iPhone game advocate Devine leaves Apple

Game developer Graeme Devine has left his position at Apple, where he was responsible for overseeing the firm's iOS gaming initiatives.

He will now go back to game development and is already working on a product for Apple formats.

"Apple didn't have an in-house game designer before me so I think it was pretty unique, game technologies touch everything from the graphics stack to touch latency to push notifications. No other app type covers so many technologies and having someone there to validate and help shape that was basically my day job," Devine told Kotaku.

"I wanted to get back to the actual business of making games and while I loved my time, the people, and the platform I worked on at Apple I am ultimately a game designer that wants to make games.

"When I first got an iPad I was sold on it being the ultimate piece of science fiction technology for gaming. I think it is the most interesting new technology product I've worked on in years and I really wanted to make games for it."

Devine has previously held positions at id Software, Atari, Activision, Virgin Interactive and co-founded Trilobyte.

He said that touch devices have changed the interaction between consumer and technology significantly, and that designers have only scratched the surface of the new platforms.

"I don't think a lot of people are really thinking yet what games mean on these touch platforms, the joystick is gone, there is no proxy in between you and the screen anymore.

"When I first saw the photos being rotated and pinch / zoomed on the iPhone I knew things had changed forever, and people are trying to insert something back in there when clearly the best applications are the ones where the screen is a window onto a world that you can touch.

"I am not a fan of virtual d-pads, pointers, or other crutches, we have an opportunity on these devices to let players hold, move, touch, and feel the game in front of them and I intend to focus on that," he added.