I got this idea when looking out at the ads for the latest smart phones and 4G networked devices. Why not make a spiral knights app for them? I mean yes key binding it for play would be somewhat difficult, but some of the phones that could possibly run the game have a slide down keyboard. If not possibly a Downloadable app for the upcoming Sony vita or the current PSP. I'd like to have more reasons for getting more of my friends to play this great game.
-Juno
The android market is mostly java based. That said, why not make spiral knights also available for tablet too? I mean yes touch controls would be tricky but if you could do a hud control system for the touched based commands or have it work with a keyboard cradle (like the keyboards for the Ipad) then Volia! A tap into the mobile gaming market, aside from laptop users.
the second question is what legal issues must be hashed out with other companies like sony and such to get this out to those platform
Well spiral knights is free to play. So my best SWAG here is that since there's several third party apps for the Android market that are, indeed, free. I myself do not work for Sony, Sega, Threerings or any company that is involved with arranging such and app for their respective market. However it is nice to imagine a potential free complete game fresh out of the box for these new devices to fiddle with instead of having to purchase one in addition to the +200$ device. I believe that the trade off would be rather nice, Threerings and Sega getting more publicity and moolah for this game (which means more patches, better content and potential celebratory items) as well as more users and the device owners in question being able to advertise a game that can run well on these up and coming and current gen consoles at no additional cost. Potentially driving up sales for the debuting or currently released system.
"does java even work with them that is the question"
Uhh, dosent this game run in unity? I think it runs completely in unity, not java. But hey, I could be wrong.
I don't know. Posts from 2009 say unity, but the reviews from today say Java based.
That said I'm hoping it's java or that unity works with java, that way this game can still work on any system, as it currently does with the three most popular OS's.
As for java with the PSVita, there was a demo of the device running minecraft. So it's probable, and potentially possible, that one could get the device to play spiral knights, its even credited to have similar graphics comparable to a PS3.
There is not a tablet in existence that could handle a true 3D game. The processing needed for games like this simply isn't available in such a small package. Similarly, netbooks can't handle the video processing and even most laptops and many off-the-shelf desktops fail miserably at 3D gaming.
The PSP probably has the video capabilities, but the expense of porting to that platform is significant, and I doubt such a device is the best way to play SK or for SK to bring in new players. Does it have a keyboard to type with (built-in, not expensive add-on)? An MMO without any chat would be pretty terrible.
OOO does have an iPad game that's pretty cool. It's called Corpse Craft and it has delightful 2D graphics.
What brought about this, originally, is the release of the new HTC EVO 3D which is capable of not only generating 3D akin to the 3DS but also one of the first phones to support a duo core processing chip (Albiet 1.2-1.5GHz). So eventually, if technology allows it, tablets either now or a few years later will be able to support 3d gaming (I think there's one out actually... but it was speficially coded). As for the PSP while it is limited to the actual keyboard, dungeons now have vocal chat and the PSP-3000 series has a built in mic for Skype.
As for reported netbooks supporting Spiral Knights it depends on the chipset. Some can and others can't. Most of recent ones that can support DDR3 Ram have the built in graphics capability to run the game. Others cannot handle rendering in other objects such as more than one character on the screen. (Be it monster, dynamic lighting or another knight)
@DrLequack
Lol wut? Where did you get that silly idea?
If worse comes to worse it could just be a standalone version of SK, Not wired into the network but like a single player/multiplayer spinoff, similar to Diablo II, Titan quest, etc.
does java even work with them that is the question