ByteClub

As you may have heard, latest iPhone update, version 2.2, allows developers to output video to a TV through an iPhone/iPod AV cable. There is already a demo of a modified Moto Chaser game playing on a big TV screen. What could this mean for iPhone games? 

This could be another one of those changes that requires you to re-think the way iPhone/iPod Touch games are designed: You now have 2 screens to work with and one of them is stationary. iPhone becomes the "remote control", with accelerometer, a multi-touch display and a microphone. TV becomes a "canvas" that could be seen by several people at once. What can you do with that? Quite a bit, seems like. Possible uses for the iPhone in this scenario:

• Accepting answers via the screen (a trivia game)
• Accepting input via accelerometer (Dance Dance Revolution/Tap Tap Revenge mix?)
• As demonstrated by Ocarina recently, microphone is not out of the question here, either
• Allowing one player to setup a challenge for everybody else to solve (Pictionary?)
• Allowing players to make their moves (any board game)

• Present challenges/questions/puzzles to the crowd (trivia, Pictionary)
• In general, act as the main game screen, seen by all participants

As an example, take any board game (monopoly, yahtzee, pictionary etc). TV screen is a natural fit for the game board and iPhone can be a great way for players to make their moves - you are not limited to just buttons and it offers players an ability to make their game decisions in private. Compare this to Wii - controls are constrained to a handful of buttons/D-pad/joystick and there is no way to display any information to the user without revealing it to the rest of the room.

Shake Shake Revenge anybody? Shake the phone to the rhythm/music, display cues and visual effects on TV. Here, you are more directly competing against the likes of Rayman Raving Rabbids dance mini-game on the Wii. But you still have the iPhone screen to do something cool with.

How about a mixture of Ocarina and karaoke? See who can play a tune flawlessly, with the score scrolling by on the TV screen. Or just a simple karaoke app - lyrics on the TV screen, mic on the phone. You can even throw in some vocal variety a-la Sonic Vox for extra oomph.

Mark my words, some excellent party games will come out of this.

- Peter Bakhyryev