"So many people" is NOT everyone. Why limit your market? that's not good business practice. Apps can be made later. Also everyone who does/will own a ipad will not be paying for 3G or what ever there calling it . This also limits just how portable gaming is :)
"Many" is still a pretty small number. I do not know anyone personally who has a tablet or wants a tablet. We have our laptops which do a lot more, we don't really like them at all actually.
There could be an app in the future but I would prefer a laptop.
Whilst I love my iPad and think it would be great to see Glitch on it, Glitch's current approach seems right to me. The installed base for Flash is pretty large right now, and I doubt that will be changing any time soon. Certainly, I would expect most 'potential Glitch players' to be very likely to have a flash-enabled browser.
iOS is doing amazingly well, but to target iOS only on launch would limit the market somewhat. That's not to say that it wouldn't be a good move later...
the benefit with building for iPad/iPhone is *not* numbers, present or future, as Wet Butt thinks. there will not be more tablets than laptops or PCs for at least a decade, if ever. there are a lot of iPads being sold, sure, but not nearly enough of them.
the benefit of the iPad is that it is easier to make money via an iPad/iPhone app, since a sales system is built right into the app acquisition system.
it's why Rovio Mobile was able to get 42 million dollars in venture capital, despite the low number of iPads/iPhones relative to PCs.
but Glitch is different than, say, Angry Birds. one is social, the other is not. i can't think of a very successful iPad/iOS game, whereas i can think of many successful social games on the PC.
whatever. ideally glitch would be on both iPad and PC.
I loved this: "For the same reason that calendars for the year 2011 are selling better than calendars for 2013." And it pretty much captures the reason :)
But, there are other issues: a lot of the game is and will be (more) about communication. Which means typing. Which means a virtual keyboard that covers 50% of the screen. Which means a tiny play area for the game …
But, we consider iOS, Android and platforms other than Flash-in-a-browser to be Things Of Long Term Strategic Interest for us and even in the short term, it makes sense to make whatever game functionality we can available via mobile client or mobile-optimized website, tablet apps, etc. (e.g., auctions, game newsfeed, forums, wardrobe, group activities and other things to be released later).
french, you could essentially have a convo with them and help them out. Dunno if this is feasible, but it'd be a fresh look at socialising and a cool aspect of the game. :)
The real question is that the people that are willing to pay money to play are also the same people that buy ipads and would spend money quite freely on the game because that have disposable income.
It really is quite simple. They want people to pay and they would be a target market that would be missed.
Don't have an ipod, tablet, iphone or any of the other new fangled "gadgets". If I am on the computer, I am on the computer not multitasking while I am waiting in line at the bank or what-have-you. I also do not drive and do anything else but drive. Call me old-fashioned but I like it that way. I am also not ready to own a 2013 calendar quite yet. Good one Simplin!
In the end, I think Glitch will be accessible via several forms of media. Computers have the widest flexibility and range of tuning, they're where the resource skill sets currently exist. It's easier to bring a product to the PC market, then generate the revenue to fund the programming to take it to a peripheral market.
Instead of dividing the resources, learning new skills, and repeating past mistakes when bringing a game to market... lessons were learned and efforts have been focused.
Keeping in mind, we're still on the Road to Beta - still in early Alpha testing. There is still a huge amount of work to complete to bring Glitch to even a Beta market, let alone a full Go-Live. Once we're all happily playing Glitch, the focus will probably turn to expanding the platform offering. The dev's dont want a vacation, do they?
Numbers do in fact speak for themselves... there were nearly 15 million iPad's sold last year, with an extra million iPad 2's moved in the last 2 days (released on the 15th).... but 351 million PC's were shipped in 2010. The big winner last year was actually the smart phone grouping with over 100 million units shipped in Q4 alone, not the iPad/tablet market. By the numbers logic, a phone platform would be the next option.
One of the biggest risks in creating something for the 'up and expanding markets' is they move too quickly. Can you imagine the wasted man-hours if Glitch had been geared for the iPad and then needed retuned to fit with the iPad2? The other big problem is their tendency to go big then fail miserably because the next bit of tech eclipsed the past (laser disc anyone? can I interest you in a 36.6 modem?). It won't be long before 3D capabilities are readily available (oddly I think the Glitch 2D approach might make it easier to transition down the road in that regard).
Man, good answers. I think Stuart's point about the communication and socialization and it being difficult to type on an iPad is the strongest one I've seen though.
in response to previous STAFF reply. Typing on an Ipad:- A juxtaposition. A blind person using the apple "voiceover" system app' can use the ipad with the display switched off (like that battery lasts 32 hours). Anyone thought of a blind accessible Glitch interface? With the ipad touch screen and "voice over" a blind person could easily play Glitch. My Blind son uses Ipad to make perfect "MSPowerpoint" type Slide presentations on the ipad using "iPages". Screen dimension issues for the blind resolved with a "Magic TrackPad" or Mac Pro trackpad. Should this be a new topic?advice welcomed
Perhaps rather than putting the actual game on a tablet or smartphone, it would be better to make little minigames that could be played with a group of friends over a wi-fi network. I think that would leverage the advantages of developing on a mobile platform better, as well as solving the communication issue. You wouldn't need to type your messages when you can just speak freely to other players who are in the room with you.