Seeking recommendations of games for an inexperienced iPad user

By nmpettus, 20 September, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

I am a developer. I am looking for the best apps available for someone who is not familiar with the iPad, my uncle. He has macular degeneration and loves to play computer games. I have written Spoken Slots and Spoken 21 and will soon release Catch 52, but I want to populate an iPad2 with a dozen or so games that he can play. Which games have you enjoyed, purchased, or recommend I include on his iPad?

Thanks so much for you answer and any feedback on my games.

Norm Pettus

Options

Comments

By Zaina on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 19:33

Hey there, here are a bunch of games that are pretty accessible...
Please note that I have only tried those games on an iPhone and an iTouch.
For 3D audio games i suggest Papa Sangre and The Nightjar.
For card and dice games try Dice World and Lost Cities.
For MMORPG i highly recommend Lords and Knights and Solara, it might take a while to grasp Lords Knights with voice over, I've been playing this game for about 7 months now and I can tell you its very addictive and is my favorite!

By fastfinge on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 19:33

I've really been having a lot of fun with Theta Poker Pro, lately. Getting into the settings interface to turn on the accessibility features can be a little tricky if you aren't perfectly familiar with the iPad, but once you've helped him out with that, the game is really good! Tap the deck to fold, tap your chips to bet, and tap your cards to check. All cards, bets, etc, are announced as they happen. At first I was a little bit unsure about a single player hold 'em game, but the AI players are good, and have enough different play styles, that it feels nearly as fun as playing with humans. Also, the AI players won't leave mid-game, or take forever to play, or make extraordinarily stupid and senseless bets, unlike humans who do all of those things. Theta Poker Pro got me contentedly through an 8 hour car trip, so it's got plenty of play value for the money.

Another good game I really enjoyed was Lost Cities. I spent hours playing it when it came out, but eventually tired of it, because I just find that game really, extremely, difficult. After losing about 150 games in a row, I said to heck with it. But if you're better at it than me, it *is* a lot of fun. This is another one where the controls are pretty easy and obvious.

There is also Dice World, if he enjoys classic dice games. Unfortunately, the social features and ads could make this one a bit confusing for a new iPad user. Maybe get the no ads in-app purchase, and it would probably be OK. But the layout of a lot of the games, especially Yatzy and pig, isn't my favourite. But farkle is easy and fun.

Recently, I've gotten into crossly. Once again, the layout could be better, but it's the best crossword style game accessible to us on the app store. Playing words across is easy and fine, but when you want to play a word going down, I can see how a new iPad user could get frustrated. Once he gets comfortable exploring the screen with his fingers, rather than just using flick left and right though, this is tons of fun.

So, those are my top picks for best IOS games. That's totally objective of course, as I strongly dislike what I tend to call twitch gaming, where the entire game is based on speed and reflexes. So no shooters or racing games or whatever, for me. I know there are lots of good options for those kinds of games, but I'll let someone else who enjoys that kind of gaming make some recommendations.

By Lara Green on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 19:33

In reply to by fastfinge

What sorts of games has he enjoyed?at the moment will he be using speech voiceover or magmnificatiom zoom to use the ipad?

By nmpettus on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 19:33

In reply to by Lara Green

He used to play Pogo games but that is out now. He has no training with Voice Over and had trouble when I tried to teach him.

Thanks for your reply.

Norm Pettus

By Siobhan on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 19:33

Hi all, Norm especially. I'll get you what I promised in that email when I can. What about all of those choice of games, I think they are text adventures. So he can still swipe around and have fun. You might want to take a read through the Games directory to see if there's something you can ask about, so we can better customize the experience for him. Looking forward to your next game,a nd what you and i talked about. :) Have a great one.

By Tracy Carcione on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - 19:33

My current favorites are Blindfold Racer, Mousekick, and Sixth Sense. None of them use VO very much. Mousekick took some listening to the training to get used to the sounds, but I find it amusing.
I spend my workday thinking, so I like games where I don't have to think too much, I guess.