Civilization and the iPhone are an obvious match. A mouse-controlled, turn-based strategy is pretty much the ideal game to port to the iPhone. So obvious that it wasn’t a matter of “if” but “when” Civ would hit the iPhone. I’m glad Firaxis took their time with this one, because if it hit before I graduated, it would have led to a premature end to my university career.

Or maybe not? Despite my initial excitement, Civilization Revolution for the iPhone left me a little cold. The game itself is an excellent reimagining of the franchise for a more casual crowd, programmed by Sid Meier himself. The interface, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired.

Don’t drag, tap!

The basic interaction in Civ Rev is moving units across the world. This is done by tap-and-holding a unit, and then dragging to the destination. This doesn’t work as well as you’d expect.

The difference between the mouse and the finger as a pointing device is that the mouse cursor lives in the screen, but your finger is attached to your hand. As you drag your finger across the screen your hand gets in the way.

This is especially annoying in Civ Rev because as you drag, the game draws the path your unit is going to take. Because my hand covers most of the screen while dragging, I find myself constantly struggling to both move to my destination as well as review the path which my unit will take. That the fundamental interaction in the game is this frustrating ruins the game for me.

(read on…)