Topic

Phone app?

I have a friend who is super interested, but she's doesn't have a computer at the moment. Is there anyway for Glitch to be played from a phone?

or is that asking for too much too soon?

Posted 19 months ago by roguewords Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • See here.
    Posted 19 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • But...since it's extremely unlikely Apple will be supporting Flash anytime soon, it's improbable that an app will be happening :/
    Posted 19 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ah. thank you both. :)
    Posted 19 months ago by roguewords Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That's not quite true... the iPhone can't access flash on websites, but Adobe has built tools (with apple's support) to turn flash games into iPhone apps. Really creating a decent iPhone app, though, will still involve a lot of work -- just getting the game to be comfortably playable on such a small screen will involve some adaptation; the user interface needs to be adapted to a touch screen instead of a mouse; the app needs to intelligently handle things like saving and restoring state. 

    It's definitely possible to port Glitch to the iPhone, but it's not trivial, and right now the focus of the developers seems to be on adding content and tweaking gameplay. I bet it will happen eventually, though.
    Posted 19 months ago by Kitaro Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I certainly hope so. I would love to be able to play while away from the computer, and I think the gyroscope and motion-sensing capabilities offer some really interesting gameplay opportunities. If the game does well, I would love to see some consideration given to iPhone and iPad apps. (Or Android, for those without iDevices.)
    Posted 19 months ago by Chronicler Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Kitaro, re "It's definitely possible to port Glitch to the iPhone": that may be technically true (though it would be a complete re-write — conversion tools would not help in this case). But, we almost certainly would never do it. The experience would be so impoverished on that size screen that it wouldn't make sense. If you open the virtual keyboard to enter a number or reply to someone, you are left with a tiny narrow slit left to view the world, menu-based controls would be very difficult, platforming is hard without a joystick, d-pad or arrow keys, etc.

    HOWEVER, we do plan to offer apps later this year — just not the main game world.
    Posted 19 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You can actually participate in certain aspects of the game already (without a smartphone). This includes changing skills, posting in updates and forums, and viewing encyclopaedia. I expect you could use auction as well but have not tried it yet.
    Posted 19 months ago by snygyst Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm wondering - whilst I cannot play the game on my phone (I agree with Kitaro - it would not be the best to play on such a tiny screen), somehow you have managed to block even trying with android browser...even if I spoof the id to make it think it's a desktop pc I still only get the mobile site?

    Anyhow, is the android os completely blocked - I'm thinking about getting a android tablet soon, would it be possible to play on that?
    Posted 19 months ago by hoppy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • hoppy, we haven't blocked anything — the site's CSS just adapts to show an appropriate layout based on the display size (try making this window very, very narrow if you are on a desktop computer with a modern browser).

    If you want to try to load the game client on your phone (when the game is open, of course) you can just go to this URL: beta.glitch.com/game
    Posted 19 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • aw wow thanks :) Good to know! Thought it was a bit odd that the site ended up different even when spoofing :) But as all odd things go, there's simple logic behind it hehe, good stuff!
    Posted 19 months ago by hoppy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I put some instructions and pictures of browsing the site with an Android phone up here.
    Posted 19 months ago by That Kid Tyler Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There's an iphone browser called puffin.  it seems to run flash, or at least I could indeed access Glitch through that.  I just can't deal with the small screen...
    Posted 19 months ago by Karikitten Subscriber! | Permalink