Slitherine

As a huge fan of the CiC series and primarily an Iphone player I was very disappointed to see that the interface had been "computerized", i.e. not at all designed for the Iphone anymore. The main annoyance is the tiny buttons.

While I can accept some of the changes even if I don't like or even understand them (why drop Game Center?), I simply find this one baffling. Why on earth ruin a well designed, even prize winning, interface? I get the feeling that Slitherine simply doesn't "get", or even care about, mobile when a huge error like this seemingly slips through playtesting.

And yes, it is a big deal since the game uses umpteen selection and dialog boxes during play. It is also a big deal because the game a) used to run very well on the Iphone, with a beatiful and extremely functional interface, and b) because the interactive format with a large number of activations per game turn (say 5-10) means many small moves, which means the Iphone is great for playing the game during the day. This isn't Battle Academy (a nice game BTW) where you move all your units and then wait for the other player to move all of his. It's a very different, and much more interactive, game system where it's a huge plus (and lots of fun!) to be able to pay a couple of moves on the lunch break, or on the subway, or in bed, or wherever.

I sincerely hope that this was just an oversight and the Iphone interface will be much improved in the next update.

We've tried to use a similar interface across all platforms, as this is easier to maintain over a longer period of time.
Clearly it was a mistake and we've now added back the special interface for Iphones. It will be available in the next patch. I'm sorry for the incovenience.

Also, we're aware of the changes done to the multiplayer system. After fixing the interface and performance issues, next step will be to add some features to the multiplayer and make it more similar to the GC one. I can't appreciate any length of time for this, but it will be several weeks until that.

Thank you very much for the quick reply. I understand these are business decisions as well, I just felt that button size was such a basic issue that should (?) be scalable with few problems.

As for the multiplayer, I have't tried the Slitherine service yet (didn't have time to register) so I can't comment. One thing that could potentially bother me about it was if I had to log on constantly (you are always logged in to Game Center, of course) but I'll withhold comment until I try it. I assume logoff issues are fixable if they exist.