On Friday Mad Monkey Studio announced plans to develop games for the iPhone. In and of itself, that may not be a remarkable feat, until you consider that Mad Monkey Studio plans to support the iPhone 3GS exclusively.
Calling the iPhone 3GS “the fastest mobile console available,” Mad Monkey Studio says that device works up to four times faster than the 3G; a video on the company’s blog shows a 3D flythrough demo on both an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 3G that yields a frame rate four times higher on a 3GS than the 3G. The developer said it will use the improved performance of the 3GS combined with its more capable graphics shading technology to develop new games. More details about how the performance was acheived have been posted to developer Gaël Laqueux’s developer diary.
Game developers have already demonstrated the iPhone 3GS’s impressive graphics capability. Firemint, makers of Real Racing, a 3D racing game for the iPhone, have shown a video of an internal development version of their game that displays more than six times as many on-screen cars at once—from six in the current release version to 40 in the test version.
Likewise, developers and publishers of iPhone games including representatives from Doom and Quake maker Id Software to Ngmoco, publishers of Rolando, have noted the 3GS’ superior graphics capability and performance as something to consider going forward.
Up until now, however, the question among many developers has been how to include 3GS development along with support for older “2G” and 3G iPhones, as they still make up the bulk of the iPhone installed base. Mad Monkey Studios is taking things in a different direction by supporting only the 3GS.
For now, Mad Monkey Studio is limiting its information on the new game, only to say that it will sport “a cutting edge 3D look never seen on the iPhone” and will be announced in the coming weeks.