GDC '09: Hands on with LiveFire on iPhone

Among the more ambitious projects on show during the Game Developers Conference, LiveFire fuels the continued effort to push the bounds of iPhone gaming with genres traditionally reserved for consoles and PC.

First-person shooters aren't the domain of mobile devices and yet here it is, hoping to heat things up with its touch controls and network multiplayer.

More or less a working prototype than actual game, the level of LiveFire we played was built to showcase potential touchscreen control schemes and network multiplayer. Exactly what modes of play the final game will offer has yet to befinalised, which means there's the potential it won't include a single player campaign.

In fact, the insistence that the company wishes to focus on connected experiences leads us to believe that the emphasis will be solely on delivering a multiplayer-only shooter.

Two iPod touches were able to connect via wi-fi for real-time competition, one manned by a producer at ngmoco and the other by us. As soon as we entered the game on our iPod touch we were visible to our producer pal, who immediately opened fire. Aside from proving his over-eagerness, it did highlight the lack of noticeable lag between the two devices.

The goal is to bring this smooth technical performance to the network, allowing you to hop into a game without worrying about slowdown.

CEO Neil Young promises, "It works perfectly over 3G to the point where you can't even tell the difference from wi-fi." He explains the reason for using wi-fi during the demonstration was due to the volume of 3G traffic during the conference.

Young identified technical stability as one of two elements critical to the success of LiveFire, the second being finely-tuned controls.

Placing your thumbs on opposite ends of the screen allows you to dictate movement and direction of sight. Your left thumb controls movement, whereas the right moves your camera view. You can place your thumbs anywhere on the screen and the game automatically accepts commands from those points.

Admittedly, the controls are far from finalised. While the current scheme is functional, more tuning is necessary for it to feel intuitive.

Firing your weapon takes a double tap of the screen and jumping requires a minute jostle of the handset, neither of which feels quite right. Additionally, the final game will need to be flexible with its controls. The customisable Prey, for example, provides an all-in-one solution rather than restricting the interface to one option.

Should LiveFire introduce a customisable interface, or at least options to tweak the control preferences per individual tastes, that will be a step in the right direction.

Even then, we're wary of the possibility that single player will be absent from the game. Network multiplayer is without question an exciting prospect, but online shootouts alone aren't going to be enough to light our fire.