The Dink Network

It has been brought to our attention that Seth (the creator of Dink Smallwood) is porting Dink Smallwood to the iPhone. What does this mean?

Check out the comments to read on.

First of all, there hasn't been any release date set, so nothing is final. Still, according to Seth the game is practically playable on iPhone. The only things that still need to be done are fixing up the GUI, D-Mod support and the ability to save everywhere.

This is awesome because:
1) you have an iPhone and can play an official version of Dink and all the D-Mods on it
2) you don't have an iPhone and now finally have a reason to get one
3) the iPhone gaming community is growing at an enormous rate, so think of the potential extra Dinkers that are going spend their time here!

Source

Special thanks to our dear friend Someone for finding this.

Woah, this is huge. I hope they make one for Android OS in the future.

This is good news! A collective christmas present for the Dink community as a whole!

Very nice, but I imagine he could have started from FreeDink a lot more easily as it's already relying on open-source cross-platform libraries.

Oh, looking forward to this very much! But knowing Apple I don't see this being accepted with d-mod support in it :/

Cool. I wish I had an iphone...

WOOO!! cool concept but I have no service to use an iphone! SUCKS!

I second you there, Carrie. Dink on iPhone is very cool, although I do not (and probably won't for a very long time) have an iPhone.

Remember Dink on the PSP? Did everybody rush out and buy PSPs so they could play Dink? No they didn't.

Are you really going to pay $5 or similar to play something on your phone that you could play on your computer/PSP for free? If it is released for free I may reconsider though the control scheme will ultimately fail it.

This is no reason to buy an iPhone.

why get an iphone when an ipod touch would work perfectly fine?

But iphones are way cooler...

No, they are way warmer. -__-

If the development framework is the same, or at least similar, I imagine the end result can be easily compiled for both iPhone and iPod.

By the way, for touch screens I think it might be a better idea to control the player by dragging him, rather than being stuck with four arrows in a corner to tap and hold. I hope Seth will consider this.

Hows about the game in the playstation portable ? sorry guys didn't read whole board rofl

The PSP version was unstable due to memory issues, and it only works on the older PSPs anyway since you can't run homebrew applications on the newer models (or so I heard).

I don't know too much about this as I don't own a PSP, but other peoples comments gave me the impression that it was pretty good yet only good for a couple of minutes play.

Woot, my old login works!

Hey DaVince,

>>I imagine the end result can be easily compiled for both iPhone and iPod.

Yep, it will be for both.

>>By the way, for touch screens I think it might be a better idea to control the player by dragging him, rather than being stuck with four arrows in a corner to tap and hold.

I'm definitely with you here, the arrows work ok but I am going to be testing a new system that should feel more intuitive. (Player will probably be able to choose either..) Also, things like being able to tap items in your inventory to arm them and such will help. Anything I can do that will simplify the interface without breaking DMOD support.

Yeah, dink is quite useless without dmods...

EDIT: I have to start convincing all ipod touch/iphone owners I know to buy this... And convince my father to buy ME an iphone

Hi Seth!

We're not worthy! We're not worthy!
*bows before Seth*

We're not worthy! We're not worthy!
Speak for yourself!

HOLY SH!T ITS SETH!! ''

Seth, are you gonna stay here now?!??!

Hey, Skorn, sit! You don't want to scare him... He might run away if you keep posting smiley's...

Iplaydink: Your tag line lol. Christmas went already.

I'll be around... right now my head is too deep in code to do much communication though. Hope to post an update on the port progress soon. It's going really well!

It's going really well!

I'm glad to hear that, keep on making progress!

Sounds good.

I wish my head was even a little bit of in code.

Btw, Seth has a flag now? Yay!

the game for the ipod/iphone wont be free?

btw, Hi Seth!

I don't have an iPhone... I don't want an iPhone... but good job anyway Seth!

m(_ _)m

Seth has posted an update!

Sweet, he's using BFTG. *feels special*

Ohh... Dmod support...

yay! dmod support means everyone would be able to play Dink and the Bonca too!

I think

Incidentally, It's iPhone that's being ported to Dink, don't you know?

I don't care. I only want Necromancer, or another quality dmod.

Oh, and I see: Selectable smiles. Nice.

Yes, we know.

or another quality dmod.

Then this is your lucky day! Ehm wait, lucky year... Three Amulets is soon finished!

Good

Goodness, our technology these days. It seems like just yesterday when I had a computer that was programmed barely to perform functions like play the simplest tic-tac-toe game. What seemed like only days after was when my nieces and nephews had their first nintendo video game (this was like the early 90's). Then came the cellphone craze. Then came the internet craze. Then came cellphones with internets. And now, to add to it, we have screen-touch I-Phones that can connect to the Dink Network and download Dink games.

I can only imagine what our advance tech has to offer in 6 years. But will there come a time when it all becomes too much? Or is that just a human fear that has not much of a real basis?

It's already become too much. I mean, iPad, really? From what I've heard it's just a device used to access an extension of the iTunes store that only has books. Anyone ever heard of the... INTERNET??? I'm sure someone could write a program with fancy animations as you fipped through the pages for PC or *rolls eyes* macs. You can read books on your computer, or you could take the book with you if you wanted to read it on the go.

Everything is not as black and white as you think, child.

And linux too. And that weird one google is making that is basically extremely reliant on web-apps.

Compaq already did the flip thru pages thing Fireball - it was called tabworks but ... it never took off *sigh*

Isn't iPad an enlarged iPod?

@Quiztis:

No.

The iPad is in fact a large iPod Touch. Quiztits is correct. Yet another Apple product designed to lure suckers in and milk them continually.

Fireball, research moar. What you're describing is the Amazon Kindle.

Yeah, people are probably only gonna buy it because it's larger. The outside appearance works with every people nowadays. I mean, if I just went and mixed some old teas together, gave it a name like "Godly Jesus tea" and put it in a golden pack shaped as triangle and put a picture of Jesus' face on it, people would instantly buy it only because of the outside appearance.

No they wouldn't.

Lol

Heh, good one.

They definitely would if Apple sold it.

This inspires me.

Not to finish CC3 (haha - One day), but to create a series with the iphone and it's limitations in mind. I can't imagine combat being particularly intuitive on the system, but d-mods more akin to the style of The Basilisk Smile might work well. Something focused around environmental puzzles, dialogue and plot, perhaps?

Oh, I feel all tingly inside.

Cool, it will certainly give people some different things in mind when they develop mods in the future.

Nice. Seth was lurking around here yesterday too, wonder why he didn't mention it.

Doesn't look like all D-Mods will work properly with this, ones like Day of the Carcass or Bug Mania might be tricky. Certain DinkC stuff also might not work like, um, changing the font or checking the time.

Free dink doesn't support font changing either (Tried Three Amulets on my Ubuntu) but at least it wont crash only ignore it, I hope it's the same thing for iphone

That might just be because the font itself isn't on your Ubuntu. Include the font for people to install first and it might work... not sure.

>>Nice. Seth was lurking around here yesterday too, wonder why he didn't mention it.

I've been trying to stop by and scan for any questions to answer every day, yeah guess I could post when I have blog updates too.

>>Doesn't look like all D-Mods will work properly with this, ones like Day of the Carcass or Bug Mania might be tricky. Certain DinkC >>stuff also might not work like, um, changing the font or checking the time.

I've been using that very DMOD as a test case as it's very tricked-out. It does run ok and handles the statusbar overlay changes, etc .. but it runs a bit slow (12 FPSish..?)... this is due to the heavy per-frame scripting it is doing, not sure if I'll be able to improve on the speed or not for that DMOD, but at least I want it "working" perfectly.

I've been using that very DMOD as a test case as it's very tricked-out.

What about trying a few other romps? Another Dmod I can at least recommend testing would be the One-Screen Dmod compilation, or Bug Mania. Those two are fairly different to regular Dmods, and there could be other larger ones that are similar in the differences.

Actually Bug Mania probably wouldn't be a problem, just very easy on a touchscreen. I was trying to think of D-Mods that do something sufficiently weird to maybe break this iPhone version, like, um...

Um...

Actually Bug Mania probably wouldn't be a problem, just very easy on a touchscreen. I was trying to think of D-Mods that do something sufficiently weird to maybe break this iPhone version, like, um...

Um...

All of them.

And I like the Dink iPhone idea but won't play it for two reasons.

1. I don't have an iPhone or care to get one right now.
2. I'm a cheap dink who won't buy it as I'm already spoiled on open-source games.
3. If I misread and it's free I'm a freakin' nerd who will want to debug stuff myself (or screw with the source files to see what happens.)

I just want to thank Seth for making the first RPG I ever played. Actually, it was a demo, but still. Back when I was seven or so - the year two thousand? Possibly the year before.

Just last year I remembered a pack of demos we'd had ages ago and thought, I remember a great game. You started in a village and you had to find a duck to get out. Then there were killer bugs on the farms.

So, I Googled "rpg find duck to escape village save farms", or something, and found it. It's a brilliant game and I want to thank you very much.

I wanted to make my own D-Mod, but... too much stuff to do ATM. Maybe in a couple of years, when I've finished school, published a book or two, and generally have more time.

The ability to 'cheat' on bug mania will be defined by how the mouse cursor is handled.

If the cursor is controlled by tapping anywhere on the screen, yes it will be very easy.

If the cursor is controlled by the arrow 'keys' it would be very hard.

Platform Dink could be tricky

When will this be released? My sister has an iPod that I could try it out on. Then give back to her in disgust when I find out that bug mania doesn't work.

Also, calling the iPod touch the iTouch makes you a gigantic noob. Remember that.

Ok, will try out that one screen DMOD thingie. If it does use the mouse pointer functionality (like the main menu uses) it will respond to touches and might be too easy...

Beta testing - I'd love to get some testers, will put out a call a bit later, anybody with an iDevice is welcome.

iTouch - this is a nickname developers use, it's also the internal name Apple uses. Plus, it sounds sexual which is a plus.

About cost: This is undecided, but I'm playing with the idea of it being free and them being able to unlock the DMOD support for $2 or such.

The PC/etc version will stay free, I'll probably release the much faster native GL Dink engine with extra features like state saving and in-game DMOD support.

The save game format hasn't changed so you can switch between clients without a hassle.. although good luck getting your save.dat off the iPhone.. hrm.

I don't have an iPod touch... dangit!

I don't see the point in having to pay for the original game or D-Mod, though. Because Dink is a free game to download from the internet, it seems kinda silly. I think it would be better if you made the original game for iTouch cost something and let the D-Mods be free.

Besides, if somebody downloaded, for example, my D-Mod, you would collect all the money into your pockets.

I want to charge for CC3.

Make it happen, Seth.

Oh wow Skull. It's a one off fee to unlock functionality. The novelty is that you get to play The Game and mods on an overpriced portable device, which is apparently a luxury worth paying for. I don't think you really understand.

Of course someone could use the FreeDink source and the unofficial toolchain to compile a comparative app, with similar functionality to the original game that would run on Jailbroken devices. Someone send Beuc an iPhone!

I'd prefer there to be two editions, a free one with the demo of the original game, and a paid for one with the full original game, DinkEdit and DMOD support (like how it was back in the day).

The main appeal of the game is that it is free. Most people here started with the freeware version on their PC magazine cover discs, and now the main new users are GNU/Linux people.

DinkEdit on the iPhone?

No.

Just shut up, noob.

What he said.

I don't think anyone would mind paying $2 for such an awesome game. I'd say go for it Seth.

Yeah, it sounds like a plan, as long as you make enough advertising for the dmod-part after the main game, so people understand how much fun they can get for a couple of bucks.

all hail SETH and Tal

Woah, make it for Android too!

?

!

man this is freaky
i cannot stop coming to this thread
and staring at SETH's icon!

Looked at rtsoft today and stumbled across a twitter post 11 days old..

"@rtsoft The iToys have pleanty of games! Any plans for Android devices? Think of it: DinkDroid!"

"@brettprofitt DinkDroid? Yeah, I'd love to. Should be an easy port, gonna pick up a phone one of these days..."

Sounds like Dink is making a comeback! Kinda...

I don't suppose we'll get any special functions for tilting or shaking?
could make things interesting..

"About cost: This is undecided, but I'm playing with the idea of it being free and them being able to unlock the DMOD support for $2 or such." - Seth

I think you should charge for the game and keep d-mod support free.

Otherwise, you're effectively charging people to access content that we, the community, have released for free. Could go down badly in some quarters, I think. Also, given the bug-heavy nature of most d-mods, you could potentially face a backlash if you charge for d-mod support.

Just thinkin' out loud, like.

Agree. But shouldn't you say that on their page, not here.

he said charging for the support not the dmods He cant charge for them ya big silly

From an author's point of view, I think it's a bad idea to have to pay for access to community created content. In a way that's telling authors that although thousands might play Dink, only a dozen will actually play your d-mods.

Agrees... I think Dink should cost maybe 2$ with dmod support but there should also be a demo version for free with only the first village to atract players.

Yes, that would be ideal. To help out, we should spam other gaming message boards once it comes out

Hey, getting very close to being done with the new version..! And yeah, I agree. I'm just going to charge $3 for Dink period, dumb to separate it from the add-ons. $3 may seem steep, but keep in mind this is the iPad/iPhone/iPhone4 combo bundle which I think is quite a decent deal.

Will also soon have a (of course free) Windows version of this for anybody that wants to give it a go.

Sounds good to me, I'll buy it

I would buy it, but the phone I own can make calls. And that's pretty much it. My 10 year old calculator has more advanced games.

I think any Dinker with an iDevice will buy it The goal should be to attract new Dinkers with this version

And when they check TDN out, they'll be like "shoot! I could have gotten this game for free from this website!!"

I think there should be an option when downloading the PC version to get an iPhone for $3

But with this new one, whether iThingy or PC, will everything work that does in 1.08? Because if some things don't (or work differently) then it would be very useful to a) know exactly which commands and b) have it be a different version number (1.09?) so D-Mod developers can check it using get_version().

"I think there should be an option when downloading the PC version to get an iPhone for $3"

I would love an iPhone for $3!! However, sadly I don't think Apple will agree.

"have it be a different version number (1.09?)"

I suggest v1.0i.

Thank you, Mister.

What you talking 'bout, Willis?

Sounds good.

Now, if only I can find a way to make money from D-modding myself, I might find some motivation!

I would pay good money for some sensual trout tickling action.

I'll keep that in mind...

Would you like frys with that?

fries perhaps?

Indeed...

Deed in.