– Tell us a bit about Debug Design and how/when you started the company?

Debug Design is essentially a graphic design studio.  We started 5 years ago and worked mainly of websites and print work.  Our portfolio then grew to include flash games as we always had a passion for game making but the currently 3D crop of super consoles meant we had missed the boat on making full price titles.  When the app store came out it game us a second chance.

– What attracted you to get into app development for the iphone?

We had always enjoyed making games and the app store meant that we cold start from the bottom and work our way up.  Retro was cool again and so we could begin with the basic games and as we learned more we could increase our game complexity.

– What software do you use when creating apps?

So far we have used GameSalad and native Xcode.  Gamesalad is a great place to start as its really easy to use and doesn’t require any programming skill.  If you want something more complex such as our Quizicards app then you need to program.

– What was the inspiration behind the ‘Quizicards’?

Quizicards was based on a friends episode where Ross quizzes the other friends to how much they know about each other.  I saw that there was lots of quiz apps out there but none that let you create your own quizzes and play with friends.  This concept then evolved into including gameshow style buttons, a tonne of optional extras and high score tables.  Once a person has bought the app they can get all the quizzes for FREE.  It sounds crazy but its true, there is thousands of questions already on line.

– Would you say that your game ‘Scribble Jumper’ has a ‘visual style’ all its own and if so what attracted you to that style?

Scribble jumper is just a free app that I wanted to do as a challenge.  I wanted to see if I could make a game, start to finish in a weekend.  So one weekend I created scribble jumper.  I kept the style simplistic and colourful to make it easy to create elements for it fast.  It turned out better than expected.

– What have you found really helpful during development?

Forums, the Gamesalad one in particular.  People help people which is always encouraging

– What problems did you encounter creating it?

Time is the biggest problem, you really have to say to yourself that its going to take 3-6 months to create a game.  Rome wasn’t build in day.  If you make your peace with the time scale and don’t rush you will find the process a lot easier.

– What has been the biggest challenges you have had to over come?

Marketing is a pain, emails galore to get it reviewed and listed… we have spend days contacting people and we are still not close to letting people know its out there.

– How did you go about marketing your app and what do you expect to have the best return?

Submission to a whole lot of review sites, a few web advertisements and a lot of tweets.  Not sure about the return yet.

– What hints or tips would you give to budding developers?

Keep it simple and plan everything first…

– When CS5 arrives with flash/iphone support will this change the way you produce your games?

Sadly no, we got excited at first but apple are pulling flash games and Adobe are not continuing its app support.

– What does the future hold for Debug Design?

We have a couple of games in development which are bigger than anything we have attempted before and we are also busy working with other game developers creating graphics for their games which is great.
Quizicards itunes link : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quizicards/id368514005?mt=8

The post Developer Interview: Debug Design appeared first on AppTrawler.

Developer notes:

Quizicards is an iphone application which turns the room into a quiz show. The application has two sides, the quizmaster and the contestant; the quizmaster can ask various questions to the audience turning any dinner party, gathering or bored moment into a fun packed quiz.  The app has loads of questions split into ‘general knowledge’ ‘categories’ and specialist subjects’ which means the game type can vary.  They can either choose ‘individuals’ or ‘multiple’ contestants which also changes the game type.

How it works
On load, the user will choose the game type and the amount of players and then the quizmaster will will show the user a pack of quiz cards with the questions and answers on. There will also be a timer for each question.  quizmaster will change cards by running their left or right thumb over the side of the screen (as if putting a card to the back of the pack). When a round is over the app tots up the players score and adds it to a table.  This repeats for the various contestants until the 1, 3, 5 rounds have been exhausted.

The contestant
If there are multiple iphone users playing the game they can also press the ‘contestant’ option which allows the users to choose a sound effect from various choices which will be assigned to their ‘answer button’.  The user can tap the screen to answer a question.

Create your own quizzes
Users can create their own quizzes, upload them to the site and download other peoples quizzes.

EARN $0.50 for each quiz uploaded (Terms & Conditions Apply)

Could this app make all the other quiz apps redundant? AppTrawler received a development build and the app looks easy to use and has a stack of options which might take time to get used to but it nice to be able to create a quiz to your own specifications.  If the quiz community get behind the app then we foresee this having a permanent position on our iphones.

The app has now been submitted to the App Store for review so we should have another update for you when its out.

In the meantime, check out this video:

The post Exclusive Preview: Quizicards – The Only Quiz App You’ll ever need appeared first on AppTrawler.