The Hummingbird Manifesto
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Sometimes I like to take things slow. I love extra innings with Vin Scully, I indulge in long-winded blog posts, and I’m the kind of guy that takes a Russian novel to the men’s room. But for iPhone games, I’m with Carrie Fisher — instant gratification takes too long!
A couple weeks ago, my old pal Matt Tieger convinced me to buy Westward for my iPhone. Matt and I worked on Darkwatch together at High Moon Studios (where Matt remains as a Game Director and wage slave), so he figured I’d tumble for an Old West-themed iPhone game. I promptly downloaded the game because I am basically an idiot who will do whatever I am told, and I also have this crazy idea that iPhone game ventures should be supported if they look even vaguely interesting.
(we know a thing or two about old west games)
I played Westward for a short while, discovering that it is a quasi-real time strategy game. It is perfectly playable, charming, and enjoyable. I finished the first tutorial mission but will likely never play it again — along with games like Spore and Reign of Swords, I regard Westward as an excellent game that I’m just not very interested in playing on my iPhone.
Call me brain damaged from too much Twitter, but I really don’t want to block out more than five minutes for an iPhone game. Frequently I’ll want to get in and out in even less time. I made plenty of “appointment games” in my past life so maybe I’m just burned out, but if an iPhone game requires that I sign up for some kind of prolonged campaign with tutorials and multiple scenarios, well … include me out.
I want something fast, shiny, and delightful, where the engagement comes not just from the length of the content but from the sparkle of the execution. I want games that are always there for me, require minimum learning, and don’t feel like work to play. I want to be able to flit from App to App without getting married to any of them.
(this picture and all sorts of airy-fairy hummingbird crap are on display at about.com)
This is what I want from an iPhone game. Call it my Hummingbird Manifesto.
Hummingbirds are always moving. These games are on my iPhone, and they are out in the world with me. Make sure your game is something I can play while standing in line, or cheating during a card game. If you must have them at all, keep the menus big and simple, and stick to easy controls that don’t require extraordinary precision. If I can play your game with one hand, so much the better. I love to combine my hobbies!
Hummingbirds flit from flower to flower. Load that damn game, and load it fast. Your game is an ephemeral distraction wedged in around all the reading, texting, talking, and listening I do with my iPhone (to say nothing of all the other games demanding my attention). Make it easy for me to get in and out of your game. Welcome me back with minimal load times and make sure your game is instantly comprehensible so I don’t need to think too hard about what I was doing when I last quit out.
Hummingbirds love to mix and match. I have my life stored on Apple’s little wonderbox — let me use it in your game. Let me bring in my own pictures, and let me share games through my address book. Most important — let me listen to my own music while I play your game. If I want to hear some dumbass podcast while I play your game, let me do that … don’t step on my audio with your lame royalty-free soundtrack.
Hummingbirds are serious little bastards. They zip around like mental patients but they know what they are doing, and their time is valuable. Your games might be short, but I expect quality. Don’t waste my time with knockoffs and bad user interfaces.
Let a million flowers bloom! As iPhone indie game developers, let’s work together to create a brilliant field of vibrant and worthwhile Apps. Let’s eschew the fast buck and build quality entertainment for this amazing new device. Leave the sturm und drang for console games (or bring it here — I said a million flowers and I believe in the Big Tent — just don’t expect me to play it). But let’s recognize that iPhone mobile games are a new game form, deserving new rules and sensibilities.
And respect the hummingbird! According to Wikipedia (so it must be true): “Aztecs wore hummingbird talismans, the talismans being representations as well as actual hummingbird fetishes formed from parts of real hummingbirds: emblematic for their vigor, energy and propensity to do work along with their sharp beaks that mimic instruments of weaponry, bloodletting, penetration and intimacy.”
The Aztecs would carve your freakin’ heart out — and they respected the hummingbird. You have been warned.
(Update: SlideToPlay has commented on the Hummingbird Manifesto. Check it out here.)
February 17th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
The Hummingbird Manifesto sounds a bit Utopian in concept. What’s to prevent competitors from stealing your idea and undercutting your price just to gain market share.
The idea is great. And if we could get collective buy in, it would work fantastically. I’m just hoping the recession will kill the weak copycats and unmotivated players, leaving a fertile ground for the developers that do survive and create great titles (indie or corporate).
February 17th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Hey, Joseph, thanks for commenting.
I’m going to trust that while the competition can steal my ideas, they’ll never be able to steal my devilish good looks. The simpler the idea, the greater the importance of polish, quality, and execution.
Respect the hummingbird!
February 17th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
paul,
I’m not going to go into much detail but a friend of mine and I pitched some “instant RPG” game ideas for the PC download market once.
all the fun of leveling up a character with different attributes only you could do the entire quest tree in a single sitting.
T.G.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Role playing games are desperately in need of reinvention. The Ulm and I discussed a similar concept, and we’d like to try something on the iPhone, but our idea will have to wait for the third or fourth iteration of our technology before we can give it a go.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
[...] that, I have not read one book or one article about good game design. I did stumble across The Hummingbird Manifesto but this is little more than a cheeky bit of pretty intuitive advice. As my game development gets [...]
February 20th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Bollocks. You are attempting to expand your (IMO, lame) personal biases into some kind of general principle and pass it off as wisdom. There are plenty of fans of thoughtful and longer-form games who want to play them on the go and/or in snippets. Exemplia gratia: Deep Green.
The beautiful thing about the iPhone is that it is a fully functional computer, making it flexible enough to be your thumb-candy Pez dispenser, my intellectual-challenge vade mecum, somebody else’s productivity tool, dot-dot-dot. Not getting *that* is missing the point.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Well, it was kind of a personal rant, Mr. Bridges (or may I call you Clay). The Hummingbird Manifesto isn’t a call to action so much as a definition of what I’m personally looking for in an iPhone game. No one is compelled to follow this advice, but we’ll be putting our money where our mouth is by following many of these principles when we release our first App in a couple weeks.
And, yes, the iPhone is a perfectly plastic interface that can do most anything, but until someone ships a time machine App it isn’t going to change the time or attention span that I bring to games I play on the phone. I’m not saying that console-style games can’t be made for the iPhone, or even that console-style games shouldn’t be made for the iPhone. I’m just saying that I don’t WANT them.
Thanks for the comment! Stick around, Clay, and call us “bollocks” again. It’s like having another Sarge around the office.
(And I’ll check out Deep Green).
February 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
he’s right ! this is all a self serving propaganda machine to bolster YOUR AGENDA ! caveat emperor my so called friend. consider this my official resignation from the appy fan club. and my official creation of the I HATE APPY SOCIETY. which i am forming now.
Sic Transit Gloria douche bag.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
@Paul: “Bollocks” is generally directed towards ideas, not people, as in “that’s a load of bollocks”. i.e. nothing personal. That said, I probably overreacted. The bias towards twitchy games and puzzles on the iPhone annoys me, but I should save that for my own manifesto, and not take it out on poor (though bad-ass, fast, with sharp beaks) hummingbirds. Best of luck on your games.
@Grimshaw: Way to elevate the discussion! Cf. ad hominem.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Notes from iPhone apps.
hey you know what game I’m loving right now is Incredible Contraption. i think it kind of maybe fits in your “hummingbird” idea. its deep. its rich. but i can pick it up or put it down anytime i want. I kind of will play that and then will dip into Fieldrunners for a bit. its true i kind of flit from flower to flower. I’m a humming bird ! actually, this is even sadder, before working so much i was playing epic rounds of Fallout3, and i would play with my iphone at the same time. if my girlfriend let me have 2 tv’s in the living room again it would be perfect.
note on social apps.
I got Bebot app the other day. love it. i started playing it and now during this ballbreaking crunch we are in everyone else on the team bought it too and we all play it as a little goofy stress breaker during meetings. ( we’ve been doing 12 hour days for a month ). people kind of “jam” together with them.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Grimshaw, you ignorant slut. You can’t resign from the Appy Fan Club — you were never a member! But were you a member of the Appy Army rest assured that for your intemperate remarks you would be Standing Tall Before The Man.
RIP! There go your shoulder epaulets!
SNAP! The sound of your saber across my knee.
Beat him a tattoo, boys, he’s getting Danny Deveered!
February 20th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Thanks, Clay, for wishing us luck. We will need buckets of the stuff to avoid (further) disgrace.
And no offense over “bollocks,” we call each other worse, both here and in the blog (check Sargie’s last entry for colorful language).
Are you annoyed by twitchy games on the iPhone because of the touchpad’s limited ability to handle rapid inputs?
February 20th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
“Are you annoyed by twitchy games on the iPhone
because of the touchpad’s limited ability to handle
rapid inputs?”
Good question, but no. Turn-based games are more my thing.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Grimshaw, I see you’ve come slinking around, like the family dog. All is forgiven.
I’ll check out Bebot. The YouTube video is promising.
That you played with your iPhone while playing Fallout3 half validates my loopy theory. The five dollar question — would you want to play Fallout3 ON your iPhone?
February 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Clay, I’d welcome better turn-based games on my iPhone. Reign of Swords I thought was very good — and if I was playing it on a tabletop ala Battlelore I’d likely never stop talking about it. But it was snowed under by a wave of more accessible Apps on my phone … I was tired of waiting for the server connection every time I played.
An Advance Wars or Fire Emblem clone for iPhone would be on the outside edge of what I’m looking for …
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:41 am
I tried Reign of Swords (Lite), and while I appreciate the enormity of what those guys were trying to do, I found it basically unplayable.
While I’m at it, they lost huge points when their splash screen played a sound clip through my speaker while my phone was on vibrate. Sloppy.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 am
I’m a medieval wargame nut so I actually appreciated some of the stuff going on in that game. I particularly liked how you were encouraged to keep your lines trim and guard your flanks. But there was too much piled on top of the combat engine for me to really enjoy the game.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
RoS might have benefited from applying Gruber’s law of iPhone apps:
Figure out the absolute least you need to do to implement the idea, do just that, and then polish the hell out of the experience.
http://daringfireball.net/2008/11/iphone_likeness
I’m trying to do this in the game I’m developing.
I think that sense of elegance probably ties into some of what you were saying in the manifesto (which I completely misapprehended, to my shame).
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:18 am
[...] The Hummingbird ManifestoSometimes I like to take things slow. I love extra innings with Vin Scully, I indulge in long-winded blog posts, and I’m the kind of guy that takes a Russian novel to the men’s room. But for iPhone games, I’m with Carrie Fisher …http://goldenboat.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/the-hummingbird-manifesto/ [...]
October 4th, 2009 at 3:00 am
humming bird is very beautiful. we should preserve it.In future our sister and brother can not see this species. so we should preserve it with the help of government of india.
Thank you
October 4th, 2009 at 8:17 am
For great justice.
May 9th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
hummingbirds are awesome.56164