanic in the same discussion, they were very much connected from the start. Back then I thought of it more as a normal game. For a long time we intended to have some kind of challenge at every big planet and when beating it a couple of other planets would be revealed on the map. Around this time I started hanging out on this forum and got more and more convinced that this was not the way to go. I also let my sister play the game and they really liked the concept of just traveling really far through space. As we decided to focus on this the main goal became to make the exploration as interesting as possible. That included making the big planets even more like pieces of art so that you could feel good about finding them and not need more rewards.

The mechanics for moving around were iterated quite heavily in the beginning but always turned out to work best as I implemented them from the very start. We eventually decided to embrace the fact that it's very hard to go in perfect circles... for a while we tried helping the player more with that but it didn't work out. I added the super boost at some point just as a fun idea that felt like it could work; eventually it became very important for the overall structure of the game and how to make eating stuff useful but not critical.

What we were really interested in was to see if people could be OK with just having sensual pleasure as the reward from playing. It seems like there's at least a group of people that can answer that with "yes!"

Here's a link: http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/kometen/id371244586?mt=8

If anyone wants a free version send me a PM. It only works in the US Store for some reason tho :/

Art will be added to future games by requesting a special certificate from Apple that then is embedded into your code.

What is anyone's opinion on THIS?

http://www.agj.cl/files/games/prosopamnesia/

Yeah, content is a kinda useful word. Normal game developers likes to use it as a kind of measurement of how many 3d-models to make tho. I've heard this kind of sentence a bit too many times: "yeah, that sounds like a fun idea for a game! Then we just need to add content..."

Awesome, glad you found your way here!

My new project definitely has some notgamesthink in it, so thanks guys for the influential discussions! Here you can read about it: http://eriksvedang.com/2010/04/26/announcing-kometen/

I personally like the idea of not using (banning!) some of those words. Damn I hate "narrative", my whole final thesis at uni is filled with it but I still don't really know how to use it!

At gdc Alec proposed the word Xoblax (i think?) as the name for "all interactive entertainment". Kinda like a superclass for everything, including games if i got it right. Seems useful (until people start stretching the meaning of the word, that is)

Life is a game
The Game of Life
Life and death
Death match
Match point
Point of the game?
I forgot.

Gosh i am tired of that word.

But i like that everyone is so upset and can't produce good counter arguments.