'Pascal's Wager' Becomes First iPad Game to Add Mouse and Keyboard Support

[MacRumors]

iPhone and iPad game "Pascal's Wager" has become the first to add support for both mouse and keyboard controls.

Pascal's Wager is a dark-fantasy action roleplaying game. With a high level of graphical fidelity, a range of unique characters, and a soundtrack performed by a "world-class" orchestra, the game has been featured by Apple in the past.

Added in update 1.6.2, Pascal's Wager now supports a mouse and keyboard on devices running iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 or later, giving players a more precise option for controlling the game. Reddit user u/AppleGamers posted a short video demonstrating how mouse and keyboard controls work for Pascal's Wager.

Apple announced keyboard, mouse, and trackpad support for games at WWDC 2020 and held a specific online session on how developers can implement it. While many developers have already added keyboard support to their games, such as "XCOM 2" and "Civilization VI," Pascal's Wager appears to be the first implementation of both mouse and keyboard controls for an iOS and iPadOS game, offering a more desktop or laptop-like experience when gaming.

Article Link: 'Pascal's Wager' Becomes First iPad Game to Add Mouse and Keyboard Support

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Nice! Going to try playing it on iPad Air.

 

[Picklefoot]

Good on Giant Network. I will be buying this game because they actually give a damn.

It's unbelievable how slow and uncommitted the other developers are. Especially the big developers with tons of money. Mojang should be ashamed of itself and I bet they are ashamed because they continuously take awful, shameful decisions... ain't that right, Mojang? Yeah! I thought so.

There are so many other games that would benefit from mouse and keyboard support. Soooo many games. Yes, I get it, these are big changes and sometimes they're not worth implementing for smaller companies. But there are so many big developers that have zero excuses.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Interesting. Good for them. I remember using a keyboard with my iPad quite a while ago, and I was amazed how good it felt. I was entering a long and torturous wifi password, and was on my 5th or 6th attempt, and got so frustrated, I paired the old wireless keyboard and got it done. I did try the mouse, and it felt a little too weird. *shrug* (I did have a client with a touchscreen monitor, and was complaining about the cumbersome selection of things on the screen. They had a mouse sitting right there. I pointed out that the mouse still worked, and they didn't realize that. *shrug* I made their day)

 

[apparatchik]

Pascal's Wager is a dark-fantasy action roleplaying game. With a high level of graphical fidelity, a range of unique characters, and a soundtrack performed by a "world-class" orchestra, the game has been featured by Apple in the past.

If it was a world-class orchestra they could just say the name of the orchestra jk.

Apple should make controller and keyboard/mouse support a requirement for any new iOS/iPadOS/tvOS/Mac App Store game so we get consistency across the board...

 

[Vasilisxd]

Great , hope to see an RTS like Age of Empires or Starcraft coming to iPad.

 

[Picklefoot]

If it was a world-class orchestra they could just say the name of the orchestra jk.

Apple should make controller and keyboard/mouse support a requirement for any new iOS/iPadOS/tvOS/Mac App Store game so we get consistency across the board...

Not sure if it should be a requirement but developers should implement mouse and keyboard and/or controller support when it makes sense. If anything, it starts making sense just to grab the Mac and Apple TV market.

By supporting mouse and keyboard, developers have the opportunity to support M1 Macs right out of the box with a single iOS/iPad release. They don't even need to make a proper native Mac binary if they're that lazy. But developers like Mojang don't even care to be that lazy, they're ready to go above and beyond and remove the game from the App Store on M1 Macs. You have to "sideload" it to play it... with a controller.

I don't know who at Mojang and other dev companies take these boneheaded decisions to shut out potential markets.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

Kind of shocked this was not mentioned or asked yet.....does it run on M1 Mac's?

I mean with keyboard and mouse support and the M1 being a more powerful ARM CPU/GPU than anything in the iPad this would be perfect on the M1 Mac's.

 

[bsamcash]

They've earned my money.

 

[Picklefoot]

Kind of shocked this was not mentioned or asked yet.....does it run on M1 Mac's?

I mean with keyboard and mouse support and the M1 being a more powerful ARM CPU/GPU than anything in the iPad this would be perfect on the M1 Mac's.

It unfortunately doesn't show up in the App Store on M1 Macs... but the .ipa can likely be loaded. I really hope developers start thinking things through. If you add keyboard and mouse support to an iPad game, you might as well allow M1 Macs to download the game.

The only problem is the insistence of the industry to charge more for the same game or app on computers vs mobile. That's probably why we're seeing artificial segregation of support. Developers probably want to squeeze a few more bucks out of Mac users... by letting users download the iOS/iPad version, Mac users would be getting games at mobile prices. But that sounds like a personal problem. They need to up the price of their games/apps, or decide that everyone gets the games/apps at "mobile prices".

 

[Jxdawg]

This is really cool. Hoping other developers take a hint. Personally, I’d love to play COD:Mobile with a keyboard and mouse.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Not sure if it should be a requirement but developers should implement mouse and keyboard and/or controller support when it makes sense. If anything, it starts making sense just to grab the Mac and Apple TV market.

By supporting mouse and keyboard, developers have the opportunity to support M1 Macs right out of the box with a single iOS/iPad release. They don't even need to make a proper native Mac binary if they're that lazy. But developers like Mojang don't even care to be that lazy, they're ready to go above and beyond and remove the game from the App Store on M1 Macs. You have to "sideload" it to play it... with a controller.

I don't know who at Mojang and other dev companies take these boneheaded decisions to shut out potential markets.

Did you know Mojang is owned by Microsoft now? Maybe you’re taking the wrong company to task here.

 

[jhollington]

While they don't really advertise it, Civilization VI has actually had keyboard and mouse support for some time now... I actually found the keyboard support by accident when I habitually tried using the same keys as I would in the Mac version.

 

[strayts]

Seems like M1 is going to (eventually) blur the lines between the notebook lineup and the iPad lineup.

 

[Picklefoot]

Did you know Mojang is owned by Microsoft now? Maybe you’re taking the wrong company to task here.

Not really... both are guilty? It's the same relationship as Blizzard and Activision. One owns and influences the other... both are guilty. But Mojang is still the developer and still lists itself as the developer.

 

[McG2k1]

My assumption is this support is the first step in an M1 rollout. Give it a little time and it’ll show up. They’re probably trying to decide if desktop players should commingle with mobile players.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

Geralt is that you?

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

My assumption is this support is the first step in an M1 rollout. Give it a little time and it’ll show up. They’re probably trying to decide if desktop players should commingle with mobile players.

I personally think Apple should make a serious move on the gaming market. Gaming is bigger than the movie industry.

The M1 is rated at 2.6TF. Which is higher than the Xbox One S and PS4 (1.2 and 1.4 TF). The M2 is going to be what? 6-8TF and that is pushing up towards the PS5. M3 8-12TF??

A $399 Apple TV with a M2/8-16gigs of RAM would make a nice gaming console. Same games could run on a M-powered Macs.

There are already lots and lots of developers making games for iOS. Lots and lots developers making games for consoles, so they would be used to the store method like on PS and Xbox.

 

[spinedoc77]

I played this game a lot and it's a super good game, but you have to be ok with the Dark Soul's repetitive, overly difficult type of gameplay which can get really boring because it's based on doing stuff over and over again. It's great if it's getting KBM support, I wish even console games got this, heck I honestly feel it should be a requirement.

It will be interesting to see which route Apple takes with games. I'm not a huge fan because the vast majority of their games don't really interest me. I like more blockbuster AAA games and Pascal's Wager fits that bill as a Dark Souls clone. If Apple goes this direction with their new Apple TV I would be very interested.

 

[4jasontv]

"We already have so many things at the table. The coffee mug fork just made sense. We were surprised no one had tried it before."

 

[Nicky G]

I can't believe there's a hot new game called Pascal's Wager. ? I myself am a fan of the actual argument, which is often a bit oversimplified but in essence describes how science is not in a position to come to a decision about the ultimate reality of a "god," but that there may be some benefit to operating under the assumption that there is a god, in any case.

 

[Mac Prodigy]

Pascal's Wager ?

 

[Mac Prodigy]

I played this game a lot and it's a super good game, but you have to be ok with the Dark Soul's repetitive, overly difficult type of gameplay which can get really boring because it's based on doing stuff over and over again. It's great if it's getting KBM support, I wish even console games got this, heck I honestly feel it should be a requirement.

It will be interesting to see which route Apple takes with games. I'm not a huge fan because the vast majority of their games don't really interest me. I like more blockbuster AAA games and Pascal's Wager fits that bill as a Dark Souls clone. If Apple goes this direction with their new Apple TV I would be very interested.

Agreed!