A look at Pacific Helm's beautiful game of Checkers

Since I started using my third-generation iPad with Retina display earlier this year, I've made sure that every single app on it is optimized for the high-definition display. I get serious about these sort of things. If your app doesn't have an icon that's optimized for the beautiful display then I don't want it on my home screen. The most prominent issue with being so fastidious is that there are many developers who just don't care enough to update their app for a beautiful new resolution. Games were the worst for this and I had to delete some of my favorites like The Solitaire and checkers (I don't remember exactly what app I used) due to the lack of support for a new device. It's disappointing and I miss having those apps on my tablet, but I don't like pixelation.

Yesterday, Pacific Helm, a group of designers/developers comprised of Louie Mantia, Brad Ellis, and Jesse Char, released its own beautiful checkers app for the iPad. It's so good that I'm glad I didn't purchase any sort of rubbish app developed by another. Every little area of this app shows that the developers care what users think and enjoy being meticulous in their work. It's not what you'd expect from a computerized checkers game though: there's no computer to play against. But hey, let's take a closer look at the game after the break.

Minimal beauty

My taste in design requires that the user interface either be nice and simple or so beautiful I don't care how cluttered it is. I like to see contrast. It doesn't have to be really heavy or anything, just enough that I can read the text clearly. Checkers starts off with a simple four-step guide to playing the game. This is perfect for children who are just getting started with the game. It's the basics -- which is pretty much the entire game -- of checkers gameplay. There's not much else you need to know in order to play a game of dominate-the-board.

The craziest part about this game's design is that things aren't perfect. Pieces are askew, but they look better that way. Pacific Helm wants to make the game natural, not digital. All the physics throughout make it just that and even setting back down a piece won't reset its position to the default one. You can play the way you want without the app pushing your checkers into place.

But the default board and colors are not all this app has to offer. No no, there's a bit of customization! You can change the board color to green/white with a light brown background, what seems to be walnut wood with some dark stain and a dark brown background, the classic ice cream parlor black-and-white with a blue background, and your usual red/black with gold trim and a green background like that of Game Center. The pieces themselves come in colors of black, green, blue, brown, red, white, gold, and bronze. I don't think I could ask for more customization than this, to be honest.

In conclusion, I really like the skeumorphism in this app and think that the team did a great job designing it.

Playing

What's good design without equal functionality? Don't worry, there are no bugs to be found in this game.

As I said in the design section, this game has simple, easy-to-learn gameplay. There's not much to know and even if you're a novice, the developers included that short guide you're presented with when first starting the app. (If you need to see this guide again, just tap the gear in the bottom right corner of your side of the board and then tap the "i".)

Fun fact: "checkers" was originally an English game titled "draughts".

The included guide says all there is about this game's main playability. However, I'd like to point out that there are no "turns" per se. I infer the point of this as being that the developers want to put all the control in you, the player's, hands. It seems only fair since they're giving you full customization and all. They want to remind you that this is a game you should know how to play and not one that you can simply rely on the computer in order to remember who's turn it is. Pay attention, folks.

Even when playing the game, you have to remember to remove the pieces that you've jumped. Kinging does have a rule: you can't do it unless you're actually in the right spot, which is the opponent's first row. Hey wait, why am I telling you how to play this game?

If you like checkers, this is your app

I'm going to level with you: there's no better checkers app available on the iPad. Sure, there are some free ones that seem good, but they have bugs and ads. This has neither and also has more class. It's a checkers app fit for the iPad. It's unique because it actually makes you do something instead of giving you undo buttons and other nonsense. This is a portable checkers set on your iPad. There's nothing more to it than that, unless you want to play against an AI, which I honestly don't care to do since it's more fun to play with a friend or family member.

I'd love to see Pacific Helm release a chess app next.

Pacific Helm's iteration of Checkers costs $4.99 in the App Store and is compatible with all iPads running iOS 5.0 and higher. I recommend grabbing a copy.