Tag: Interview »

Steadily evolving over the years, Get Set Games' Mega Run and Mega Jump have seen quite significant changes. Mega Jump was initially released in 2010 as a premium title, before being made free to play in 2011, alongside the release of similarly free to play Mega Run. Now it seems that things have come full circle with the renamed and remodeled premium titles, Mega Run Plus and Mega Jump Plus.

Given the change of strategy from Get Set Games, we took the time to talk to Derek van Vliet, one of the co-founders of the company, to find out more about the thought process.

148Apps: In the past few years you've jumped between premium pricing and free to play, resulting in both varieties catered for on the App Store. How come? Why the change in pricing model?
Derek van Vliet (DV): That’s true. Mega Jump started as a paid app in May 2010. Shortly thereafter we ran a couple of “free game of the day” promotions which showed us that the game could earn more as a free app with in-app purchases than it could as a paid app. So in August 2010 we switched it to Free permanently.

Since then we’ve added a number of new monetization features that make it hard to go back to being a premium game (primarily interstitial advertising). At the same time, we heard from lots of players that they would like to be able to buy the game up front and get all of the content in the game and not have to deal with the ads. These new paid versions of Mega Jump and Mega Run serve that demand. They are the same awesome games, but free of ads and all of the additional level packs are available to unlock for free.

148Apps: Do you regret going down the free to play route before?
DV: Not at all. We’ve been able to grow a fantastic company in large part due to that decision. We’re going to continue to release games that make people say “I can’t believe this is free”.

148Apps: Have such models affected how games are developed?
DV: Indeed they have. It has caused us to have to focus a lot of resources on systems that increase engagement, monetization, and virality. Things like Facebook-connected leaderboards and consumable power-ups. The player-facing components of these systems most often take the form of UI and as such, a lot of our development resources have been focused on enabling us to design and present large amounts of user interface in our games.

It also puts a large emphasis on the importance of being able to change the content of our games at a moment’s notice. So a considerable amount of the effort we put into making games goes into making the experience configurable over the air.

148Apps: What do you think works best between free to play and premium?
DV: Regardless of free to play or premium, what works best is delivering a high quality experience to the player. We've always strived to produce games that are brimming with fun and humor and we find that resonates with people in both the free to play and premium markets.

148Apps: What do you think the future is for the iOS pricing model?
DV: I think we're going to continue to see free games dominate the top grossing charts for the foreseeable future. That being said, as iOS heads towards 1 billion users, even if only 10% of the money that is spent goes towards paid apps, that will continue to be a large opportunity for premium games.

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Thanks to Derek for taking the time to answer our questions. Mega Jump Plus and Mega Run Plus are available on the App Store now, priced at $0.99 each.

Approaching things differently from the rest is always good, right? That's what the folks at Little Bit Games are clearly thinking, too. Having previously covered their efforts earlier in the year, my interest was piqued thanks to a new Kickstarter campaign they've recently launched.

EchoChamber is the title hoping to be funded by it. It's described as a rhythm game with a "unique twist." It's a free-to-play local multiplayer title that uses positional audio to get players to follow various cues and perform gestures in time with the music. I took the time to learn more from Cody Lee, co-founder and developer at Little bit Games.

148Apps: How did the idea for echoChamber come about?
Cody Lee (CL): The idea for echoChamber came about after playing the game SpaceTeam with friends. It seemed like such a unique and original idea and utilized your phone for multiplayer in a way that I’d never seen before. It kinda blew my mind and I started to think of other ways we could use mobile devices for multiplayer experiences that you couldn’t get on any other platform. I spent a lot of time picturing people physically standing around with friends, trying to come up with games that required that physical space, and that used the capabilities of modern cell phones.

148Apps: Why the decision to be free to play?
CL: echoChamber is a multiplayer only game, and is more fun the more people you are playing with. It seemed natural for us to release the game as a free download so people can start playing it as easily as possible with their friends without requiring everybody to commit to purchasing it. We’ll be releasing additional tracks as paid DLC for people who want to extend their experience beyond the base tracks.

148Apps: How hard has it been to implement the positional sound effects?
CL: Doing the positional audio itself isn’t too bad. It’s really just a matter of adjusting volume for the different devices to get the desired effect we want. The hardest part has been synching the playback of the track on all of the devices while accounting for network latency. If the sound is out of sync at all, the positional effect is lost, and you get more of an echo. If it’s REALLY out of sync it just sounds like garbage!

148Apps: What other challenges have you faced?
CL: echoChamber started out as more of a Pong-like game where sound would move around and players would have to tap their screens to hit the “ball” away. The problem is it’s hard to know when the ball has reached you. It get’s louder so you know it’s closer, but how loud is the “loudest” and “closest”. That’s why we ended up going the rhythm game route. When there’s a set beat, and the ball moves to the beat, it’s easier to know when the sound will “hit”. We’ve since moved away from the Pong aspect of the game and are focusing more on an overall fun musical experience instead.

148Apps: When do you hope to release echoChamber?
CL: If the Kickstarter goes well, we hope to release some time early next year. If it doesn’t go well... we’re not sure.

The Kickstarter campaign runs until December 27, with a wide selection of backer rewards to cover everyone's budget.

Thanks to Cody for taking the time to answer our questions. We'll be sure to keep an eye on echoChamber's progress.

Arguably the most anticipated puzzle game of the year thanks to the runaway success of its predecessor, The Room Two is set for release on December 12. In the buildup to this very exciting time, I had the chance to go hands-on with the game to see exactly what's to come next week.

Only having had the chance to play the early stages of the game and not wishing to spoil too much, The Room Two is immediately enticing. There's an easy-to-follow tutorial for those who haven't yet enjoyed the original (and if so, why not? There's still plenty of time to lose one's self to it!), and a gentle introduction to what to expect. As before, puzzles are set to be as tactile as they are logical with a layering of conundrums to keep players busy. The eerie music continues to add plenty of tension to what's going on. This time there's set to be a wider variety of rooms to tackle too, which should prove quite enthralling.

The Room Two is set to be the kind of experience where it's best to go in cold, but it's looking pretty positive so far. We'll be sure to bring you a full review next week. For now, we've shared a few words with Barry Meade, commercial director at Fireproof Studios, about how development has gone and just how the success of The Room helped pave the way.

148Apps: The first game was commercially and critically very successful. Have you found this adding to the pressure to get the second game right?
Barry Meade (BM): Not really, we're honestly just delighted to get the chance to work on our own games full stop. Having said that I think we'd all be disappointed if the second game doesn't do better than the first as we've put a lot more work into it this time around. But we do honestly feel that if The Room Two is good enough and deserves to do well, it will do well, and that if it fails its because we failed. And so, if the game's fate is in our hands alone then there's no point in worrying unduly about outside pressures or expectations. We'll do the best we can and see how that flies with our audience.

148Apps: How has that success helped with the development of the sequel?
BM: Hugely. Whereas The Room had only 1 programmer and 1 or 2 artists on it at one time, The Room Two has had up to 4 programmers and 8-10 artists on it during the course of development. We made The Room Two in the time frame that the design required rather than hurried because we needed to make money by X date or whatever, and we were only able to decide that because of The Room's success. But frankly we can't think of any better way to spend the money we earn than to reinvest it in our creative process. For us financial success means freedom - freedom to do what we think is necessary to make the best version of the game we want to make - not to have to work for or make decisions for somebody else's benefit.

For instance if we had to work with a publisher, The Room would never have been created at all - it's a rare publisher that wants to push things forward for gamers and they generally look down on games and developers who do that. No, we needed to listen to ourselves for The Room to happen and thankfully that's what we did, and put our own savings on the line to do it. Now that it has paid off for us, we're even less likely to listen to others. We're in an ideal creative place but we're very aware that this position depends on us genuinely making novel, new, interesting games that deserve audience attention. I hope we live up to it.

148Apps: How will The Room Two be different from its predecessor?
BM: We were all very happy with how The Room turned out as our first game, though the very limited money we had to spend on its development made the game smaller than it deserved to be. So this time around we wanted to give the concept what it deserved in terms of development time, resources, manpower etc. to see where we could take it. In almost every way The Room Two is a more fully-featured game than the first one - taking what worked and building on it, making it deeper, larger and even a bit more complicated. The environments are a lot more interesting, the objects more intricate and interactive.

So it was a harder project to make this time, it had more moving parts, testing it was a bit more fraught etc. but we knew all that going into it - we just wanted to make it bigger and better across the board. Fireproof may never be a flashy AAA developer but as long as we are working on something we are going to make the best damn version of it that we possibly can. It was that attitude which helped us make The Room in the first place and this time is no different. We think its better in every way than the first, let's hope the audience agrees.

148Apps: After the success of the original, was there the temptation to simplify the game to appeal to a more casual market?
BM: Nah. We're amazingly happy with the audience we have, we have no interest in trying to squeeze squillion$ of dollars from The Room. It would be great to pick up more users with The Room Two as we've worked hard to make it as good to play and value-for-money as possible. But for us its very important to make our work with our own sensibilities at the forefront and not to worry too much about what others expect or think. Our audience bought into the love we put in the first game and if we want to please anyone else then it's those who enjoyed the first game. They will be our toughest critics and rightly so.

As gamers we've always believed that if we pleased our own sensibilities and standards first, others will pick up on the care and attention we put into it, whereas if we obviously attempt to chase what other people want or expect, the audience will see through it, smell the desperation and move onto something more honest and interesting. As in a lot of things in life, chasing something indirectly is often the way to catch it, so concentrating on our own wishes for the game and by extension our current audience seems the most reliable and sensible way to attract brand new users into the game.

148Apps: Many players wished they had more time with The Room, will its sequel be longer?
BM: Yes, quite a bit longer. A lot of people who played The Room thought it was a bit short but well worth the money they paid, in fact the user ratings are amazingly high for it so we're hoping that adding a bit of length and depth will keep them just as pleased and perhaps tickle them even more. The curious thing about puzzle games is how mistaken everybody can be about other players experiences. Some player who is a freak for puzzle games generally will play the game and complete it in 1.5 hours and will be convinced the game is actually short. But for every one of those Ninja players we know there's 5-10 other players who took 3-5 hours to play it, and they have a very different view on the length - any longer and they would feel overwhelmed.

Puzzle games are very different to other games in that sense - the experience they give players depends very much on the personality and brain of those who are playing it. It's this engagement of the brain that makes them so beloved I think - people's own imagination takes a very active part in the playing. It might explain all the love the game gets - we're not the biggest selling game by any stretch but people who have played it really really love the game. We are super thankful for that, I can tell you it makes us sleep well at night knowing it.

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Many thanks to Barry for taking the time to answer our questions.

Set for release December 12, we'll have a full review of The Room 2 that day. In the meantime, why not get reacquainted with The Room?

Cornfox & Bros. and publisher FDG Entertainment's Oceanhorn has been an anomaly in the rise of free-to-play games on the App Store: it's one of the few attempts at making a grand-scale game on iOS and priced at an $8.99 cost that few others have dared to try. The game's launch saw it rocket to #1 in the paid app charts and in the top 10 of the top grossing apps, bolstered not just by its App Store Editor's Choice but by a pre-release hype cycle that's rarely seen for mobile games.

Oceanhorn's price risk has paid off: the game recouped its production cost in less than a week, seemingly showing that the kind of games with high production values and premium price points can succeed on the App Store. Thomas Kern, Executive Producer of Oceanhorn at FDG Entertainment, spoke to me about the game's success at its price point.

148Apps: Why launch at $8.99, and that price point specifically? $6.99 has been a more typical "high" price for games on the App Store, and $9.99 is a more "round" number - so why $8.99? Was launching at a premium price point the plan all throughout development?
Thomas Kern (TK): We’re not setting prices on trends or from a psychological “round number” point of view. The launch price is related to the production cost and quality of the game. We got lots of emails and feedback about the price and it was all positive. People felt it was the right price and the game has done tremendously well at $8.99. We’re very happy about the success of the game.

148Apps: Was there ever any thought to making the game free-to-play, or incorporating a hybrid model like what Infinity Blade uses?
TK:The plan for this game was always to go the traditional premium route, something players are used to from game consoles or handhelds. Oceanhorn is a loving tribute to games we enjoyed in our childhood and we see it as a fan-service to offer the full experience without additional costs.

148Apps: The game was bolstered by Apple's featuring of Oceanhorn as an Editor's Choice - do you feel like the game would have done as well without this?
TK: When we launched the game it immediately shot up the charts, before Apple even featured it. It was great to see that Apple agreed with many happy users that this game is a milestone in iOS gaming so they featured it very prominently and supported the game's launch the best way they could. It seems Apple really appreciates efforts like this, after all, Oceanhorn's development time was over 2 years!

148Apps: What about the long-term prospects of the game? Can the game continue to succeed at $8.99?
TK: It does! We see very healthy sales and we’ve recouped the investment in less than a week. For us and the development team, the game is already a great success.

There is no sale to be expected, Oceanhorn will stay at $8.99 but we’ll add more content to it in 2014 so the value will become even better.

148Apps: Do you think that other games can succeed at high price points? Do you believe that Oceanhorn changed anything with the market?
TK: We’ve been contacted by many people in the industry and they’ve been surprised about the success despite the high price point. Especially because the production cost was recouped really quickly. Oceanhorn definitely proves that premium games are not dead and it’s a viable business. We can’t beat some insanely successful Free2Play game revenues, but that was not our plan. Healthy revenues don’t require a position in Top 10 Grossing.

Thanks to Thomas Kern for his time.

Alone in the stars!

On This Episode:

Carter talks to Orian and Felix from Liv Games about the conclusion of the Wars trilogy, Stellar Wars, how they think this is the best one yet, the struggles of trying to succeed in the current market, and the struggles of working as a remote team.

Episode Cast:

Host: Carter Dotson

Guests: Orian Livnat and Felix Embree, Liv Games

Music:

• "Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

  



• "Nanocarp" by The Eternal

How to Listen:

• Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:

  

• Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.


• Listen Here: [powerpress]

Apps From This Episode:

For Jon-Paul Dumont and the team at Disney Mobile, the creation of Star Wars: Tiny Death Star was a balancing act. On one side, there was NimbleBit and their hit game, but also their aesthetic of gameplay and of how they approach free-to-play that forms the spirit of their games. On the other side, LucasArts is very protective of Star Wars, and even with Disney owning the brand now they work diligently to make sure that anything Star Wars fits in with the brand.

Getting to work with NimbleBit for Disney's internal mobile studio was a dream come true, and Dumont had been in touch about working with them but he couldn't find a partnership that would work out until Disney bought Star Wars. And how did Tiny Death Star come about? Well, Dumont says "Somebody just sort of blurted out, 'What about Tiny Death Star?' and lightbulbs sort of went off and it sort of wrote itself from there on out."

Once the idea was formed, making a game that would feel true to NimbleBit was key. "The team sat down with the guys at NimbleBit and learned from them, what were the fans of Tiny Tower really excited about? What did they love? What were things that they felt like could be improvements?"

"One of the things that we really loved about Tiny Tower was the delightful randomness of the game, and how you never quite know what the next floor is going to be... who the next character is going to be who gets into your elevator. So we wanted to add to that by taking all these fun, iconic villains and heroes and species of Star Wars and giving you a reason to want to see all of them."

"Even though we built this internally at Disney, this should feel 100% like a Nimblebit game. David and Ian [Marsh] were involved in the game and they reviewed builds often, and helped us stay within what is really important to them as game makers. The great thing is that we were starting from something like Tiny Tower that was very successful and I think really innovative in the market at the time, so we didn't really feel the need to reinvent their formula. So in the same way that we were really reverential to Star Wars, I'd say we were really reverential to Nimblebit."

And making the game fit in with the Star Wars brand was important for them and for LucasArts. "The team started working then with LucasArts to figure out, how do we adapt that fun, humorous, 8-bit style that NimbleBit has over to Star Wars? It was the first at least recent 8-bit game for LucasArts, there was a lot of work and back and forth to make sure that our versions of the characters really worked but still had that tongue-in-cheek style."

"[LucasArts] are really rigorous, and it makes sense given that Star Wars is a property that has lasted so long, and that they have plans to keep it going for decades to come. They are just making sure that the characters fit and that things are logical within the universe. They're also making sure that they are making the right creative decisions for the future. They have a kind of legacy to protect. And so when they look at an 8-bit Stormtrooper, they're trying to figure out not just how does it work for this game, but what does 8-bit mean in Star Wars for next year, 5 years, and 10 years in the future?"

This even came down to making the game make at least some sense narratively. Dumont says "We needed to know even if it's goofy or silly, like our premise is intentionally, it was important to have that central focus of knowing why is an Ewok on the Death Star? Why is Lando Calrissian around your cantina? So, that gave us a grounding element. It was also really important to the guys at Lucas. They really are the guardians of this legacy of Star Wars. So no matter how silly or goofy the game is, they want to make sure everything fits together. And there are things that we followed along that were important to them. For instance, our game is set roughly in the classical era of Star Wars, which means that characters who died in the prequels are not going to show up in this game. Even for something as cute as this, there are really important sort of structural rules that are important to us and LucasArts."

"I would not call this game canon, they're not basing movies on it or anything like that, but having something that fits and makes sense is actually really important to us and we feel like it is important to our audience of Star Wars fans who take things, even goofy things seriously. It is really fun to play around in a version of Star Wars that doesn't take itself that seriously, so it allows us to have a lot of the fun and lots of fun humor and gags."

And with Tiny Death Star out now worldwide, players can judge for themselves if Dumont and Disney Mobile found their own balance of the Force between the inspirations from NimbleBit and Star Wars. Thanks to Jon-Paul Dumont for his time.

Occasionally it feels a little too easy to be cynical. To mutter about how the App Store is full of Match-3 puzzle games, freemium city builders, and Angry Birds clones. Luxuria Superbia is a reminder that this really isn't the case. At least not if one searches for more original offerings.

The game is described as a 'musical journey from the sensuous to the spiritual' with its thematic elements being distinctly erotic in nature. At least, that is, depending on one's perspective of what unfolds. There's a heck of a lot more to its interpretation than that.

Fascinated by such originality, I took the time to ask the game's developers, Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, a few questions on the subject.

148Apps: How did the idea for Luxuria Superbia come about?
Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn (AH & MS): The initial idea came to us during a roundtable session led by Brenda Romero on the subject of sex in videogames at the Game Developers Conference. While most of the discussion focused on issues of depiction, we started thinking about it differently: instead of showing naked bodies in the act, we wanted to model the interaction with a game mechanic on the experience of pleasure. And even this early, back in 2008, we already thought of flowers as a visual inspiration.

This idea was something we developed and expanded upon during a long research and prototyping project codenamed Cncntrc. This linked the sensations of the body with the rational and spiritual experiences of early science and mythology. We were especially looking at Geo-centric models of the universe and their links with religion (as the planets in our solar system are named after Roman Gods). We were very fond of this connection between heaven and earth, between sensual pleasure and mystic ecstasy. But the subject matter became so big — we were literally trying to make a game about everything — that it became impossible to capture all of it in a single game.

So we decided to make multiple games based on this research. Luxuria Superbia is the first one. As a first game, we wanted it to be simple and easy to enjoy. So that we would have a solid basis to expand upon later.

148Apps: Did anything else inspire you? Such as a film or game, or other form of media?
AH & MS: Luxuria Superbia is structured a bit like tunnel shooter games, of which Rez is a stand-out title that we love. But instead of antagonism and destruction, we wanted to focus on love and creation. It's funny how similar mechanics can mean such different things when tweaked a little.

Keita Takahashi's Noby Noby Boy encouraged us to embrace a whimsical and joyful play experience. And Erik Loyer's Strange Rain influenced the flow of the game.

Not exactly an inspiration, but Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey kept popping up in our reference material. The symmetry of the cinematography, the tubes and hallways, the sentient invisible being inside of the computer and the surreal cosmic ending all seem to have their links with our little game.

Discovering the paintings by Aimei Ozaki really helped us decide on the visuals. And the work of Georgia O'Keeffe supported our desire to fuse human sensuality with the shapes of flowers.

And then there's architecture. Cathedrals like Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and the Borobudur temple in Indonesia were the source of our desire to deal with a journey from the sensual to the spiritual. The intricate design of the domes of Islamic mosques stimulated the use of circular symmetry in the game. The interior of some German rococo churches, like the Wieskirche in Steinbaden, inspired the blank versus color dynamic. And the central hub in the game was modeled after Marie-Antoinette's Temple of Love in Versailles.

Other than that, we really love some kitschy movies with charming innuendo like Barbarella, Zardoz and Flash Gordon. A lot of the humor in the game was inspired by those.

148Apps: It's quite the departure from your other games. Was this deliberate? Do you have a particular genre preference?
AH & MS: We're too restless to want to fit into any one genre. With our previous games we have indeed explored the narrative side of games much more. But for us the creation of an environment and atmosphere is always more important.

Since the original idea for Luxuria Superbia came to us so long ago, it is not meant to be a deliberate departure as such. But the way we approached the design was very much inspired by the intentions for our future creative production as laid out in our Beautiful Art Program. The main idea being that we want to try harder to connect to our audience, to give more people access to the joy and beauty we see in our games.

The fact that we have leaned toward the dark side in our previous work with games about death and loss of innocence and so on, is actually a coincidence. We are interested in many topics and have in fact already made a very joyful game with The Endless Forest. With Luxuria Superbia, we wanted to share our love for life, the joy and beauty that we find in existence. So pleasure became the "story" that we wanted to explore in this one.

148Apps: Is there a way of completing it? Or is it solely about the experience?
AH & MS: Oh yes! The delight you bring to each flower (or tunnel or level) in the game is expressed in a three ring rating and collected in a column in the garden (the central hub of the game). So to complete the game, one would collect all three rings for all twelve flowers and complete each column.

But the game does not push you too hard to achieve this. The focus of play is very much on the journey and not on the destination.

148Apps: What do you hope that players will gain from playing the game?
AH & MS: Joy and an experience of beauty. These are not trivial matters to us. They are all-important. Deep joy is more important than knowledge. Beauty is more important than truth. The experience of beauty and joy makes us better, kinder, gentler people.

From my brief time with it so far Luxuria Superbia sounds bewitching, mostly because it is. It's like precious little already out there and very imaginative. Set for release later this week, we'll be sure to keep an eye on it.

Thanks to Auriea and Michael for answering my questions.

Ryan Mitchell has been diligently releasing some fairly under-appreciated gems on the App Store for quite some time now. Of particular note are Necromancer Rising, a first-person dungeon crawler, and Mission Europa, a far more refined first-person dungeon crawler with a really creepy atmosphere. And now he's working on what can best be described as a Dungeon Keeper-like titled Cursed Realms.

We contacted him recently and he was gracious enough to speak to us at length about his new project, and tease a little bit about a possible Mission Europa sequel. Please note that all of these images are from a pre-alpha version and that the look/style/etc are, naturally, subject to change.

148Apps: What made you decide to start developing Cursed Realms?
Ryan Mitchell (RM): I had finished Mission Europa and I was looking for the next big challenge. I wanted to develop a universe that is so encompassing any storyline is possible. As Stargate allowed its viewers to escape any rules or bounds, I wanted the same. Thus the Cursed Realms universe began.
 
148Apps: Why something akin to Dungeon Keeper rather than a follow-up to Mission: Europa?
RM: I wanted to create a more mainstream type game while also creating a new game engine. I constructed a new Shader and Opengl ES 2.0 based engine. Alas, my scope of work exploded far broader then I originally intended. I LOVE Mission Europa and do plan on a sequel in the future. The update would be using the new engine which includes a LOT of online components. I would like to have some systems where users create scenarios and the like. User created content REALLY blows open a game even if it is just a simple base defense like clash of clans.
 
148Apps: I know you've been working on Cursed Realms for quite a while, so it couldn't have been in response to EA's upcoming Dungeon Keeper release.
RM: Not at all. This is an after-work endeavor, and for quite a while my main job ate into my night time dev time. I also am married with two kids in sports and we all are in Brazillian Jujitsu. However, I have dropped a lot of activities and am pouring more time into developing again. That along with a scope of game that ballooned far bigger then I expected. However, that is a main reason for the switch to a Clash of Clans type game mixed with Dungeon Keeper. I am culling back some of the scope to not only make the game better but get it done sooner.
 

148Apps: Why the sudden switch from Dungeon Keeper to something more Clash of Clans-y? And how significantly will this shift affect what's already there?
RM: The current game had been in alpha testing developing game play when I was introduced to Clash of Clans by a friend who does not play any games at all. His addiction blew me away. I then realized I needed to change several things in Cursed Realms to make it most importantly more fun and addictive, then secondly to make it more appealing to a wider audience. The gameplay will be immensely sped-up in multiplayer and maybe single player (single player is taking a backseat now). This speed up conforms to the devices strength of popping your device open and jumping into a game for a short break or while waiting on something.

The online element and crowd sourcing gameplay is [also] very important. The ability for people to build, defend, and destroy other bases and minions explodes the content level. Then being able to take over your own minion in 3D and personally take on another players base adds a new level to this type of game. Another concept I saw as very important is a purchase model where players with more money then time can accelerate their play and help support future games I make.
 
All assets were unchanged really just database adjustments. I just had to clean up programmer interfaces and expose them to the users. My scene graph based engine really is quick to prototype and create new game-types. So the change accelerated completion instead of delaying.
 

148Apps: Do you think long-time Dungeon Keeper fans will love, hate, or be indifferent to the change?
RM: I think it will be an amazing upgrade into the new century. I played the old Dungeon Keeper extensively before starting Cursed Realms and it helped remove a level of nostalgic awesomeness I had in my head. It is still a GREAT game and one of the best classics ever. However, we have some really interesting new tools now. And back then we could not fit the 486 in our pocket for quick game sessions. As far as to whether fans will enjoy it I will not release Cursed Realms until my testers say it is ready and it is awesome.
 
148Apps: Even though it's going to be more Clash of Clans than Dungeon Keeper, do you think there might still be a chance for players to jump in to their minions' heads and play from a first-person perspective from time to time?
RM: ABSOLUTELY! That is one of the biggest differences from base defense games. Here you can be a part of your army. You also fight THEIR army. And in reality it is about 70% Dungeon Keeper I would say. The engine can support an immense number of characters on screen and this leads to epic battles of which you can wade through with your weapon in hand. The Clash of Clans thing is the purchase model.
 

148Apps: Going back to Mission Europa, is there anything you've learned since creating it (and while working on Cursed Realms) that you'd consider incorporating into an update/rerelease/sequel/hypothetical game that will never actually exist?
RM: I am a FPS RPG fan at heart and Mission Europa 2 is on my radar. This time with user created content and worlds tied into Cursed Realms as they are tied together in the storyline currently. The main thing I have learned is marketing/price models are 90% of the battle these days and the little guys have a really hard time getting noticed. Along with the pricing model of free with in game purchases is the best way to fund development which is not free; music and assets cost money, not to mention software and hardware.
 
148Apps: Care to elaborate on the connection between Mission Europa and Cursed Realms any further? Might that mean that players could control, say, a faction of hellish machine/human demon hybrids?
RM: Your actions in the end of Mission Europa also had a significant impact on the fabric of the universe which is Cursed Realms. Here is a small design snippet:
 
The Abaddon - A horrible mechanical race possessed with souls converted from living flesh. One weakness of this race is their poor connection to their equipment. The souls that run them seem to have a loose connection thus they have a hard time controlling them. They are however HIGH in armor to compensate. The Abbadon have wormholes to the north. They sweep entire galaxies harnessing the organic life, and some think souls for their evil.

Cursed Realms doesn't have a definitive release date yet, but once it's been given the green light by testers it will hit the App Store for free. In the meantime, you can keep track of the game's progress on the official development blog or soak up the lore on the wiki. Thanks so much to Ryan Mitchell for taking the time to talk with us.

Ever wanted to play Super Smash Bros. while on the move? Of course! Anyone with sense would want that! While Nintendo haven't quite made the move to mobile just yet (but we can hope, right?), that doesn't stop a similar experience from hopefully coming to iOS soon, courtesy of zGames. That title is Fright Fight, a horror-themed game inspired by Mario's brawling ways.

As is increasingly common these days, Fright Fight's development is being supported by a Kickstarter campaign which has just launched. As the project page explains, the hope is that Fright Fight will be the first 3D cross-platform mobile fighting game, with the plan being to port it to systems such as OUYA and Nvidia Shield as well as iOS and Android. Free-to-play, many of the pledge rewards relate to the acquisition of in-game coins or the unlocking of characters in order to give early backers an extra edge. It's shaping up to look pretty good so we had a word with Game Designer, Pavel Shtangeev, to learn more.

148Apps: Inspiration has clearly been taken from Super Smash Bros. but what other games have inspired Fright Fight?
Pavel Shtangeev (PS): Devil May Cry series: Additional inspiration for [the] battle mechanics, Diablo series [for the] RPG elements, Pokemon series for some gameplay elements and RPG mechanics, Awesomenauts [for some of the] gameplay elements, world and level design, art style. A lot of other games have minor influence on the game: Marvel vs. Capcom, DOTA, Quake III, etc. The list can go on forever.

148Apps: Has anything non-gaming related inspired it? Such as in terms of the choices of characters available?
PS: A lot of classic horror novels and movies influenced our decisions for worlds to include and characters to add. Still, we added twists to most of them. For example the vampire character is a combination of Carmilla from a classic novel of the same name and a mad variant of Luigi Galvani.

148Apps: How long has Fright Fight taken to develop?
PS: Right now, it's been 9 months in development.

148Apps: What challenges have you faced with making Fright Fight cross-platform?
PS: Unity3D makes things much easier, but certain problems still occur. These problems are mostly related to different form-factors of devices. NVIDIA SHIELD uses hard buttons instead of gestures so we put some tweaks here and there and remade all menus to fit both control schemes. OUYA uses bigger displays and this requires more advanced camera behavior, etc.

148Apps: The trailer suggests there will be RPG elements to Fright Fight. Can you elaborate on these?
PS: The game introduces a lot of classic RPG elements to the fighting formula: stats, skills, perks, etc. Right now, all characters already possess a full set of stats that can be upgraded through the course of the game. Moreover, each character is packed with an individual skill tree that allows customization of his attacks and play style. We have plans to introduce even more RPG elements by adding gear with different skins, items, and accessories and create pets that can aid characters in battle.

Thanks to Pavel for taking the time to answer our questions.

With the game already offering 3 different arenas, 4 different characters, and a fairly strong gesture-based control scheme, Fright Fight is shaping up nicely. Hopefully, by meeting its Kickstarter goal, the game will soon enjoy bot AI, and if the goal is beaten, new characters and arenas. For now, why not check out the teaser trailer and consider supporting the campaign?

Candy Crush Saga meets X-Com meets Game of Thrones? It's an impressive mix of genres and ideas, and it forms the basis for a new title called Pocket Titans. A turn based RPG puzzle adventure game, Pocket Titans certainly sounds pretty exciting. Its origins are quite something too, having been conceived by veteran developers, John Payne & Ian Pestridge. Between them, they've worked on a number of console releases, including Herdy Gerdy, In Cold Blood, SEGA Rally, Reservoir Dogs, and Dead to Rights: Retribution.

For the past 18 months, the pair have been working on Pocket Titans in their spare time, all in the name of flexing their creative muscles. With the game set for release soon, we took the time to find out more.

148apps: Where did the inspiration for Pocket Titans come from? 
John Payne (JP): There were a few different strands of inspiration which led to Pocket Titans. I've always been a fan of RPG fighting mechanics like the semi-turn-based Final Fantasy battles, or the group dynamics of big World of Warcraft boss fights. My original idea was to do a game which was a series of these massive fight moments without the RPG story and running around in between. Then I got in to Zoo Keeper on my iPhone (entirely my wife's fault), and I mean really in to it, in a way I'd not really experienced with match 3 games before. The game play felt really tactile, and moving through levels with just a little bit of story felt right. I'd always been a fan of the old X-COM games (not knowing at the time that there was a brilliant new one coming out that year!) and games like Advance Wars, and those three strands came together to form the idea for Pocket Titans. It's the class based RPG battles of World of Warcraft, the tactile movement and easy pick-up play of a match 3 and the tactical positioning of X-COM.

Ian Pestridge (IP): I'm a huge fan of all things fantasy, I was raised on [Ray] Harryhausen and the 'greats' of the 80's. I spent most of my youth playing Fighting Fantasy, D&D, AD&D and some of my favourite fantasy authors are [David] Gemmell, [Terry] Pratchett & Robin Hobb… oh and [J.R.R] Tolkien which goes without saying. So much of the inspiration for the visual is a distillation of those influences through the lens of my own styling. 

As John says the game condenses many of the elements associated with RPGs and has been developed to be very accessible. I took recognisable fantasy motifs and caricatured them, resulting in a look that 'feels' familiar and yet 'looks' unique and full of spirit.

148apps: How difficult has it been to find the spare time to create Pocket Titans? 
IP: The short answer is not very difficult at all. We believe that if you had fun making a game it shows through. The players can sense that freedom and enjoyment. So we promised ourselves that we would focus on having fun and avoiding stress.

JP: The great thing about a home project is you can park it for as long as you need to when life gets in the way. During development there were weeks when I didn't really do anything on the game, and weeks where I'd do an hour or two most nights, it fitted in around everything else. I set myself a rule very early on that I'd never let it distract me from my day job and in the end the whole process was fun and relaxing. The game's been 99% finished for quite a while so its certainly the most relaxed end to a project I've ever had!

IP: We both have similar family situations and day jobs. I've generally been using the couple of hours I'd usually spend watching TV or a movie after the kids have gone to bed to jump on the PC and create some artwork. Ultimately, we enjoy making games, so this has been a great experience.

148apps: What challenges have you faced during the production?
JP: Early on in development it became clear I wasn't going to be able to do it by myself, especially when I realised quite how bad my programmer-art was. At that point I almost gave up on the project and probably would have if I hadn't shown it to Ian. 

IP: I loved the game from the moment I saw John's early prototype. The greatest challenge was translating the aesthetics of the world we both imagined onto the moving tile mechanic, it's that challenge that first attracted me to John's concept and has kept it so interesting. 

148apps: How different is it working on a personal project rather than as part of a big studio?
JP: I've been lucky enough to work with lots of talented and creative people in my day job and I love every minute of it. That said, creating Pocket Titans has given us a chance to do something that's just ours, without any other stakeholders or any outside direction. It was great fun to make but also a little bit terrifying now people are playing it other than our friends! 

148apps: Will there be any micro-transactions within the game? 
JP: The best way to play the game is to work through story mode looting weapons and armour from the Orcs and Skeletons you defeat. But we've also got multi-player battles in there and if people want to tool up to level things out with their friends we're not going to stop them. You can use gold you collect during quests to grab any items you're missing and if you really want to make things easy you can buy a bit of gold, but we hope people play through the whole story as there's some amazing battles at the end that you don't want to miss!

Thanks to John and Ian for taking the time to answer our questions.

Pocket Titans is set for release later this month. We'll be sure to track its development. In the mean time, why not check out the beta trailer below? It's looking pretty sweet.

One of the consistently most positive things about the rise of the App Store is the ability for one-person developers to get somewhere and release their own titles, under their own steam and hard work. Sacrifices might need to be made but it's encouraging to see so many creative spirits work so hard at achieving their dreams.

One such person is John Stricker, developer of Captain Casual, a title that he's declared to be an 'epic science fiction action adventure comedy'. Its Kickstarter campaign has just launched so we had a word with John about how the project came to be.

148apps: How did the idea for Captain Casual come about?
John Stricker (JS): I was doing some pretty intensive work as a software consultant, and at the end of the day it would be difficult to take my mind off of the projects I was working on and get some sleep. I found that imagining stories helped me relax as I was trying to sleep. Maybe this was part of me trying to take my own mind off work, but I liked to create characters that were very relaxed, take-it-easy kinds of people and then imagine them being put into situations where they had to play the role of a hero. Captain Casual started with the idea of putting a laid-back person into the role of a starship captain, so instead of someone like Patrick Stewart playing the role of the captain it was someone more like Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski.

148apps: Why the name Captain Casual?
JS: Because it's awesome! I mean, why has no one created a game character named this yet? It's also fun to take the word "Casual" and use it for a character name in a mobile game since in the gaming community there's a stereotype of mobile games being too "casual" for "serious" gamers.

148apps: Have any other games or other forms of media influence your idea?
JS: A lot of the backstory for Captain Casual takes cues from Iain M. Bank's fantastic Culture novels, and the comic tone of the game can't help but be influenced by Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books (which I have read countless times). In terms of gaming influences, Bioware's RPGs (e.g. the Baldur's Gate Series, Knights of the Old Republic) have probably influenced me more than any other games. They do such a great job of storytelling, dialog, and gameplay, and while Captain Casual isn't an RPG, I hope to convey something of the same sense of being part of an epic adventure while playing the game. And, of course, Star Trek in all its incarnations is a big influence.

148apps: How big a game will Captain Casual be?
JS: It's going to be bigger than The Beatles! We're talking blockbuster, here. You're probably looking for more of an answer about the game's length though. In terms of game length, Captain Casual is designed to be a relatively short game, with a full playthrough lasting a couple of hours. The main reason for this is that the story in the game unfolds more like a movie where there is a minimum of repetitive action. Every mission is going to have the player doing something that they haven't done before. To add challenge and extend the life of the game, there will also be a hardcore mode where if a player fails a level they have to start the game from the beginning.

148apps: Are there any plans for in-app purchases or will Captain Casual be a one-off payment kind of game?
JS: There are no plans for in-app purchases as I feel that would ruin the tone of the game. Its hard to keep a sense of atmosphere and engagement when you're also periodically asking the player for more money. Also, I don't want the game to be a different experience for different players depending upon how much money they put into the game.

148apps: How hard has it been to juggle your work life and this project?
JS: Since April of this year I've been working full time on Captain Casual. I am fortunate enough to have a time-limited period (my wife and I have agreed on a one-year limit) to do this, but this is why I really need the extra support from Kickstarter as I have no income at this point. I've taken my hobby and made it my work, so in some ways now I feel like I'm working all of the time. Still, it feels great to be able to put so much effort into something I love. Hopefully the Kickstarter will go well and I'll be able to continue working on Captain Casual full time!

Captain Casual's Kickstarter has just under a month to go, with John asking for a fairly low $5,000 to complete the game. With only a $5 pledge needed in order to have some input in terms of what ship models and color schemes to use, as well as a free copy of the game upon release, that's a pretty tempting offer if you ask me. Higher pledges offer more benefits, too, with t-shirts, beta invites, and even custom digital images up for grabs.

The campaign is live now, so do consider contributing. We'll be sure to keep an eye on Captain Casual's progress.

For at least the past fifteen years I’ve been bellyaching about the lack of a follow-up to Mutant League Football. The ridiculous (and ridiculously violent) Genesis classic was the perfect football game for someone like myself who enjoys video games but could care less about the NFL. And here we are, twenty years later and it looks like that decade-old dream might come true.

Series creator Michael Mendheim recently began a Kickstarter project to try and fund the spiritual successor to MLF, titled Mutant Football League, and it looks phenomenal. However, the project still needs a fair bit of help. Mr. Mendheim was gracious enough to talk to us about the game, the project, and the future of Mutant Football League.

148Apps: After 20 years it’s great to finally see a successor for Mutant League is in the works. Did the success of other similar Kickstarter projects help to influence your decision to start a fund for Mutant Football League, or was it more of an idea whose time had come sort of thing?
Michael Mendheim (MM): Fans have urged me to do this for some time now and it’s also the 20th Anniversary of the original Mutant League Football, so we felt like the timing might be right. We chose Kickstarter because it seemed like it would be our best shot to get the game funded. We launched a couple weeks ago but right now it looks very difficult for us to succeed. So if anyone out there reading this is a fan of the original game, or just wants to play a really fun and violent game of Football where NFL Players are replaced with wise-cracking mutants and monster all-stars, please back us today.

148Apps: Any chance you’d be able to confirm or deny various teams and races that will be making it into the final build?
MM: Kickstarter backers will actually be helping choose what types of mutants and monsters we have in the game. We know we want to have some kind of undead, heavy metal type of skeleton players. We’ll also have a variety of Monster characters and Humanoid Mutants – think Road Warrior-esque type humans. We also want to include Battle Robots for more of the technology driven races. These will be big bruising robots that are good at football and even better at obliterating the opposition.

We’re also introducing a new character called, Enforcers. Generally, mutants are big, mean, ugly SOB's... so what do you do to keep them in line? You get bigger, meaner, even uglier brutes to monster the bejeesus out of them. And that's exactly what Enforcers are; They don't catch, they don't throw, they really have no talent to speak of... they just go after the opposing team’s stars like a wrecking ball. Eventually these creatures are subdued and taken to the penalty box where they are uhm…eliminated. Each team will be allowed to have up to 3 or 4 different race types on their rosters. It’s too early to talk about teams names yet but we know we’re going to have some fun parodying real team names (example: Pittsburgh Steelers = Blitzburgh Stealers).

148Apps: Kill the ref plays are still going to be in there, right?
MM: Of course, with a few new twists that I’m not going to mention or else I’m going to have to kill you, too.

148Apps: You’ve recently teamed-up with Run Games Development Studio to source their engine for Football Heroes. Aside from the changes that have already been mentioned - making the gameplay more realistic, less casual, and super fun - have there been any other significant tweaks? I really hope you decide to keep the RPG elements.
MM: Run Games provided the game to me, and I spent a lot of time playing and I loved it. I thought it was the perfect stepping stone to create a Mutant League-style game. It’s very easy to play and delivers a lot of fun, but also has layers of depth because of the RPG system that the Run Games integrated into it. We absolutely will be keeping the RPG Elements in the design. We can put these to good use and it will give the game layers of depth for those who want it. More casual gamers can just ignore it and the game will take care of itself underneath the hood. The art direction will look completely different than Football Heroes; Mutant Football League will have a much grittier art style.

By working with Run Games and using their tech as our starting point we will substantially reduce our development risk. Instead of building everything from scratch we can build on top of an existing game, which is already fun and has all the core elements already in place (Dynamic Camera, User Interface, smooth and intuitive controls, consistent frame rates, Online play, AI, Power-ups, RPG Elements, ratings and stats, Audio, Physics and Collisions, etc.).

Mark Brown, perhaps best known for being Deputy Editor over at Pocket Gamer, has just released his first game; Pixel This!, an elegant Nonogram title that he made to try and improve on the other similar games on the App Store. Because of his unique position as both someone who covers mobile gaming, and now someone who made a mobile game - and he did it almost entirely on an iPad using Codea - I was eager to learn more about Pixel This! and the process of its creation.

(full disclosure: Pocket Gamer and 148Apps are owned by Steel Media, which had no say in the promotion or editorial coverage of this game)

148Apps: What compelled you to make Pixel This?

Mark Brown (MB): I just adore Picross (or Nonograms or Griddlers or whatever you want to call them) which is this brilliant puzzle game from Japan that's all about using logic and deduction to draw a cute pixel art image. I think I accidentally stumbled upon Mario's Picross on Game Boy, and have loved those puzzles ever since. But I don't think I've found an iOS app that has done the game justice.

They're usually a bit ugly, or make it hard to control on the teeny tiny iPhone screen. They can be expensive or, if they're free, jammed with adverts or costly IAPs. So I thought there was room to make something better! Pixel This! isn't perfect and there's plenty of room to improve, but I'm really pleased with the result and the feedback.

148Apps: Why go with the free+unlock model on the game?

MB: It's funny, because I'm a pretty staunch opponent of the free-to-play model, but here I am launching a free-to-play game on the App Store! But I think this is a good way to let people have a go with the game first, see if they can grasp the rules and see if they actually like the puzzles before putting down their cash. It is, I hope, a non-evil free-to-play where you're not buying hints or lives or anything else that's going to wreck the balance of the game. It's just more stuff if you liked the first stuff.

148Apps: Talk about that awesome soundtrack!

MB: Hah! Well, you've got to focus on what you know, and I do not know music at all. So I decided to not subject anyone to my pitiful attempts to make a soundtrack, and want to encourage them to play their own music instead. Plus, I've always found that Picross is a fun thing to do while listening to podcasts or the radio, so it was super important that audio from other apps would continue playing when you load Pixel This!

148Apps: You made the game primarily on the iPad? How did you do this? What compelled you to work particularly on mobile?

MB: I programmed Pixel This in an iPad app called Codea, which lets you write Lua code on the tablet and then export it to Apple's developer program Xcode so you can submit it to the App Store. So the only time I used my Mac was to do the graphics in Photoshop and then some final code to get in-app purchases and Twitter support working. It's really cool to be able to write some code, hit a button, and then be immediately testing the game on one of the devices that the game will eventually be released on.

I'm also a big iPad nerd, and a huge believer in the idea that this whole "tablets are for consumption not creation" thing is totally bunkum. It's such a wonderful device to use, and the apps are only getting better, more powerful, and more flexible.

148Apps: As someone who covers the mobile space, does making games of your own change the way that you perceive them, and did your perspective as member of the gaming media affect development in any way?

MB: There are certain things we take for granted as journalists and players of games. We might flippantly say "this game should have iCloud saves and Game Center!!", without realizing how many weeks of work and testing that all involves. I don't think I'm going to stop complaining about missing features, slow updates, and missed release dates, mind you! But the experience will definitely color my view of development going forward.

As for the other way around, I think by being forced to play a billion iOS games a week makes me made hyper-aware of what works - and what doesn't - on the App Store. I hate being nagged by push notifications and I don't like being asked to review a game every five seconds, so I avoided that sort of stuff. But for the most part, I just feel very lucky to have my dumb little game on the same platform as so many amazing apps from so many hugely talented people. It's weird and awesome.

--

Thanks to Mark for his time.

Pocket Gamer Biz took a minute to learn more about the puzzle game, Blackbar, in its making of series. They spoke with the developer, Neven Mrgan, learning how he himself refers to his game as _____________. Ok, so that's just a tease and there is a lot to learn about the game by checking out the full interview.

With the release of iOS 7, we reached out to Denys Zhadanov from Readdle to discuss how the massive changes in iOS 7 front end and back end impact an app-focused company like Readdle.

148Apps: How do you feel about the change in look and overall design of iOS 7? Was it taken far enough? Too far?

Denys Zhadanov (DZ): It's interesting how the feeling towards iOS 7 evolved with time. Say, when it was announced I was more than excited about it. Especially I enjoyed the layering concept of content, controls and background. iOS 7 is definitely fresh, juicy, and bright. However, this excitement then changed radically because of some design exaggerations. Sometimes I felt that Apple has decided to do something new for the sake of it, rather than making something better. Apple is brilliant at managing our expectations and emotions towards their products. They did put an effort in emphasizing what's important in iOS 7, that's why after 2 months of active usage I have to say that I really enjoy it. The GM version is way different from the first beta. It's finished, complete, and consistent. It'll be interesting to see the adoption rates, but I think it'll be the highest in Apple's history.

148Apps: Have you come across any issues with iOS 7 as a developer?
DZ: Readdle apps are well-known for design and user experience. Flat design gives a very limited set of elements to differentiate your product from others. That said, it's much harder to create iOS 7 app that stands out. Since no-one ever created apps for iOS 7 before, there are no benchmarks. So the main issue for us was to understand how iOS 7 app should look like, how to provide the best experience and how to differentiate Readdle apps from thousands of copycats.

148Apps: How do you expect iOS 7 to affect your apps, if at all? Do you feel rushed to change all of your apps to match the style of iOS 7?

DZ: Since we have 7 major apps, we had to rush in order to submit the updates in time. It is vital to update apps according to the new guidelines and iOS 7 design principles. iOS 6 apps look alienated on the new operating system. iOS 7 affected our app to a great extent. Not only did we have to create a new design, but also follow the logic behind iOS 7 - fast, simple, minimalistic principles. In fact, sometimes we had to create 3 different version of the app and then chose which one to iterate. That felt like creating a new app for the unknown market. Did we feel rushed? Last 3 weeks we've been working 14 hours per day with no weekends.

148Apps: What new features of iOS7 are you most excited about taking advantage of in your apps? Is there anything you are able to do with iOS 7 that you were never able to do before?
DZ: Background download is the most exciting feature! It will allow our apps to automatically sync documents on the iPad or iPhone with any cloud service (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc). So you'll always have your files on hands.

Many thanks to Mr. Zhadanov for his time.

About Denys Zhadanov, Marketing Director, Readdle

Holds a Masters Degree in Business and Management from Aston University. BGS lifetime member.
Spent the last 5 years of his life transforming Readdle from a "garage start-up" into a leading iOS company that creates productivity and business apps. 

As of now, Readdle is a team of 45 based in Ukraine. 7 major product were downloaded more than 13 million times. 

Entrepreneurial type, who works much, sleeps less, and enjoys what he is doing. Avid snowboarder. Believes in spicy food, people, and disruptive technologies.