It's funny, people are so dismissive of iOS gaming, but will look back at this period as some kind of golden dawn of casual, fun and highly versitile portable gaming. Like how I look back in the feeling of when Game and Watches and gameboys first launched, but way better.
When it comes to being accessible to developers, iOS has a boatload of good going for it:
1-Your device is your dev kit. The hoops you gotta jump through to get a dev kit for traditional consoles are insane. $5K may not seem like much to a big company, but a garage dev? That's a few months of living expenses.
2-Concept Approvals? What approvals? This is a double edge sword as it allows for clones, infringing apps and in some cases, malware to get through.
But for a dev that wants to make a quality, quirky game that'd never get greenlit by a publisher? Again, god send.
3-Middleware is cheap. Unity, Cocos2D, a reasonably priced Unreal Engine license, etc. If you're an idea person that can't wanna focus on the tech, you've never been in more luck, ever.
While it's hard to fight through the sea of crappy apps, creative people can get their dream games, the gem forged through the heat of their passion and hard work into the hands of others.
On the subject of games for the list, I hope Astro Story gets up there as far as Kairo games go. Sad to see Ghost Trick not on the list either...
