EPOCH is a game for iOS devices where you control the actions of a single robot as it fights off hordes of other robots, with different types of enemies attacking in different ways. Much like Serious Sam 3, the strategy comes from how the game layers attacking enemies. You have to plan for distinct attacks and counter them by moving from cover to cover, popping up to attack the bad guys with your weapons and special attacks.
It's a simple formula, but the game remains fun for lengthy sessions even though the core mechanics may sound repetitive. You swipe left and right to move your character, swipe down to take cover, and tap on the bad guys to target them. You can unlock new guns and armor, and putting together specific loadouts adds another layer of strategy to the game. I caught up with Ryan Lancaster, one-third of Uppercut Games to talk about where the control ideas came from and how the game's release date hurt its chances of press coverage.
"From the outset we wanted to make a game that used the touch interface for what we thought it was best at: taps and swipes. We're not fans of virtual joysticks on touch devices, mostly because of the lack of physical feedback," Ryan Lancaster told Ars. "There was also the consideration that we wanted you to be able to see the action on screen without having your hands be permanently in the way." By moving your character with swipes and then targeting by tapping your enemy, the player is free to enjoy the action without their fingers obscuring the screen, while still keeping a high level of interactivity.
The thought put into the controls paid off, although Lancaster admits they struggled through different ideas for aiming at enemies, and he's still interested in trying different ideas for reloading your guns; the downward swipe to reload while in cover was added late in development.
The issues are few, however. By moving your character with swipes and taps, it feels like you're in control of the action, and it's a much more satisfying system than virtual buttons. By using what the iPad and iPhone do well in terms of control, the team was able to create a "stop and pop" shooter that's fun and reactive, which is important in a game where the core mechanics are so simple. The movement and actions are simple throughout the game, but your strategy will change as you play. It's not as easy as it looks.
Lancaster did point out that launching so close to Skyrim cost them in the short term, although the game isn't in direct competition with bigger, triple-A titles. "We got really good press coverage when we announced the game back in July and a lot of other press contacting us for stories, but when the game actually shipped in November it was really only mobile-focused sites that were covering EPOCH, as all the other sites were focused on Skyrim," he explained. Even podcasts that often featured iPad games moved over to Skyrim coverage. "So we certainly feel that better timing our release window could have resulted in better press coverage," Lancaster said.
Here's the lesson the team learned: it's not money they're competing for, it's time. "We don't feel we're in direct competition with big-name console titles from a money perspective. It's really time we're competing for: both gamer time and press time," Lancaster told Ars. While they may have lost coverage due to the press obsession with Skyrim during EPOCH's launch, they knew the November date was important to hit; Infinity Blade 2 would be out in early December, and that's a game they would be competing with directly.
"As for gamer time, smaller iPhone games that people play on the bus aren't really competing with consoles, but bigger iPad games certainly are: if you're sitting on your couch playing an iPad game you could be playing a console game," Lancaster said. "The next few months for me will certainly be spent catching up on all the awesome games I missed through November while crunching to get EPOCH done, so I probably wont be playing iPad games!"
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