Exclusive First Look: ‘Little World Gifts’. An Interview with Jonathan Deamer.

A little while ago I got the heads up on a small startup iPhone development studio based just up the road from me, in Liverpool (UK). Consisting of a team of both iPhone developers and 3D designers, Kisky Media have come up with a unique and interesting concept. Debuting this December, Little World Gifts will become a virtual ‘Gifting’ system for iPhone (and iPod touch) which will allow you to pick out, buy and send exclusive rich 3D interactive gifts to a special someone. The app will work off in-app purchasing, and each gift received or sent will be downloaded straight into the app itself.

Sending an gift to someone else’s iPhone is as easy as tapping the item, setting a delivery time, and hitting ‘Done’. Received a gift from someone else? You can store and organise your gifts too, on your own virtual shelve. Talking to the startup, the idea behind Little World Gifts is basically to let people experience ‘gifts’ in a more interactive and visually pleasing way, beating the static 2D object approach.

Over the weekend I got the chance to speak to Jonathan Deamer, community and communications manager at Kisky Media exclusively about the new service, to ask just what was Little World Gifts, how he and the team at Kisky Media thinks this concept might affect the App Store and its users in the future, and a little more about Kisky Media in general. Enjoy!

Continue reading Exclusive First Look: ‘Little World Gifts’. An Interview with Jonathan Deamer. »

Interview with Gamevil (Developers of Zenonia and Baseball Superstars)

Gamevil is the fantastic company behind Zenonia and Baseball Superstars. I recently had the chance to review their latest game, Zenonia, and it blew me away; you can read my review here, but suffice to say that I thought it clearly surpassed other RPGs in the App Store. While the Korean-based company has only released two games in the US App Store so far (the other Baseball Superstars), both have been very well-received.

The president of Gamevil USA, Kyu Lee, generously agreed to answer a few questions about Zenonia, Gamevil, and the App Store in general. He has some really interesting and intriguing insights—it’s not often that we get to hear things from a mobile game developer’s point of view.

Parts of this interview were also used in my Search for Satisfaction editorial, but there’s plenty of additional content here!

Bonnie Eisenman (148apps): Hi, Kyu, and thanks for taking the time to do this! For starters, what inspired you guys to make Zenonia? I don’t just mean “why make an RPG”–I mean, “why make a good RPG?”

Kyu Lee (Gamevil): We’ve been developing and publishing mobile games since 2000 in South Korea. One of the most popular categories in South Korea is Role-Playing Games, and it is an extremely competitive category. We “had” to make good RPG games in order to survive through the tough competition. We have been developing RPG games ever since we launched “Last Warrior” in 2001, the first RPG mobile game in Korea, which was less than 50KB. ZENONIA was a project decided to be done after we launched our multiplayer network game, “Path of a Warrior”.
Continue reading Interview with Gamevil (Developers of Zenonia and Baseball Superstars) »

App Store Insider: August Trometer Part 2

Finishing up our interview with August, I ask him about what it is like being an iPhone developer in the lime-light, or Celebrity Developer. He talks about how much fun it has been to break out of the traditional role from time to time, and how it has really helped out his programming business.

I also get his opinions on Apple’s filing to have jailbreaking iPhones judged illegal, what that means to the development community, and how jailbreaking is actually beneficial to the App Store and making the iPhone a popular development platform. August also tells us why he has avoided it.

Most importantly, August gives us the breaking story about the soon to be released app, YOWZA!!, and how it will change the way you shop and use your iPhone.

Listen to how August met Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman on Heroes) on Twitter, and joined forces with Rick Yaeger from MacMerc, to create a whole new business model for an iPhone app, and how they have tackled the problems of turning your iPhone into a money-saving shopping tool! And it’s going to be FREE!

Here is a little taste from Greg himself.

Enjoy!

You can check out August’s digital book, Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Safari on your Kindle from Amazon, or buy it in PDF format here.

App Store Insider: August Trometer Part 1

In Part 1 of the interview, August recalls the launch of the App Store and working on Loan Shark, his first app submission. He also describes his observations on the App Stores pricing “paradox” and his experiments with the pricing of his own apps to increase sales.

We discuss August’s history as a Mac software developer and how that led to his programming for the iPhone, which he felt was a logical step. August also explains his “mantra” for developing software, which involves making it easy to use for everyone, and relates his experiences with programs that are popular, yet have difficult to use interfaces.

Lastly, we discuss August’s popular software for the Mac, and his reasons for not developing a version for the iPhone. We get some insight on what it is to deal with Apple when they are the “800 pound gorilla” in the room and discouraging others from infringing on their domain, plus the economic factors involved.

In Part 2, we discuss August’s latest project, Yowza! and the unusual circumstances that brought him together with his business partners. He also describes how this project is much different from past iPhone projects.

Links to all of August’s apps are below. Let us know what you think of the interview and any feedback for August on the apps.

Enjoy!

Loan Shark

Category: Finance
Released: 2008-07-30
Price: $2.99

Lightastic!

Category: Entertainment / Educational
Released: 2008-11-23
Price: $1.99

App Store Insider: Corey Johnson

This is the start of a new series here on 148Apps. A series where we interview people from all areas of the app development process. From developers, to designers, even management. Looking to help others gain insight into what works, and what doesn’t work in app development and sales. – Editor

Corey tells us how he made the transition to developing for the iPhone, and tells some stories about the pitfalls of working within Apple’s strict guidelines. Overall he has been enjoying the experience, and relates that Apple’s tools and services for developers keeps getting better. Corey comments that Apple still has a ways to go toward helping the programmers communicate with their users and get useful feedback.

Lastly, he tells us about some of the apps he has in the AppStore and how he came to create them. His app, Movie Brain, required some lateral thinking to get his app to be a self-contained, searchable database of all movies. He also introduces a new app coming soon, just in time for Oscar season. The app is called “And The Award Goes To…Oscar Edition” and will be able to display past Oscar winners as well as the nominees for the upcoming Oscars. In addition, the app will allow you to cast votes for you favorite movies and compare them to the votes of other users of the app. Corey hopes this will be the basis for other interactive apps he has planned for later.

Links to all of Corey’s apps are below. Let us know what you think of the interview and any feedback for Corey on the apps.

Enjoy!

Awards: Oscars Edition

Category: Entertainment
Released: 2009-02-01
Price: $0.99

Mustache

Category: Entertainment / Simulation
Released: 2008-10-24
Price: $0.99 ON SALE: FREE

Movie Brain

Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Category: Entertainment
Released: 2008-12-16
Price: $2.99

NeuroSnack

Category: Games / Educational
Released: 2009-11-14
Price: $3.99