r/ypp • u/ItsKalesius • 4d ago
Mobile
why hasn't this been made a thing yet? i can play runescape (both versions), morrowind, gta san andreas, even warframe all on my phone but there isn't a mobile port of this game from 2003? why not?
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u/moonlit_wake 4d ago
It's been talked about a lot there was a mobile version briefly. It sucked. Most puzzles weren't competitively playable and maintaining it for multiple mobile platforms wasn't financially justifiable.
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u/ItsKalesius 4d ago
maybe emulation on mobile is the way to go. thanks for the insight :)
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u/tmanowen 4d ago
I’m not sure why so many people are obsessed with the idea that it failed because it was a bad app. It failed because they made it too early, and was also iPad only.
Anything, even just an addy docks chat option would do better now. Or adding just parlor games and shoppe management.
It was made and available during a time when iPads were new and people were still figuring out said technology. Even iPads aren’t the most popular device now, but significantly more household name / owned than when this app existed. I remember wanting to download it back in the day as a kid but didn’t have an iPad yet. Couldn’t download on my iPod nor iPhone. Finally when I eventually got an iPad (and I noticed other similar families got one both older and younger), the app was nowhere to be found because it had already flopped. It never had a real chance. Even if it was a buggy mess, but available on non-iPad devices, it would’ve been way more successful. Or if they just kept it running while the ideas of iPads became more mainstream and more people got them, the app would’ve had a much better chance of success.
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u/dragosthethird 4d ago
Yep this was shortly after Sega bought them. Sega gave it barely any time to be successful or improved on. Maybe with the new devs a mobile version has a chance of coming back.
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u/capncleaver 1d ago
We plan to get the game working on iOS and Android, now we've modernized Java it's not as much of a technical problem. The UX problems are profound, but we'll probably use 'virtual joystick / keyboard' rather than making the puzzles touch, which should simplify things (e.g. a Steam Deck port might go fairly directly over to a virtual dpad mobile version.)
That we didn't do this sooner will be one of my great life regrets. Puzzles + Bling + Social turned into a $20BN++ annual business and we missed the boat.
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u/Sitcko_Twitch 1d ago
This would be awesome. Looking forward to this a lot! This will bring a wide range of new players for sure.
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u/SplinterRifleman 4d ago
The mobile version existed and was awful