Apple's resistance to supporting Flash on the iPhone and iPod Touch is a bummer to many, but Addicting Games, one of the most trafficked Flash games sites, has apparently found a work-around. In the coming weeks, they're going to be porting some of their more successful games to be playable on the iPhone.
Kate Connally, Vice President of Addicting Games, spoke to me over the phone today to talk about the initiative. "We don't really have a secret sauce for moving Flash games into Objective-C [the iPhone's programming language.] Our approach has been to pick development teams and give them clear direction on the game."
But they're not planning on just providing straight ports of the games. Said Connally, "We want to make sure the versions of these games that we create for the iPhone are taking advantage of the unique features that the iPhone offers for gameplay. How can this game take advantage of the accelerometer? How can it take advantage of Bluetooth features?"
When it comes down to picking which games will get an iPhone treatment, decisions are made in-house. At that point, Addicting Games will reach out to the original developer to give them the opportunity to handle the port over to the iPhone. If they're not tooled up for iPhone development, an external developer will be tapped.
Games will be sold separately over the AppStore. Connally wouldn't commit to prices, but was partial to the lower-priced games. "We know the .99 cent price point works really well for the short types of games that Addicting Games is built on."
The first titles getting the iPhone treatment will be "Park It," "50 States," and "World War," and should launch in the coming weeks. While it's not quite the same as having a library of Flash games on the go, it's certainly a start.
Comments