Today at GDC we got the chance to sit down and meet with Nigel Little of Distinctive Developers and take a look at Anytime Pool. In it’s current state Anytime Pool is a Facebook pool game. It’s a full 3d game that is a lot of fun to play, (and of course since it is on Facebook, it’s free.) On March 30th, the social pool gaming revolution will begin, because they will be bringing it over to the iPhone.
The game offers more depth then any other pool game I’ve seen on the iPhone to date. There is a full featured career mode in which players will be graded based on how well they perform. There are 5 different locations in the game, and the one we got to sample was the US bar. There are a bunch of different opponents to keep things fresh, and they based on the US level, the opponents seem to be themed to the location, in a kind of stereotypical fashion, I might add.
There are 3 levels of difficulty available to the player when you start. The only thing that changes as you ramp of the difficulty is the aiming line. On easy you get the full ball deflection line, making it much easier to line up your shot, on medium you only see where the ball will hit the first ball, and on hard there is aim assist at all. The one other change with the difficulty is that your score at the end of match will be based on difficulty, meaning, if you play on easy the max level you can get is a C (on a A, B,C,D,F scale).
There will be three types of pool available in the game. It will come with US 8 Ball, US 9 Ball and UK 8 Ball.
The game controls very well. It uses a standard touch the screen aim with your finger, with a bar on the bottom of the screen for more precise aiming. It allows you to adjust the camera in any angle, including up and down. Power is set by sliding your finger up or down the meter on the right side of the screen. You then fire off your shot by tapping on the little shoot button. They also give you full control of the spin on the ball with a nice little menu system.
I’ve established that this is a solid pool game, but that’s only a small part of the picture. Where the game really shines is in it’s asynchronis or synchronis Multiplayer and Facebook integration. You can start up a game with a friend on your Facebook list and take a shot. If he or she is online watching, they will see your shot in real time and be able to follow with a shot of their own, if they are offline, they will see your shot the next time they log in, either from their Facebook of their iPhone, and be able to take their next shot. With this method you can have up to 40 games of pool going at once. It’s a pretty impressive system for handling multiplayer on a portable platform, and in the demo we received of the game, it worked beautifully.
While playing, your friends will be able to see your Facebook picture, and know exactly who they are playing against (although if they are your friends, I would assume they already know that). They also included a match making system, so if you have no friends (like Matt) then you can find some random people to get your game on against.
Overall, I’m pretty psyched for the game, and look forward to getting a copy on March 30th, and letting you know how the final version comes out, keep it locked to iPGN for more previews from GDC, and the review of this game shortly after release!
