My audio issues are becoming increasing frustrating. This morning I decided I would try to simplify things. I had seen other apps handle the music thing like this: if the user is playing their own music when the game starts, let their music keep playing; if the user isn’t playing music when the game starts, play the game’s music. I figured this would be easier to implement (and it should be).

I got curious about how other games handle things like this: start the game with no music playing, then attempt to start music via the quick music pop-up (double-tap the home button to bring it up anywhere on your iPhone/iPod touch) once the game is running (this causes my game to hang right now). I started going through other games on my iPod touch and tried combinations of starting with and without music. I ended up with all sorts of problems: games freezing, music refusing to play, the iPod’s music player jumping around between albums even though it’s not set on random, games playing music the first time I boot them, but then refusing to play music and refusing to accept touch events the next time I boot them.

For example, I booted Rolando while my own music was playing. The game kept playing my music and allowed me to play fine. I quit the game and stopped my music. When I reentered Rolando, no music played (including game music) and touch events had a 5-10 second delay on them rendering the game unplayable. It seems unlikely that this is a problem with the game as I experienced similar behaviour with other games. This is what I like to call “Good Times”.

In short: I’m not sure my iPod touch is stable anymore. I’m wondering if some of the bugs I was seeing are problems with the iPod? Or perhaps my bugs caused problems with the iPod? I’m tempted to do a hardware restore and see if things become more stable. Rebooting the device doesn’t seem to be helping much.

In non-audio related news, Gamasutra has a feature article up today about iPhone game development in 2009:

• iLang Syne: A Guide To iPhone Game Development In 2009 (www.gamasutra.com) – The author looks back at 2008 and the emergence of iPhone gaming, then talks about where we’re at right now, and then talks about what 2009 might look like for iPhone game development.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an iPod touch to wipe out.

Owen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 9:04 am and is filed under iPhone, Misc, Sound, Technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.