| |
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we’ve been focusing on the romantic aspects of the App store. Alongside reviewing Boy Loves Girl, the tale of a boy keen to woo the lady in his life, we had the opportunity to interview Dr Danny Pearce, Company Director for the game’s British developer, Grubby Hands.
One particular question that’s bound to be on everyone’s mind was just why the name Grubby Hands?!
“Grubby Hands is a name that came from some subconscious activity when thinking about gaming. I think it’s connected to the NES and SNES days when pad swapping was commonplace, like Mario or Street Fighter with friends,” said Pearce. “I always had a problem with getting a sweaty pad handed to me from a friend with ‘grubby hands’. I had a ritual that involved a five second wipe with my t-shirt before every round. I guess that image stuck and resurfaced 20 years later.” An experience that I’m sure all gamers can empathise with.
 Moving onto just what a change of pace Boy Loves Girl is compared to David Haye’s Knockout, Pearce explained just what hook Boy Loves Girl offers: “Boy Loves Girl follows a young boy’s journey as he tries to impress a girl. I really wanted to make a game that was sweet and captures something truthful. Then the idea of a boy going to the end of the world for a girl and giving her the moon on a piece of string stuck and the game grew from there.”
As Pearce explains, “It starts off as a pleasant experience. Everything is calm and relaxing, while the player gets used to the game and the controls. It then gets progressively more challenging as the girl gets more demanding, to the point that it really requires a lot of skill, mental attention and physical accuracy to complete,” but fortunately that’s not all we should expect from Boy Loves Girl, with Pearce promising Game Center to be integrated ‘really soon.’
 So, what’s next for Grubby Hands? Dr Pearce was understandably guarded as to exact details but there are discussions in terms of “either a sequel or a huge update to a ‘previous game’ in the near future.” Pearce also informed us that Grubby Hands is currently “prototyping something original and probably [our] most ambitious game yet.” Don’t get too excited yet, though, as he also went onto explain that it’s “easily the biggest game we’ve attempted to make, so will probably take until the end of the year to complete.”
On a final note, we thought it was only friendly to see just how the Grubby Hands guys are planning on spending Valentine’s Day. “We’ll start the day under a mild spring sun, listening to a calm stream, break the still to eat strawberries and cream and then proceed to whack the keyboard trying to finish off the next ‘Boy Loves Girl’ update!”
Given the cold and rainy spell that much of Britain is suffering from at the moment, here’s hoping that the 14th brings with it plenty of sun for Grubby Hands!
Many thanks to Dr. Danny Pearce for taking the time to answer our questions.
$0.99  + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-21 :: Category: Games
 Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them is coming out December 21 (and available for pre-order now) to bookstores and online retailers everywhere. It’s a book about iOS games and their stories by Ryan Rigney, a freelance journalist who has covered the video-game industry from every angle for publications and sites including Gamasutra, PC Gamer and GamePro. We managed to talk with him for a bit about the inspirations for the book, among other things. Click through to the post for the interview AND an exclusive chapter from the upcoming book, all about Fruit Ninja.
Continue reading Get the Inside Scoop And An Exclusive Fruit Ninja Chapter from Buttonless »
Earlier this month, I had a sit down with the Vice President of Business Development at Ideaworks Game Studio, Phil Waymouth. Ideaworks has developed some of the App Store’s most popular applications, for some of the most recognized names (EA and Activision to name two) in the industry. I asked Phil about Ideaworks and its latest port, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.
Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us! You work for Ideaworks Game Studio, the highly successful video game development company that’s created some of the world’s most recognized titles for mobile devices, including Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies. What do you specialize as within the company?
I head up business development at Ideaworks Game Studio. So, day-to-day it’s my job to work directly with our customers & publishing partners, identifying new game opportunities and planning our portfolio of work. This encompasses everything from sourcing new projects, negotiating contracts & release schedules, and then working closely with the rest of the Studio team both during development and after release to support our titles.
So, for the games you mention above it would be my responsibility to work with the EA & Activision/Treyarch teams respectively to deliver mobile versions of their premium titles.
The cross platform development area of Ideaworks focuses on porting games from different sources into an SDK called Airplay (not to be confused with Apple’s Airplay). Can you elaborate on what Airplay is and how it works?
Certainly. Airplay SDK is a flexible, multi-platform development solution created by our sister company Ideaworks Labs. Airplay SDK allows us to create high performance applications for multiple mobile platforms at the same time, and we’ve used it for all our games to-date, including Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Call of Duty, Backbreaker Football, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and many others.
Basically, Airplay SDK allows a developer to compile a single codebase and deploy easily to iOS, Android, bada, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and webOS devices. It’s worked fantastically well for us as a development team and is now being used by thousands of developers & publishers around the world to develop their own titles.
“Airplay SDK allows a developer to compile a single codebase and deploy easily to iOS, Android, bada, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and webOS devices.”
Your latest port, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, continues work that you began back in 2003 with an initial port of Tomb Raider onto the N-Gage and Windows Mobile. How challenging was it to port GoL onto the iPad, which operates under a much less graphically powerful framework in comparison to the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 or PC (where GoL was initially launched)? The game was only released in August for these platforms – and then last week for iOS – is three to four months a good turnaround time for a game of this size?
 It’s a huge challenge! Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light is a massive mobile game that actually includes most of the levels, weapons, enemies & puzzles you’d find in the console & PC versions of the game.
To be strict, our version isn’t a port of the console game: we re-wrote the codebase specifically for mobile devices and re-created most of the art assets too, so we were very fortunate to work closely with both the Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics teams who offered support and reference materials for the game. We actually used the beta version of the XBLA title as our design document, playing & recording every level, character, weapon and puzzle. In the end, the game’s scale wasn’t identical but the level designs themselves were taken directly from the console game.
This is often the way we work. In most cases we believe it delivers the finest quality result for a premium brand like Lara Croft. Remember, for something like iOS you’re not actually writing a game for a console (since you get interruptions such as phone calls & low-battery warnings) but you’re also not writing for a phone (since the iPod Touch isn’t one), and we’ve found that using previous experience and working closely with your partners help create games that get the best out of these devices.
“For something like iOS you’re not actually writing a game for a console but you’re also not writing for a phone (since the iPod Touch isn’t one.”
The game did take us a little longer than 3-4 months to make (it’s a large game with lots of complexity) but we’re very proud of the outcome. One issue a game like GoL does highlight is the pace at which mobile platforms moves – a lot of our team come from console backgrounds, and the rate at which new devices and new OS features comes out is both fantastic but a real challenge – especially when you’re deciding what features a flagship game should target in advance!
When porting GoL, what goals did you have in mind? Did you want to maintain it as authentic as possible to the original, or take your own angle to suit the iPad directly?
 When we first spoke to Square Enix about the opportunity to bring GoL to iOS, we started from the position of “why don’t we re-make the game as-is?”. We could see the title was shaping up to be a great game on console and PC, and of course we didn’t want to throw away all the design work that Crystal Dynamics had done on the title to date.
Our goals were to keep the mobile version as authentic as possible, especially in the areas of cooperative multiplayer and high production-quality. Of course, there are always considerations you need to make for a new form factor (for example, around controls, cameras, etc.), but we wanted to keep the gameplay as similar as possible and I think we’ve succeeded in doing that.
Our game shares the showcase features that Square Enix advertise for the console & PC versions (high quality gaming, co-operative multiplayer, the ability to drop-in to running games, voicechat between players, leaderboards & achievements, etc.)
What do you think the future holds for cross-platform games? Could we ever see games like Half-Life 2 or Portal being played on a future generation iPad? If you look at the technological progress between the first iPhone and the iPhone 4, the gap is significant. We can do things now that we just didn’t have the technology to do then, at least not within the iPhone’s size. Have you been surprised at the power of iOS, now that we’re playing titles like GoL?
It’s certainly feasible that experiences such as Half-Life 2 or Portal could be delivered on mobile devices, and FPS’s have already been extremely successful – our work with Activision on Call of Duty is an example. You’re absolutely right about the technology too: the rate of progress is startling, and the latest generation of mobile chips with 1GHz, dual-core chips & fast graphics are unbelievably powerful considering their size.
You need to be pragmatic about hardware differences though: despite being 5 years old the Xbox 360 probably has 5 times the CPU power of a high-end smartphone, and perhaps the same on the graphics side. So, will the graphics be quite as rich? No. Will the physics be as explosive? Perhaps not. Does the touchscreen mean controls will be a little different? Yes. Will it feel like the same game, though? Definitely: smartphones are powerful enough to support modern game design.
The challenge remains over finding gameplay that’s best suited to a mobile device: you can’t assume that just because we can take a successful console game to mobile that it’ll be a hit. As an example, we see a lot of players playing our games for either ~6 minutes (say, if they’re commuting) or for ~60 minutes (say, if they’re playing at home). Designing a game that allows that menu of experiences is a real challenge, and we’re fortunate to have a history of mobile game development experience we can draw on. The trick is to design a game that feels like the original while being sympathetic to the way the gamer uses the device.
Finally, regardless of technology I think customers appreciate high production quality, and that’s a big focus for our development. A benefit of our long history is that our technology base allows us to concentrate on making the game, rather than fiddle with every last setting of the hardware.
“We see a lot of players playing our games for either ~6 minutes (say, if they’re commuting) or for ~60 minutes (say, if they’re playing at home).”
And finally, do you see iOS as the new leader of portable gaming? In Steve Jobs’ iOS4 presentation, he announced that the iPod Touch alone outsold Nintendo and Sony sales combined – creators of the DS and PSP respectively. Will iOS play a key component in the porting side of Ideaworks?
Well, it’s pretty apparent that iOS has done amazingly well in pushing forward high quality mobile gaming. I can’t comment on sales figures for the devices – we only get the same Internet reports as you guys! – but the market they’ve created for top-tier gaming is remarkable. Apple have done a fantastic job by combining an intuitive UI, high-quality devices, and a simple-as-pie billing & delivery mechanism (both for purchases and updates).
So, in that regard, iOS will continue to play a key role in our work. Having said that, there are a huge number of Android devices being shipped, and platforms such as Samsung’s bada & HP/Palm’s webOS all offer high-quality devices and rich marketplaces for us to release games. For those markets, we’ll certainly continue to use Airplay SDK to target as many different platforms as possible.
One last mention should go to Windows Phone 7 too which, although a little later to the party, appears to have a strong push behind it from Microsoft, and has attractive Xbox Live integration which I think people will enjoy.
Thanks Phil for answering our questions! All of us here at 148Apps wish you well for 2011!
Thank you!
$2.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-12-16 :: Category: Games
Real Racing 2, possibly the most ambitious app to hit the App Store launched today. It’s a new version of one of the best racing games ever seen on a mobile device, and better than many seen on consoles. Firemint, based in Australia, has a lot riding on this game with a reported 2 million dollars spent on it’s development. We fired off a few questions to the fine folks down under to get some of their thoughts on the iOS platform and development of Real Racing 2.
 Q: Real Racing 2 integrates Game Center for multiplayer, leaderboards, and achievements. How have you seen the performance of the Game Center multiplayer system? You’ve been able to do something others haven’t by bringing 16 player multiplayer to iOS.
Game Center has been great for us and we are big supporters of it. Beyond just leaderboards and achievements, we can use your Game Center ID to locate your save games and link to other services like Youtube uploads etc. The awesome thing about Game Center is that it provides an easy way to create peer to peer multiplayer connections with up to four players at once. We have supported this in Flight Control, Real Racing, Flight Control HD and Real Racing HD.
For Real Racing 2 we have implemented a hosted solution because we wanted to support our 16 car single player grid in multiplayer games as well. We also wanted to make it really simple to find and play multiplayer games, on every device. This is something we have been working on for a long time. It is more difficult for us to do things that way, but it means we are able to support all devices.
Q: A few months ago you released a story about how you had tuned the AI in your bots to such an extent that they were cheating. Are you sure they aren’t still cheating? Some of the AI race drivers seem awful good! Tell us more about the AI in the game for the computer drivers.
Well the Real Racing 1 AI weren’t cheating as such, it was more that they were finding exploits in the physics engine, the same exploits that human players could find. An example of that was that the AI found if they hit a certain corner at exactly the right angle, they would explode down the track faster than any car could drive. Needless to say, we fixed that bug before release!
 In Real Racing 2, we have gone to great lengths to make sure the AI are competitive without cheating. Some games allow their AI to have faster or more responsive cars, or add catchup code so that they are competitive. On release, our game has none of this, the opponents never drive a car that out performs the ones the player can drive in the game. However, they may take you to the cleaners if you enter a hard career race under-spec’d. So choose a car with as high a performance rating as possible and ideally well suited to the particular track, for example top speed is pretty critical on an oval but it’s not so helpful on a winding track. If the AI is driving a car that you know has a higher top speed than yours, then you can be pretty sure that they won’t be so good on the corners.
The AI have been written to use the same inputs that the player has, accelerate, brake and steer. The down side of this as developers, we have to make our AI really smart to keep up with a human player.
One advantage that the AI do have is that they are precision drivers, the best AI can hit a precise racing line every time, so while it may seem like they are cheating, they actually take great lines through the corners and may come out of them faster than you if you make a small mistake. So just like when you are down at the track, winning at the high levels in Real Racing takes precise driving.
Even with all our effort into improving the AI, we would still rather take on the fastest AI we have than try to compete with a top ranked Real Racing player!
Q: What can we expect in the future for Real Racing 2? Any planned updates? An iPad version perhaps? Voice chat like we’ve seen you recently add with Flight Control?
You can be pretty certain that we will do an iPad version and we want to do something special, but definitely not until next year. We also have the online save game system now so that we can share your progress across versions of the game including from iPhone to iPad.
We do have all sorts of ideas and plans for Real Racing 2, however they are just ideas at this stage. Announcing things is easy, but delivering is hard, so we are cautious about announcing too much at this stage. Hopefully then, when we do deliver something, we will have over-delivered 
Q: You’ve developed your own 3D engine for Real Racing 2, Mint 3D. Can you tell us a little more about it and what are the advantages of a custom engine over a pre-built one?
Mint3D is a powerful and highly optimized rendering engine designed to get great performance out of the current iOS platforms, particularly iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4. It supports standout visual effects like shadow mapping, depth of field, motion blur, detail textures, reflections, level of detail, specular highlights, glints, flares, particle effects, animation and even some improved real time shadows, whilst being able to push large quantities of polygons and models through the hardware each frame. The cool thing is, we have a very optimized legacy engine within Mint3D that was developed along with Real Racing, which is how we are able to continue to support earlier devices, albeit without the same high level of effects possible on the newer hardware.
 We have to render a 3 mile track being traversed at high speed, from any angle with 16 cars, sometimes all on the screen at once, all with unique textures, see through windows, reflections, shadows, damage etc. It all has to look great regardless of what the player is doing with their car or with the camera or where they are driving. Everything moves by very quickly so dealing with a large object count is very important to a racer, and when you have 16 cars with physics and AI on top of that, there is a lot of variety to deal with. Mint3D is designed to handle this and to do a large variety of things well and at consistent framerates.
The choice of going with a custom engine over something pre-built is something that should be made for each game and each developer individually. It is not just an economic choice, sometimes a pre-built engine is the right choice for creative reasons. In our case, we design the game first and the engine has to keep up with that. By using our own engine we have the freedom to do whatever it takes to make it deliver for our particular needs. It feels like that is the best way for us to build signature titles and make them stand apart.
Q: How about some racing tips? Do you have any tips our readers for getting the best times on the Real Racing 2 tracks?
Generally, the fastest race times can be achieved by turning and braking as minimally as possible: a good race line with the goal of taking straight lines through corners, sufficient but minimal braking (losing traction washes off a lot of speed) and trying to maintain a high, constant speed throughout the race will hold you in good stead.
Every car handles differently, and braking and acceleration in and out of corners can count for a lot. Learn to exploit the varying performance attributes of each car and practice the techniques listed above. Driving with assists can be a very helpful way to learn to get your braking and racing line right.
Thanks to the folks at Firemint for answering our questions. Real Racing 2 is out now, and I strongly suggest you grab it if you enjoy a good race. Feel free to add me in Game Center, I’m jeff148apps — I’ll see you on the track.
$2.99 $4.99
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-12-16 :: Category: Games
 I usually do some investigative digging before I start an interview, just to be prepared. Well, I guess more accurately I search for the person’s name in Google. I’ll typically come up with a Facebook page, a Linkedin page, and maybe a page or two about the person on various websites.
After searching for Rolf Fleischmann, I found a bunch of nothing past the website for his app development company, Vol. 2. After playing No, Human, the debut game from Vol. 2, I had to know more about this upstart app dev “team.” I dug around the site for a bit until I found a shocker.
In the FAQ section, the last question is, “Who made this?” followed by this simple answer: “It’s an independent production created by me.”
The first question I asked Rolf, naturally, was, “I was looking at the vol-2 site, and would I be correct in saying that No Human was created by yourself? Just a one man team?”
“Yes. just me. It’s actually more of a learning project for me. I hadn’t done very much coding before this.” He built the game using the Unity3D engine because of its scripting similarities with Javascript, a platform that he was fairly comfortable with.
So No, Human, the excellent game that has been picked up by just about every app news site on Earth, as well as appearing all over the App Store’s main page, was created as a means to learn how to code on the iPhone platform. Not only that, but when I asked him about his initial marketing strategy, something that other devs pour countless hours and dollars into, he responded with, “I had none. I just wanted to make a game.”
“When it was ready, I read a lot of blogs and forums to see how people did their marketing. I didn’t read enough though, because it was not of that much interest to me. I read somewhere, that you have to be prepared to spend as much time with marketing as I did creating the game so I sat down one eve and wrote a long list of websites and blogs and people I wanted to send the game. I sent out a lot of emails with promo codes and stuff.”
When the game finally launched, Rolf told me that only his closest friends knew the game existed in the App Store. In fact, the first high score on No, Human came from one of Rolf’s friends that was playing the game in a bath tub with his iPad.
So what’s in future for the unlikeliest of App Store stars?
“Well, currently I’m working on an update to the game. It was very often said that the game is too short and that people would like to have more levels. So that’s what I’m doing in the near future. Further away, in a not so distant future, I’d like to do another game with what I’ve learned so far. I know that I made many mistakes in development and in marketing, so I want to know if I could do better!”
I sat for a second and wondered what would come next. If No, Human is what comes from Rolf when he doesn’t know what he’s doing, what happens when he does? I asked him if he had any projects in mind for the future, and he said that he hadn’t thought about it much because of all the craziness that has happened in the last few weeks.
When asked about a sequel, he responded with, “I always thought the cool thing about being independent is that you can do whatever you want. So why do a sequel when you can do something completely new that maybe hasn’t been done before?”
Well count me as someone who’s excited to see what’s next. I’m just glad that he’s gotten his “learning experience” out of the way. Sheesh.
$2.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-08-24 :: Category: Games
 I’d say that the average American is happily employed by one company, goes to work around 9, and gets home at 5. They probably make some dinner after they get home and watch some TV.
“Sometimes I do like to ‘veg’ and do ‘nothing,’ just put a movie on. Balance, ugh! That’s the absolute challenge of life.”
Paul Papasavas isn’t your typical individual. A simple Linkedin search shows that Paul is the Owner of Athos Consulting, which does programming, network, security, infrastructure work, and a dabble of app development, and is a full time medevac pilot in New Jersey. While I can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time, Paul is doing PR work while waiting for emergency flight calls.
The app side of his company is quite small, with Paul and his brother Alex, the resident “master game developer,” leading the way. Athos Consulting has been around since 1999, but has just recently gotten into app development. Their first app, Toy Physics, is a great physics puzzler that has garnered almost universal positive reviews from fans and critics alike. Alex says that most fans send messages to him saying things like, “I’ve been playing it ALL morning and got to level xxxx”, so making the app successful is just “a matter of getting the word out and allowing people to actually try the application.”
So how does one make an app successful without big company backing?
“The important thing is to pay very close attention to user feedback. After all, this is THEIR application. For example, we added level select and scoring in the iPad version based on user feedback – we’ll be pushing that to the iPhone in the coming weeks. There’s just a human element that cannot be ignored. We can come up with the initial concept but we have to introduce features based on user requests. They’re pretty much our boss when it comes to how the application evolves.”
 Currently, Toy Physics is looking to add a bunch of multiplayer features, including leaderboards, achievements, and best of all, “a head-to-head type challenge mode where you’re actively playing against someone live, where you could do something to affect the other user and are influencing the other player’s gameplay.”
The real challenge, it seems, is to find time.
“The type of flying I do, Medevac helicopter, involves a lot of down-time… that’s to say unless we’re requested on a flight, I’m at the base doing whatever it is I want to do. Of course, the flying and safety aspect of what we do always comes first…pre-flight, crew brief, or any applicable training for the day. Because our base is an “IFR” base (that means we can fly in the clouds), we often have to do even more planning and organization for the day and closely monitor the weather. So, knowing what the priority is and not scheduling anything critical on my flight duty days, things generally work out. There are days when we’re flying all day long. Accident after accident … We just go with what the day brings us, I suppose.”
Along with working on Toy Physics, flying around Jersey to save lives, and doing consulting work, Paul is also working on a medevac aviation safety application that works with Departures and Landings which may be soon sold to the general plane flying public.
In case you were wondering what Paul does in his “free time” (what free time?), he says that he “loves sitting at the piano at 2AM writing music when (he) should be sleeping hoping (he’s) not waking up the neighbors.” I guess some people’s free time is more productive than others.
As I was saying bye to Paul, he told me to give him a call whenever, unless he’s flying. He ended the interview by saying, “in fact, I have to fly (a private plane) to DC in 1/2 hour … so I better start the flight planning!”
Oh the life of a serial multitasker.
$1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-05-26 :: Category: Games $2.99 iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-08-31 :: Category: Games
I had an interview scheduled with Josh Scott-Slade from JohnnyTwoShoes (Plunderland) at 9AM, about two hours after my dog wakes me up in the morning to go outside. Remember, two hours to go.
 I figured that I would hang around and prep for the interview by doing all the company research that I could do, so I hopped on to their website hoping to find something interesting. What I found was Heist 2, one of their many online games… and it sucked the life right out of me. Then what seemed like 10 minutes later and it was 9AM (where did the time go!) and the interview was on.
Still in shock over where my time went, I made a comment to Josh saying, “I didn’t know that you guys made other games until today.” I was expecting a new, indie game house with a seriously legit design team, but was certainly not expecting a three year old online game outfit. They did have another iPhone game that came out about a year ago called High Speed Chase 2, but it must’ve gotten lost in the deep sea of App Store apps.
“Ah yeah, we’ve been making games since we were kids.” He went on, thankfully. I was still in shock over my Heist 2 induced time warp, “The company has been around as JohnnyTwoShoes for about 3 years now. It started off as a portfolio when I was at university, then it turned into a gaming site and became our company. My brother Max was a site designer by profession anyway, so it all just worked out.”
So how, after years of online games, why did they get into the App Store?
“Well we always loved the iPhone and when the App Store came out it just seemed like the perfect idea for what we wanted to do. The App Store allows us to be more ambitious and support bigger ideas. There’s only so much time you can put into a free web game.”
After 3+ years of practice making games at a rapid-fire pace, it seems that Johnny Two Shoes is off to bigger and better things with Plunderland and then moving forward. They apparently have a “ridiculous amount of ideas for games”, but are aiming to make their games as good as they can possibly be before moving on. There’s something to be said for that kind of dedication to a games success, but it’s nice to know that the company won’t stagnate on one idea for two years (cough, cough, Fieldrunners).
 “We intended to release Plunderland to support ourselves while we updated and fulfilled its full potential. We tried out new ideas and reacted on feedback, hoping that it would push up the charts slowly, allowing us to make a name for ourselves on the platform. Now the reaction is so fast to everything we do with it, it’s kind of scary.” He goes on, “at the same time it feels amazing to know we can do what we always wanted. To build on the game and make it even better – bring fresh new ideas to the experience. We hope people will see it as something they can return to and have that fun and excitement brought back every time we add to the game.”
The obvious question here was, what kinds of things were they going to add to the game? It’s one thing to fix glitches, and an entirely different thing to go “Pocket God” and make the whole experience change with every update.
Josh nonchalantly wrote back, “Yeah, new levels, campaigns, game modes etc. Anything we think would be fun or addresses peoples feedback.” He went on to tell me some more specific details about upgrades, but what I gathered was that their experience with online gaming has made them quick movers, unafraid to try out any idea thrown at them. They thrive on customer feedback, and I honestly don’t think that Plunderland will stop being supported until the feedback stops coming in.
I just had one more question, because, you know, I’m an industry professional (whatever that means). I noticed when I was on their website that their logo was a space man, so I asked them why Plunderland wasn’t set in space.
“The basic idea behind the game is to create the sense of adventure and unknown. It could totally be set in space, but coming from a family of pirates, it just felt natural.”
Well nobody is going to argue with that, with them being pirates and all. These people mean business.
$1.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-07-22 :: Category: Games
“Once I saw that the iPhone 4 was going to have an LED flash on it…a light bulb turned on in my head….how’s that for cheesy?”
 Mike D’Ulisse and his brother Matt have a knack for creating gold out of the most simple ideas. They’ve done fairly well with other strong apps such as Pocket Labeler, Ransom Letters, and Star Blaster (previously called iPhaser), but their new Flashlight app has turned out to be the biggest app yet.
My question was, how do you hit it big with an app that anyone and everyone can/will recreate?
“I figured that every developer out there was thinking the same thing…it almost didn’t seem worth the time, so I brought it up to my brother and business partner, but he wasn’t exactly on board because we are in the middle of a different project and we don’t like putting things aside to work on new ideas til the current idea (app) is on the store. So as the release of iPhone 4 approached I started pushing to do it, and we finally decided we would make the app.”
Being the Chief Marketing Officer of the company, Mike knew that he had to get the ball rolling if the app were to have a chance with publicity. It’s not exactly the easiest thing in the world to get a flashlight app publicized, so timing is everything. He had already gotten press coverage from some prominent app news sites, something that is almost necessary for a successful app, but it was what happened after the submission of the app is what separates Mike of More Blu Sky from the typical flashlight developer.
Aside from guzzling a pot of coffee a day and only sleeping 4 hours a night, Mike works two other jobs and somehow fits in a (very understanding) girlfriend. I asked him how he did it, and he replied with one word, “passion”. Apparently it’s this passion that gets things done, and getting things done is what he did.
 “After submitting, I was told that flashlight apps were being turned away. I’m not one to accept no as no, so I decided to email Phil Shiller because I had seen that he helped developers out before.” “He assured me that the would take it up with the review team… but of course that wasn’t good enough for me, so I bugged Apple a bit with a few phone calls, a few emails. I even sent them a video from WWDC that told developers to get creative with the LED flash. Suffice to say…I was a real pain in the butt”
Because of all the hellraising, MacRumors.com wrote up an article that got some attention… while also making him out to be the hero of the flashlight app developers. In Mike’s own form of modesty, he said, “Well, when someone makes some noise, people tend to listen. And when they listen, sometimes they reevaluate stances on things. Can I take all the credit? No, it would have been discussed internally at Apple.”
With all the publicity generated from various sources, the app was in the top 30 of utilities in the first 30 minutes and “within 45 minutes it was in the top 100 in the whole store.”
Again though, how does a person decide to buy one flashlight app over another? Flashlight – For iPhone 4 was the top flashlight app at launch even though another flashlight app was being featured by Apple. It just didn’t make sense to me.
“I suspect that might have something to do with the fact that the (competitors) icon doesn’t scream LED Flashlight to customers.” “It’s not just another flashlight app and the icon had to say that.”
The icon?
He went on, quite possibly driven by the end of a days worth of caffeine. “Duplicating the camera icon is very popular with camera apps so I didn’t want to focus on the camera lens ..but I wanted to show it. The main focus is the LED, but is still has to look like the back of an iPhone. I spent maybe an hour on it. I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to icons but we didn’t have time for 10 revisions of he icon so it had to be a winner the first round.”
“I think we did good.”
 Was there any other reason for the apps success, other than the icon?
“It’s built how I feel Apple would have built it if they were in the flashlight app making business.” “The graphics just feel right on the app. it’s almost like holding a real flashlight in your hand, and the UI is very clean”
It became very clear to me that More Blu Sky is successful because the team slaves over the most minute details. It’s a common trait that is found in successful development teams, from the team at tap tap tap all the way to Bolt Creative, creators of the meticulous Pocket God. Get the details right and people tend to notice.
“Look at things from the users perspective and build apps around their perception of an average user. That’s how Apple does it.”
When asked about the future of Flashlight – For iPhone 4, Mike went on and said “we are working on SOS right now and we are looking at Morse Code…but we are also in the middle a development cycle for another app, so we are going to try and finish that app and continue to support Flashlight – For iPhone 4 for as long as people are still interested in buying it. I get emails all the time about features that people want. I would love for it to turn into a flashlight app with 10-15 different features. I have ideas in my head and I even have a rework of the UI that I would love to execute if the feature list grew.”
He never stops. It must be the passion… or the coffee.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Flashlight Giveaway
If you want to get your hands on Flashlight – For iPhone 4, Michael is giving out promo codes to the first 60 people that send him a request. Send the emails to mbskypromo at gmail dot com. Let him know of any new features you’d like to see too… he’d probably appreciate the input.
$0.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-07 :: Category: Utilities
 We had a chance to sit down with Ken Case, CEO of the OmniGroup, during the recent WWDC. We talked all things OmniGroup including the process they followed bringing their apps to the iPad, their plans for OmniFocus, and what else the future might hold.
Q (Jeff Scott – 148Apps): Tell us a little about how the decision was made to start bringing your applications to the iPad.
A (Ken Case – OmniGroup): When we started hearing rumors about Apple doing a tablet, we thought that could be interesting. We didn’t know if it was going to be Mac OS X based or iPhone OS based. The touch part made us lean toward the iPhone OS, the larger screen size had us leaning toward Mac OS X. Didn’t really know what to expect. So we decided to just be ready to evaluate it when it comes out. And when we saw the introduction and particularly when we saw the Keynote demonstration we knew yeah, this is a place we can put some real apps. So we made a decision that day and started working that week to bring some of our apps to the iPad. From the time we saw the announcement to the time we had to submit the apps for launch day there were lots of 18 hour days. One interesting way to measure how the apps were progressing was how long we went between code commits. There was a period there where the longest we went, between code check-ins, was 37 minutes. It was a lot of hard work obviously, but a lot of fun. It’s not often you get a chance to do something like this for a new platform.
Q: One of the most interesting aspects of the release of OmniGraffle for the iPad was that you utilized the device to the edge of it’s capabilities without ever seeing a device.
A: We were pretty worried about that. The QA team particularly. Apple did some testing and we asked them how well it works. They could tell us that it launched and that it worked, but they had no time to do any real testing of the performance.
Q: Let’s talk a little bit about OmniFocus for the iPad. As far as I’m concerned you can’t get it done quick enough!
The plan had been to submit the final version to Apple around June 18th, but some things got in the way. It will still be submitted soon.
I wasn’t expecting the pixel doubled iPhone apps to look as as bad as it turned out. I was hoping that they would have done what they are doing on the iPhone 4 and pixel double the artwork but scaled the text. Perhaps once iOS4 comes to the iPad they will clean up some of the edges. Certainly going forward, everybody who is developing now for the iOS is expecting a whole range of screen resolutions which should make it easier for Apple in the future.
—
We got a little more information from Ken about future plans for OmniPlan and OmniOutliner for the iPad. But those plans are all still really early and we’ll get back in touch as those get closer.
For now they are going full steam ahead on OmniFocus for the iPad — and I can’t wait for it. OmniFocus 1.7 for the iPhone/iPod Touch was just released with iOS4 updates to support local notification, some background processing, and instant application resume.
$19.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2008-07-11 :: Category: Productivity
Steve Robert, producer of Electronic Art’s Skate It, released May 10, 2010, is a former pro-skater who helmed the development and creation of the game’s port to the iPhone. I sat down for a phone interview with Steve and spoke at length about the game and its subsequent port from the Nintendo DS to the iPhone. Steve provided us with much insight on the game’s development and how it came to fruition on the iPhone.
Jason (148apps) – First of all, thanks for putting time aside from your busy schedule to talk with me. I’m stoked to be speaking with you. For people who aren’t familiar with you, what’s your background and how did you get involved in skating?
Steve Robert (EA) – Well, I grew up in Huntington Beach, CA, which is a coastal town in Southern, CA and, probably as early as 6th grade I got immersed in the culture of skateboarding. It was a very popular hobby in my neighborhood and I had a bunch of good friends who were all into skateboarding. We kept pushing each other to learn and get better and then it sort of evolved as some of my friends, like Jason Lee, who’s a good friend of mine, went on to become a famous actor, was the first of us to go on and get sponsored and turn pro. I skated with him all the time and he got me sponsored by the same company he was. From then on, I started entering amateur contests and then we shot a video in 1989 called Rubbish Heap and everything just unfolded from there. I was attracted to the culture and it was fun learning tricks and being competitive with my friends and progressing in the sport.
Jason (148apps) – It’s easy to hit a plateau if you don’t have people around you who you can learn from.
Steve Robert (EA) – Yeah, absolutely. I think being surrounded by people like Jason Lee, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzalez and the older, big pros, they all came from Huntington Beach and we would all gather at night at Huntington Beach High School or these schools you see in all the videos, while others were out partying, we would be spending our nights skating at the schools together and you just kind of get obsessed with it. It was everything I did until I graduated high school, it’s all I really cared about. Skating was just kind of a sub-culture because it wasn’t as mainstream back then, as it is now.
Jason (148apps) – How did you come to get involved in developing Skate It?
Steve Robert (EA) – Well, I’ve been working in video games since 1997. I slowly got out of skateboarding and went to college. When I graduated from college, I got my first job at Interplay in 1997. I found it interesting because the culture was very similar to skating in many ways. It’s obviously less physically active, but the people were the same.
Hit the jump for more with Skate It Producer Steve Robert.
Continue reading 4Q Interview: Skate It Producer Steve Robert »
If you have been waiting for your iPhone and your real life to collide, the time has come. Sure, we’ve had some augmented reality and social gaming apps come out in the past year, but none have put anything solid in my hands. On March 1, DreamWalk will become the first app of its kind, using the iPhone as a treasure map of sorts to put you on a quest to win real world prizes. Sometimes when I wake up I feel like a pirate, but never have I come so close! Today I talk to Joseph Russell, CEO of DreamWalk about this very exciting project.
Continue reading 4Q Interview: DreamWalk »
After the surprising success of Rasta Monkey, the #1 hanging game in the App Store, Nitako went on to make Eco Punk, the only game I know of that lets you “take the role of the insane blood-thirsty eco-friendly, skating punk bunny”. Being the “investigative” journalist that I am, I reached out to Noam Abta to really find out what in the world is going on at the Nitako studios, and who would win a battle of environmental superstars.
Continue reading 4Q Interview: Nitako – Eco Punk »
With all the iPad mumbo-jumbo going around, I decided to ask an industry vet about the situation. I got in contact with Keith Adair, I-play’s VP of Sales & Marketing to ask some questions about where I-play is going, where the App Store will go, and most importantly, where Waldo is. You’d think he would be easier to find with those stripes!
Continue reading 4Q Interview: I-play »
It’s no secret that the App Store economy is artificially deflated, but none have been quite as outspoken as the guys over at ustwo™. Their blog proclaims that “UK studio ustwo™ have launched a tongue-in-cheek (yet serious) campaign against 59p app pricing (that’d be 99 cents in the US, obviously). “F*** 59p. I’d rather nothing than that insult price.” Inspired by their tongue-in-cheek rage, I decided to send a few questions over their way to get the real scoop.
Continue reading 4Q Interview: ustwo™ »
 We first saw Agharta’s Rogue Planet at WWDC, but then it vanished into thin air. What was once expected to be a July release soon became a question mark, but behind the scenes, Agharta and Gameloft were getting together to make Rogue Planet all that it could be. Well now that the possibly soon to be classic turn based strategy game is soon to be released, we talked to Aurelien Kerbeci, CEO of Agharta Studios, about the game and and all the buzz around it. Enjoy the interview!
Continue reading 4Q Interview: Gameloft – Rogue Planet »
 Touch Pets Dogs is ngmoco:)’s newest causual app, has been causing quite a stir in the app world. Being one of the first “pay to play more” apps, the iTunes reviews have been quite mixes, with half being extremely positive siting the great gameplay and half hating it because of the game imposed limited playtime. Being the big app at the moment, we sent some questions to Andrew Stern of Stumptown Game Machine, who worked with ngmoco:) to create Touch Pets Dogs. Being the previous creator of Vitual Dogz, Catz, Babyz, and now Touch Pets Dogs, Andrew may be the top virtual animal mind in the world.
Continue reading 4Q Interview: ngmoco:) – Touch Pets Dogs »
Being a huge fan or geoDefense Swarm, I decided to dig a bit deeper into the diabolical mind of one of the most challenging games in the app store. For this four question (4Q) interview, I snagged David Whatley, the President of Critical Thought Games and the President/CEO of Simutronics Corp, developers of the Hero Engine which was used most recently in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The questions meander from app store longevity to iPhone MMO’s, but most surprising are his plans to save the world from aliens!
Check out the full four question interview after the break. Enjoy!
Continue reading 4Q Interview: Critical Thought Games – geoDefense Swarm »
 As I sat back and thought about things last week, I realized that the site was missing something. Every news source worth their salt partakes in long form interviews, which are great, but for the most part aren’t read all the way through due to their length. Being the busy guy that I am, I completely understand, and in my understanding I’ve decided that four questions (4Q) is the length that interviews should take. So with that, I’ll leave you with the interview.
_________________________________________________________
Being a lifelong fan of skee-ball, I decided to reach out to Freeverse via e-mail to get some important questions answered about their new app, aptly named Skee-Ball (how was this not used already?). Fortunately, my desperate pleas for answers were answered by none other than Lydia Heitman, marketing director extraordinaire, and Justin D’Onofrio, senior producer/pizza guru.
Check out the full four question interview after the break. Enjoy!
Continue reading 4Q Interview: Freeverse – Skee-Ball »
| |
:: TOUCHING
