Q. How long have you been creating music for video games?

Hmmm, well my interest in composing music at all came from my days playing games on the ZX Spectrum in the late 80’s / early 90’s.  I actually started out as a programmer and whilst I became proficient in BASIC, assembler just went over my head for some reason.  Then one day via Your Sinclair I discovered Soundtracker on the ZX +2, became active in the demo scene of the day and the rest is history!  So in some respects you could say I have been composing for games since the early 90’s.  However, despite always being involved with music in one way or another, more recently I began writing for games again around 2010…Actually starting with SFX.

Q. Do you have a particular industry hero or someone who you look to (or listen to) for inspiration?

A band called Telefon Tel Aviv were a huge influence on me, a friend introduced me to their music at a time where I had all but stopped composing and hearing the way they manipulated sounds gave me a whole new perspective on both composition and sound design.  I’d also add Brad Fiedel to this list, his Terminator theme has always stayed with me as one of the greatest movie themes of all time.  Yuzo Koshiro is another who I admire and has absolutely influenced me, his Streets of Rage soundtrack was one of the first I recorded to cassette so I could listen whenever I wanted.  Also, not only was the music fantastic but it was written in a programming language he created for himself!

Q. Do you collect or listen to game and movie scores outside of work?

I do, though often I think not as much as I should.  I tend to listen to whatever reference material I have been given for the game I am working on whilst driving to and from the studio and I will also flick through the radio just to listen to what is out there, and to pick up on any current mix techniques.  I have quite a few movie soundtracks in my CD collection too, but probably the ones you’d expect (Hans Zimmer anyone?).

Q. What’s your favorite game track or the one your most proud of and why?

At this time, it would have to be the current work in progress music I am doing for Xiotex Studios’ Cyberstream Fugitive, but to be honest I think the piece of work you are most proud of it usually the one you’re currently working on or the one you’ve just finished!  Each soundtrack provides its own challenges and learning curve within those challenges, and it is meeting these that enables you to keep learning and bettering yourself.

Q. Do you approach a retro chip tune differently to a more modern piece?

This is a difficult one…I suppose the only difference in approach would be the obvious one of instrument choice a lot of the time, otherwise no.  Recently however, I was asked to create three chip tunes for Super Icon’s  ‘Life of Pixel’ on the PS Vita which definitely required a different approach; I had to stay within the exact spec of each sound chip involved, so the BBC Micro song for example had 3 channels and 1 channel of white noise only!  Thankfully my history in music meant I was used to the constraints and knew a few tricks!

Q. Do you have a preference of retro or modern?

Hmmm, I couldn’t write just one or the other I don’t think…I enjoy both in the right amounts, is that a good enough answer?

Q. What’s your favourite game soundtrack (that’s not yours)?

So many to chose from!  If I had to pick a couple instantly from my brain, I would have to say the aforementioned Streets of Rage soundtrack and also the music from The Legend of Zelda, Link’s Awakening on the Gameboy, that music completely encompassed me whilst playing.

Q. What been your most ambitious or biggest project?

Away from purely game audio, it has to be recording with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra a track I composed called ‘Dream the Dream’, as published by Audio Network.  Within the game audio world I would have to say it is the current project Cyberstream Fugitive, though as I alluded to before the next project is always the most ambitious!

Q. What’s the average turn around time for a 5 track project?

That’s an easy one to answer, the average turn around is as quick as it is needed!

Q. In your experience, how many tracks does the average game need?

I don’t think it would be possible to specify an average number of tracks per game, clearly every game is different and I’d even say some could work better without music (thought don’t tell anyone I said that!).  To be honest, unfortunately no matter how many tracks a game needs audio is usually one of the first things to be cut to keep file sizes down so that can often determine things.  If pushed, I’d say you’d definitely need at least a menu track and one for in game if the game demands it!

Q. What kind of information would you need from a client in terms of a brief?

Good question!  Ideally I like to get some reference tracks and also a playable build of sorts, or even just some concept art or a video of gameplay.  Often I try and talk to the client and find out what has influenced them when creating the game and apply these influences to the audio too, but sometimes I haven’t been given anything other than the instruction to write a 2 minute piece of looping music!  For the game ‘Gunslugs’ by Orangepixel, I was given the instruction of 80’s action hero movie in the chip tune genre which was a great instruction, something as simple as that can be enough.  Ideally though a rough guide of how many tracks are needed, a general genre, if they need to be looping and a guideline to how long each track should be is a good starting point.  Of course it goes without saying that needs will change as the game progresses but everyone needs a start point.

Q. How do you cost for music creation?

I try and base my costs on a fee per minute of music created but will also work where appropriate for a project fee, this is usually best when asked to provide both music and SFX.  To be honest I try and be as flexible as possible when it comes to budgets!

Q. Do you use any special optimizing techniques when creating tracks for mobile games?

If you mean do I employ any techniques when supplying the music to help the code along then no, as I usually send the audio in mp3 format.  I would like to experiment more with adaptive audio and I suspect I’ll have to employ some optimisation for that.

Q. Would you ever be tempted to make a music based game?

Absolutely!

Q. Whats your favourite game (of all time)?

Ahhhh…I’d have to say if pushed Pilotwings on the N64!

For more information and to listen to some of his tracks please visit http://gavinharrisonsounds.com

[soundcloud params=”auto_play=true&show_comments=true&color=0ac4ff”]https://soundcloud.com/gavinharrison[/soundcloud]

[alert type=”yellow”]Source: http://www.debugdesign.com[/alert]

The post Interview: Gavin Harrison | Game Music and FX appeared first on AppTrawler.

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

I am a Soldier in the British Army but I used to be a programmer as a young boy writing code for the Psion Series 3, 4 and 5 in the OPL language.  I soon landed a job as a programmer for Unisys in Amsterdam untill I joined the Army. I started AppChogie officially two years ago but I have not really stopped developing, AppChogie has enabled me to distribute my apps under a unified name.

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

I have always continued to keep my hand in programming on and off and when the iPhone SDK was announced I decided to have a go. I started writing some utility apps in xcode and that’s when I found an advert for GameSalad on the internet. I have been developing games for about a year with GS and it is fantastic software with a thriving community. The iPhone and in fact all the iDevices run on the same software so it is very easy for me to port my applications to each device with only minor adjustments and for a developer that it outstanding. Apple has created such range of fantastic devices that everyone wants or owns one at least and through the AppStore it enables me to distribute and get feedback from my customers directly.

– What software do you use when creating apps?

I use GameSalad for creating my games and a mixture of Pixelmator and Adobe Photoshop CS5 for graphics. Once the game is created I use xcode in conjunction with GameSalad to make a game file that I can upload to iTunes connect.

 

– What was the inspiration behind the Doodle Bomb HD?

I have always had an idea for a game that my wife could play. It had to have simple controls and be addictive enough that she would not loose interest, once I understood the requirements I decided to make it a bomb defusing game that would be never ending providing that the player could keep up. The game starts off at an easy comfortable speed but soon progresses to be quite demanding on your fingers and concentration. I liked the look of some of the current doodle games and decided to break out my sons coloring pencils and have a go.

– What games are you currently playing and is there any you are looking forward to?

I am a true gamer and I am in between a few games at the moment. I am currently playing Alan Wake on the XBOX 360 but as for iPhone/iPad I am playing Monkey Island 2 HD, N.O.V.A, Archetype and Outer Empires.

 

– What have you found really helpful during development?

The GameSalad community that are always on hand to answer my silly questions. The community is such a fun and interesting place to hang out online and many of the members are so talented and I am always amazed when I see the games that they produce as it inspires me to try harder and learn. I owe a thank you to Tshirtbooth who’s YouTube videos have saved me hours and to my friends Debug Design, Quantum Sheep, and Stormystudio for there continued support and friendship. I have also found friends and family helpful as they help me test my games and find bugs to fix.

– What problems did you encounter creating it?

Doodle Bomb was quite easy to develop however the drawings took me ages. I had to draw different artwork for the iPhone version (Doodle Bomb) and the iPad version (Doodle Bomb HD).

 

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

The biggest challenge was to make it easy for people to play but not too easy and that is a hard balance to strike because if you get it wrong then people will stop playing it for being easy or likewise too hard.

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

I have done my normal marketing package, I have tweeted on my twitter page, facbook advertisement and sent various emails and download codes to review websites such as AppTrawler.

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

I would say to new developers have fun developing your apps or games, try not to take the process too seriously because you will make better products. Listen to your customer in whatever for that takes like the feedback on the AppStore or via your website, twitter and try to implement changes that best suits your user and the game. Lastly design and create games that you yourself would play! now that’s a big deal because if you don’t want to play the game you will not want to continue to create it, and you will not be enthusiastic about promoting it.

– You have a varied selection of Apps at the moment, are you going to focus on a particular type or continue casting you net wde?

For now I am focusing on games as a whole and developing my knowledge of GameSalad to bring even better games to my customers. I like to think that I create games in all genres with different art styles as it allows me to explore my creativity as a developer.

 

– What can we expect in the future from AppChogie?

I have many games in development such as Farmyard Abduction for the iPad due soon and Undead Fred for iPhone and iPad which in fact has been in development for nearly a year. I am also working on some apps with other developers and a government scheme for troubled young people through Youth at Risk to bring them an app to the iPhone/iPad. I have a continued commitment to updating my games with new features and content. I have enployed artists in Italy, Suffolk and Japan to help bring the production value of my future games to the highest it has ever been.

Visit the AppChogie website at http://www.appchogie.co.uk

The post Developer Interview: AppChogie appeared first on AppTrawler.

– 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.

We also feature his latest game Slingers reviewed here >>

– Tell us a bit about Banshee Soft and how/when you started the company?

Banshee soft was conjured up on a hot summer day in my pool with an old time friend that I use to work with at a small time education game developing company.  Tom Cybulski was over with his family, and I told him how I had started Banshee Soft with Slingers and wanted to have some help. Right from the start he was very interested. Like I said, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we had worked on some small time education games together, and then he went big business and I went big games. Now here we are again, Ten years later making our own games that mix action and strategy genres into a perfect blend of fun. I am really looking forward to our future releases. Our current work in progress; Undead Reich.

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

The ability to get my game to market with hardly any middle man being involved. I worked on AAA Titles, and the complexities of the business model was stunning. Next to none is the amazing POWER that these iPhone’s have. I would have to say that overall this is what attracted me to developing apps for this industry. It’s really amazing that I can now hold what use to be a big machine in the palm of my hand.

What just a few short years ago was console has now been re-placed in your PHONE… amazing…

– What software do you use when creating apps, do you use software such as unity, free software like cocos2d or just code the old fashioned way?

I have used many middleware applications in the past and in the end I always grew to dislike the “little black boxes” as I call them.  So for me…..when ultimate performance is an issue, there is nothing like knowing the ENTIRE code base and knowing where and how to tweak for speed. That is why I have created my own engine to make my iPhone games…..The SouLEnginE! It  is extremely fast and nimble along with the fact that I know it like the back of my hand.

I used this engine on Necromancer Rising, an iPhone game soon to be released, and brought it over to make Slingers.

– What was the inspiration behind the ‘slingers’ games?

It’s funny actually; If you remember the old days of Rampart in the arcades Slingers really harkens back to that. I woke up one day with the idea of wanting to create a fun simple game that would keep players coming back for the un-lockable abilities that unlock permanently once they achieve the next level.

– Would you say that Banshee Soft has a ‘visual style’ all its own which will follow through your games?

That is hard to say. The next game Undead Reich, will follow the cartoon-ish look with cartoon looking characters, but will be violent in a Tom and Jerry way. So in ways yes, however this is not a rule of ours.

Good, fun games that keeps players coming back is the rule.

– What have you found really helpful during development?

My Engine, SouLEnginE !!!!! The most valuable thing I have is the fact that I solely wrote the entire engine from a blank page. This allows me to know exactly where issues might be. It also allows me to squeeze the most out of these little devices called iPhones.

– What problems did you encounter creating it?

TIME!… .. As always I could use a few flux capacitors to spread the time out.  Other then that the environment apple provides is BY FAR the easiest I have had the opportunity to develop on. The XBOX was not so bad but this is a dream. Of course this is after you remove as much Objective C as possible and get back to good-ole zippy C. =)..

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

I have a very loving and understanding family and my challenge has been to make sure I give to them as much as I give to my work. What can I say…. I love what I do and I want the people who play my games to like them too. I want to be successful in my career and at home in my personal life, a 24 hour day just isn’t long enough for me to get done all I want to do! This is why I have my computers setup in the living room in a corner of my own so I can watch TV with my family and be “making the game happen”.

This is not too bad of a deal for me as I really am A.D.D. to the EXTREME. In fact they need a new classification for me. So having two things to do at once is nice =).

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

This is a tough one. When I started app development the market was not flooded with so many apps, not to mention the free apps, so it was easier to perform in. Now some of the apps out there are very good but I would say a majority of them really need a lot more work. Getting your head above water is hard. I am approaching it with the attitude that a good product will sell, especially one with good marketing strategies.

The first wave is handing it off to review sites and word of mouth. The second wave is adding a free version that you can upgrade to a full version with an in app purchase. That might take some time as apple has just allowed this, and their rules seem to keep contradicting each other now.  Purchasing advertising, for a $0.99 cent app is almost impossible to recoup. To purchase just a 100 dollar add you have to sell 130 apps to break even. The final plan will be tattooing it on my forehead running and screaming through as many parks as possible; I really hope I do not have to go there though. …So right now we are trying to bank on good product, lots of good reviews, being featured on websites or magazines, and word of mouth to market the company. (by the way I thank you so much for your review and for taking the time to interview me, Thank you).  Thank you for helping us get the word out!

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

If your willing to put all you have into it then go for it because this  is a VERY tough market. I want to say though what market is not tough? That which does not kill you only makes you stronger. My main advice is do not expect it to be easy. I have spent the last year with 30% – 40% of my evenings drifting late into the night working on apps. Working to the bone is hard.  Is it fun? YES! But after a few months it does get difficult. Oh, and ignore the get rich quick stories please

– What does the future hold for Banshee Soft ?

Undead Reich will be next; a much larger game in the veins of Ikari Warriors… And a lot more to come too! Banshee Soft isn’t planning on leaving any time soon.

We are free to go wherever we want with our games so I am very excited, and I will work as hard as I can in order to make the games a success!

Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy the game. Please keep up with me on my blogs at RyanMitchellGames.WordPress.com. Please post there I love talking to users and developers alike!

NECROMANCER RISING

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Visit Banshee Soft Website >>

Buy Slingers at the App Store >>

The post Developer Interview: Banshee soft appeared first on AppTrawler.

This week we speak to the three strong team at Big Pixel Studios about their first outing on the iPhone in the form of the retro pixel puzzle ‘Piyo Block’.  Having created games for Disney and Jetix and with a plethora of Flash titles under their belt there have now turned their attention to the iPhone.

1.Tell us a bit about Big Pixel Studios and how/when you started the company?

Paul: The 3 of us (myself, Dave and James) worked for DisneyXD/Jetix, where I ran the online games department. We produced some great flash titles there and really enjoyed working together, so when we all got made redundant we decided to start up together.
We formed Big Pixel Studios in July 2009. Since then we’ve developed our 1st iPhone game (Piyo Blocks), developed our website (www.bigpixelstudios.co.uk), and are just putting the finishing touches to Big Pixel Racing, a 3d flash game.

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

Paul: I wanted to enter the mobile games sector several years ago, but the range of handsets and the distribution models made it very awkward to develop for. The iPhone provides a standard mobile gaming platform that developers have been wanting for years – and it’s got everything needed to make great games – large screen size, good GPU, touch screen, online connection…etc

James: Because the iPhone is shiny!

3. What software do you use when creating apps?

Dave: All the standard stuff like CS4, Xcode, Flex Builder, and also Flash Develop and Blender.

4. What was the inspiration behind the ‘pixel’ games and Piyo blocks in particular?

Paul: We all grew up playing games in the 80’s and 90’s, and there were so many amazing 2d games developed back then. Pixel art done right can look amazing, and it would be a shame if that was lost and all we ever see now are web 2.0 buttons everywhere!

James: That being said, we’re not just about pixel art, and we’re keen to explore many different styles. If you check out our website and show reel video I think that shows.

5. What have you found really helpful during development?

Paul: The iPhone dev community is great, there are so many indie developers out there willing to help out, myself included.

Dave: Box2d is a great physics engine, and the contributors to that project are doing a great job in constantly improving it.

6. What problems did you encounter creating Piyo Blocks?

Paul: Getting noticed on the App Store can be difficult. Apple has done a great job with the iPhone, but the organization of the App Store, and games in particular, needs to be re-thought.
Also it would be good if Apple’s review process was a bit more transparent.

7. How did you go about marketing your app?

Paul:
– contacting a lot of the review sites
– giving away free promo codes on forums
– developing our flash mini game (Piyo Blocks Chick Hunt – http://bit.ly/TEJgz)
– word of mouth through friends
– and we will be advertising on some of the review sites soon

8. What hints or tips would you give to budding developers?

Paul: Don’t give up if you don’t succeed at first. The App Store is a tricky place to get noticed, but I believe that if your ideas and the quality of you content is good enough, you will make it eventually.

Dave: Cocos2d is also a great open source 2d engine for iPhone development. It’s a good starting point for anyone who wants to get up and running quickly without learning all the technicalities of OpenGL.

9. When CS5 arrives with flash/iPhone support will this change the way you produce your games?

Paul: I don’t think it’ll change how we produce iPhone games, but maybe give us another avenue to explore. It could provide a nice platform for developing simple games/toys that could be exported to flash and iPhone which would be great. We’ll have to wait to have a play with it to see how it performs.

Dave: If you’ve got an idea for a really simple addictive game that doesn’t require high performance graphics it could be a good choice. But if you need the best performance, developing a native app using OpenGL is always going to be the best option.

James: CS5?? I’ve just blown all my cash on CS4!

10. What other platforms do you develop games on as well as the iPhone?

Dave: We also develop web games, and are just putting the finishing touches to Big Pixel Racing – a 3d flash racing game. It’s set in Dog City, where Big Dog is holding your kid brother captive for running up massive gambling debts. You must travel through the city entering street races to win enough cash to rescue him. You can check out some teaser footage of it at the end of our show reel video on our website.

: As well as developing our own IP based games, we also provide a number of client services for iPhone and web games. Our web games are available to license, and we can also develop custom made games for both platforms based around a clients needs.
We’re already seeing some adver-games coming through on the app store to advertise say films, or a band, but 99% of them tend be poorly produced games that without the brand no one would give a second look. We want to change that, and to produce high quality games that would stand up in their own right, and have these advertise products or brands. That way the user can get a great game for free!

11. What does the future hold for Big Pixel Studios?

Paul: We’ve got updates planned for Piyo Blocks, and we’ll be letting the users vote on our blog shortly for what they would like to see in the game. You can follow us on twitter (http://bit.ly/bps_twitter) and facebook (http://bit.ly/bps_facebook) if you want to keep up to date.

Dave: We’ve also got 2 new iPhone games in development, although we’re still in the early stages so can’t show you anything just yet.

James: Dogs, more dogs!!

The post Developer Interview: Big Pixel Studios appeared first on AppTrawler.

True Axis’s Jet Car Stunts was described as “a fun, over the top, 3D driving game, with massive jumps, mid-air hoops, floating platforms, spiral roadways, outlandish maneuvers and impossible environments.” Controls are accelerometer based along with mid-air flight controls to nudge the angle of flight or adjust speed with air braking.

We loved the look of the game video, but had some questions about the game’s playability from that video alone. We’ve since had a chance to interview Luke Ryan and Andy Coates of True Axis about their upcoming racer. They also provided this exclusive hands-on video showing their game and controls in action:

Q: We understand Jet Stunt Cars is based on the True Axis Physics SDK. Can you give us a little bit of history on this game engine and the company?

Luke Ryan: The True Axis Physics SDK was a bit of an accidental development. It started back in 2002 as part of a game demo I was developing. The physics engines back then were not good enough, and I already had a few years experience involving lots of physics programming, so I made a much better one. I started getting a few requests to make it commercial. In-between doing contract work for mobile and handheld games, I did all the extra work necessary to commercialise it, which was the reason for the formation of the company, True Axis.

Since then, the physics engine scene has changed unrecognisably. I’d always kept in touch with the mobile gaming scene here in Melbourne and I started to fall back into that. I met my co-owner at True Axis, Andy Coates, while I was helping out at Firemint. In 2008, I decided to take True Axis into independent game development which has always been my dream.

Back at Firemint, Andy was motivated to get into iPhone development after working closely with James Hui. James went on to form Epicforce and released the excellent iFighter. In turn, Andy approached me and convinced me to move into iPhone development together. Andy joined me as co-owner as True Axis moved from physics engines to mobile games.

We have a few projects in the works, but Jet Car Stunts came from thinking about a good use for the physics engine, a gap in the market Andy noticed on the App Store, and many years experience developing driving games. Jet Car Stunts borrows ideas from many places, but the core of it goes back 10 years to when I was coding a rocket power-up for a sand box driving game. I learnt that fast cars, massive jumps, plus rocket power is even more fun than it sounds.

Q: In our first preview of the game, we questioned how good the controls were for the game. So, how are the controls?

Luke Ryan:: Accelerometer controls were a concern when we were deciding to make this game. I put a lot of effort into early prototyping, borrowing from many years experience working on mobile and handheld driving games. To my surprise, the controls actually worked much better than I had hoped for. The game was immediately fun to play, and has improved a lot during development. Making this game has really been a lot of fun and we’ve been having a lot of fun playing it too.

Q: How does the game perform on last generation devices (iPhone 3G, 2G iPod touch) vs. current generation units (iPhone 3GS, 3G iPod touch)?

Luke Ryan: Obviously the announcement video was not recorded on iPhone hardware. However due to precision driving nature, we were very keen to make the game as responsive and as smooth as possible. We currently have the game running at a perfectly smooth 30 FPS on a 1G iPod and 60 FPS on the 3GS/3G iPod. The 2G iPod can do 60 FPS most of the time, but we found that locking to 30 FPS gives smoother overall performance and is very hard to differentiate from the 3GS.

Andy Coates: A lot of research has been put into building the iPhone game shell to be as efficient as possible, plus a good understanding of the underlying OS, using our own custom sound mixer, and a lot of years experience in optimising the GPU side of things has made Jet Car Stunts run very well on the lowest denominator hardware (1G iPod). I don’t think many developers really push the older hardware to the limits. We believe that if you can get the older hardware closer to the newer hardware, in terms of performance, then the end user will have a better game experience. What I mean is that you can spec the game design to have more eye candy content that will work on all devices really well.

Q: The game seems to be flat-shaded vs. texture mapped. Is that key to the game’s performance?

Luke Ryan: We are really happy how the nostalgic graphics style of the game turned out. Part of the choice was for performance, but we also wanted to just focus on making a game that played really well, that was really high quality, but at a really affordable price. The ‘flat shaded’ style let us concentrate on what is important, that is, making a fun game.

I should point out, as any computer graphics buffs will be quick to guess, there is more going on than simple flat shading. The game uses pre-calculated lightmaps generated with a custom radiosity renderer. Radiosity can give really natural lighting and shadows. The light maps aren’t as fast to render as flat shading, but they are still quite efficient.

Andy Coates: Also, to point out we are using 32bit colour and the game looks absolutely gorgeous.

Q: As far as we can see, the game is single-player only. Any plans for multiplayer or online leaderboards?

Luke Ryan: No multiiplayer, but an online leaderboard and achievement system are very important to us. It is the last task we have before we can complete the game, and we are working on that now.

I’m not sure how suited multi-play is to this style of game, but obviously it would be cool to figure something out. Unfortunately, multiplayer is also a lot of extra work and we don’t want to do something tacked on. Our goal is to make the highest quality best value for money game we can. Having said that, future updates are always a possibility, you never know.

Andy Coates: We may consider a type of challenge mode for future updates but we have to see how the game is received.

Q: At certain times in the preview video the camera angle rotates about the traveling vehicle. Are these scenes playback moments?

Luke Ryan: Shh, don’t tell anybody. Much of the video was done from the games replay mode, and these camera angles where actually created purely for the promo video. I’ll tell you what, I’ll give [your readers] an opportunity to influence the game. Do you think we should waste a bit of extra time to put a button to change cameras during the replay? Think carefully about your answer, if you answer yes, I will blame you for any release delays.

Q: What is TrueAxis’ view of the iPhone platform in general? What lies ahead for your studio?

Luke Ryan: We have lots of experience working on mobile games back to around 2002. The people I was working on projects with back then now seem all run very respected mobile game companies. Anyway, after fighting with so many devices with horrible controls and crippled operating systems, for so many years, working with the iPhone is a dream full of endless possibilities. As a platform, it feels more like console development. However, I’ve always been hesitant to do an iPhone project. I’ve been afraid of the day when the market becomes saturated. But, I was talked into it, and the shift to centralised distribution is really exciting. We are also excited about other platforms, and the move of the DS and PSP to digital distribution.

We are very excited about the possibilities for the future. We are overflowing with ideas, but you can probably expect to see some more driving titles somewhere. We also have to finish off the port of Pompom Games arcade space shooter, Space Tripper, that is long delayed, but fingers crossed, will be released not too long after Jet Car Stunts.

Andy Coates: There’s a lot of excitement for independent game developers at the moment, with all those new App Stores springing up all over the place – if you have quality product then it will sell. When I lived in the UK I was involved with a mobile game studio sometime around 2002. At that time it was very hard to get phone product accepted by the Telcos, it was a closed shop… thank God those days have ended now.

I’ve spent a lot of time and research building an optimal graphics engine on the iPhone. It’s really a nice piece of hardware to program for but things have to be done the correct way to get good performance, if you don’t then you will end up with a jerky pile of rubbish.

The plan after Jet Car Stunts comes out is to get Space Tripper finished off, then port everything to every other digital distribution channel. Once that is all out of the way we can start working on newer content.

By Touch Arcade

The post Developer Interview : True Axis appeared first on AppTrawler.

The game revolves around a ceremonial rubber ball belonging to the god which must be returned by the second hour of night otherwise the Lords of the Night will not be appeased.

See our review here >>

Welcome to developer George Péchy

Tell us a bit about Etherfield Studios and how/when you started the company?

Etherfield Studios is a small creative development studio, based in Budapest, Hungary. At the moment there are 5 of us, programmers, graphic designers a 2D, a 3D artist and a musician. Everyone has some experience in game development. We’ve started a year ago. At that time we were working on a Flash-based project. Someone came up with the idea to try to create an iPhone version as well. We’ve started to “dig” ourselves in it, and finally we stopped the Flash project completely to focus on the iPhone application.

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

As soon as Apple introduced iPhone it was clear that it has a lot of potential. The way you can reach millions of possible users through a single media was really attractive.

What software do you use when creating apps?

Basically Objectiive C, C, C++  for programming, Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and 3DS Max for the graphics.

What was the inspiration behind the ‘Pitz’ game?

N+ inspired us greatly.

Why did you choose that particular visual style?

The visual style comes from “Bellfort”, our unique fantasy world. We’ll introduce it in every game we’ll develop.

Get Pitz here>>

How long did it take from initial creative idea to App store?

Nearly 8 months. But it’s because Pitz is our first project. We’ve collected a lot of experience from this long period, and we’ll incorporate it in our future games.

What have you found really helpful during development?

The development forums and the feedbacks from different development communities. Also “the red book” was a great help at OpenGL.

What problems did you encounter creating it?

There were only smaller problems, basically at the coding.

What were your biggest issues or problems during development?

The optimization for the hardware was a problem during the early stage of development.

How did you go about marketing your app and which had the best return?

It’s too early to say anything about the best return yet. As we don’t have a strong connection with international sites, we’ve tried to send our application to as many forums and sites as we could.

What hints or tips would you give to budding developers?

Take your time on preparation! Keep your quality standards very high!

What does the future hold for Etherfield?

We want to be known as a development company with high quality applications, we have a lot of ideas and we want to show it to the world.

The post Developer Interview – Etherfield Studios appeared first on AppTrawler.

We quizzed him about the perils, the pitfalls, the joys and highlights about developing for the iphone and gleam some great insights which could help you on your path to app heaven.

If you have any questions you want us to ask the developers email  info@apptrawler.com

Kevin Doolan from Ideal Binary

Tell us a bit about Ideal Binary and how/when you started the company?

Ideal Binary was founded in mid 2008. Initially it was just me doing contracting work, but I’ve recently been joined by my brother. Our background is in Game Engine and Porting tools development.  We’ve both worked on PC middleware engines as well as Mobile porting tools (J2ME and BREW).  We do a combination of in-house App development and software contracting.

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

Our background spans high-end PC to low-end Mobile development and the iPhone represents a perfect opportunity to leverage all of that experience.  Ultimately the iPhone may be a mobile device, but development for the platform feels very much like working on PC. It’s a stable platform that isn’t fragmented, unlike the BREW/J2ME space, which is a development and porting nightmare.  You can comfortably submit a single build of your App, targeting potentially 50 million+ devices.  You also don’t have test fees per build submission.

The other major players are of course following suit with their own ‘Stores’, but they all still suffer from device fragmentation which represents a massive expense in development terms.  For now and the foreseeable future, the iPhone family is a dream platform as far as mobile development goes.

What software do you use when creating apps?

Our aim early on was to develop tools to allow us to work quickly.  With that in mind, I wrote a game middleware platform called UtopiaGL. The idea is simple: UtopiaGL allows us to cut to the chase and write just App code, without having to worry about memory management, file systems, OpenGL, Sound playback etc.  It means we can minimize App development time which benefits our own internal projects as well as our Services work. This allows us to stay very competitive.

We use Blender 3D for our 3D modelling work, Photoshop for 2D work, and Audacity for sound.

What was the inspiration behind the ‘Gravity Wave’ game?

I remember seeing Thrust when I was a kid. I really loved the basic idea and it stuck with me.  I needed a fairly straight forward game idea to put UtopiaGL through its paces, and ideally something that used the accelerometer. Thrust sprang to mind, and after producing a quick prototype level, I settled on the idea of doing a gravity game.  Unlike most other Thrust variants which use slow, precision movement, I wanted to try to make a faster paced game.  This was very much an experiment, and while I really enjoy the control system (I mostly play it on Hyper), most people find the more difficult settings a little too demanding!  Hopefully the easier modes open up the appeal of the game to a much wider audience.

What have you found really helpful during development?

Making a plan and sticking to it.  I used Agile development practices, not religiously, but enough to benefit largely from them.  I have found the transition from Windows to Mac/iPhone development to be pretty much effortless. Having worked in BREW development, working with the iPhone is just a joy.

What problems did you encounter creating it?

No major technical problems.  This is a testament to the iPhone as a development platform, as much as anything else.  Time was an issue.  I had a few points where I got side tracked with contracting work, which interrupted the flow, but apart from that it was pretty straight forward. I was careful not to be too ambitious for my first App.

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

The biggest challenge was balancing all the concurrent tasks.  I made the somewhat crazy decision to do everything myself (except the music/sfx). I needed to keep the budget down, and I used to be an alright pixel artist so it worked out reasonably well, considering the time constraints. Not counting the time invested, the cash budget was the price of a MacBook Pro and a couple of iPod touches. Aside from helping shape the middleware and making it easier to use, a good chunk of the work from Gravity Wave is being refactored cleanly into UtopiaGL, so we can leverage that work in future projects.

How did you go about marketing your app and which had the best return?

We covered the usual suspects: released a free version, created a game site, youtube channel, submitted the App for reviews, took out banner ads, did a round of Promocode give-aways and a few other things.  It’s early days, so it’s difficult to say what aspect of the promotion has had the best return.

What hints or tips would you give to budding developers?

I envy people getting into development these days because there are so many resources at their disposal.  The problem now becomes how to effectively use those resources to learn how to develop without getting overwhelmed.

The iPhone is a glorious device to develop for.  Dive in and have fun!

What does the future hold for Ideal Binary

Our plan is to steadily grow the business.  We have a few more ambitious App ideas in the works that we’re very excited about.  We’re also wrapping up a few projects for other clients using UtopiaGL that we’re looking forward to blogging about on our site.

Download a copy of Gravity Wave at the App Store here>>

The post Developer Interview – Ideal Binary appeared first on AppTrawler.