At GDC Austin, we also met with Appy Entertainment, creator of Face Fighter [99¢ / Free], a fun fighting game where you create your opponent based on any photo on your phone. In the game you can beat up co-workers, loved ones, pets, or anything else. Face Fighter has been out for a while, but if you've never heard of it, there's a free version a try. [App Store]
While Face Fighter might be a difficult act to follow, Appy Entertainment may be on to something with their latest game, Zombie Pizza, a strange cross between matching and time management games. In the center of the play area there is a pizza with four quadrants that can be filled with the various toppings coming down a conveyor belt. Since you're making pizzas for zombies, these ingredients are things like brains and hearts, each with a different score value associated with them.
These toppings must be arranged on the pizzas in matching pairs, and an in-game cookbook guides you through the acceptable pizza types. As you go through the unlockable levels, you will have access to more pizzas, and you will eventually find yourself managing multiple different pizzas at once to feed a gang of zombies that grow even more restless with each new level.
Here is the trailer for the game provided by Appy Entertainment today at GDC:
Zombie Pizza has a great art style to it, and the cartoonish zombies combined with the ridiculous premise of needing to feed them pizzas was actually a lot of fun.
Zombie Pizza is due to be released on the App Store very soon.
Semi Secret Software had a major hit on their hands with Wurdle [App Store], a Bookworm-like word searching game. It was released early in the life of the App Store and saw a positive reception both from review sites online and actual newspapers. Wurdle went on to sell close to a quarter of a million copies, and has since been Semi Secret Software's only entry on the App Store.
Following Wurdle, Semi Secret Software went back to their flash game development roots and produced Canabalt, a fast-paced game of running for your life and jumping from building to building. I could go on explaining the intricacies of Canabalt, but instead you should just play the full-featured flash game freely playable online. (The original flash version is also available on AdamAtomic.com.)
Here is the world premiere iPhone gameplay video I shot in the halls of the Austin Convention Center:
Fast load times combined with short (yet exciting) game sessions really make for an attractive game to play on a mobile device. Semi Secret Software plans on submitting Canabalt to Apple soon.
If you're like me, you may not have even known that "Skee-Ball" was an actual brand. A fact that I'm sure Skee-Ball Amusement Games is none too happy about. Regardless, Freeverse has acquired an actual license to produce an official Skee-ball game for the iPhone.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary, Skee-Ball has been enjoyed by generations of players from boardwalks to arcades, and now Freeverse brings the fun to your iPhone! Developed by Graveck, the game's excellent physics and 3D graphics make rolling the signature Skee-Ball an extremely fun and exciting experience.
Freeverse has implemented a ticket-prize system allowing you to buy prizes and even different ball skins. But given the number of unofficial (and high quality) skee ball variants in the App Store, it's hard to predict how much demand there will be for an officially branded version.
Update: The developer of this official Skee-Ball game is the same developer as 10 balls 7 Cups [$0.99] which may have been the single best iPhone game trailer ever.
Wandering the halls of the Austin convention center we ran into InMotion Software, creators of I Dig It [99¢ / Free] and got to talk about their upcoming sequel to the game, I Dig It Expeditions that is due out this holiday season.
We don't have any screenshots yet aside from a few promo images like the one above, but they did give us some details that I Dig It fans can look forward to. If you haven't played the original, I Dig It is an exploration game that we greatly enjoyed in our review:
On the surface, I Dig It is a simple dig for treasure game, but it's not until you play it for a while that you start to appreciate the strategy involved in choosing your upgrades and intelligently planning your dig routes. On top of all that, you're constantly faced with the threat of overheating, hull integrity, and you always need to make sure you have enough fuel left to make your way topside.
Digging deep is key to maximizing profits, but also comes with the increased risk of not making it out alive.
Screenshots from the original I Dig It
Since our review the game has had a substantial update, adding a second campaign and even more things to collect underground. I Dig It is currently on sale for 99¢, and will be for a few more days.
I Dig It Expeditions is going to take absolutely everything that was great about the original and add features suggested by the userbase along with some substantial upgrades to the gameplay, new levels, and more. The entire consumable and cargo system has been completely overhauled. Consumables like different kinds of dynamite are now much cheaper, and you have more room to hold them. The trade off is, for every item you're carrying, that's one less slot available for diggins to bring back up to the surface. Aside from different types of dynamite, power ups are also available that will point you in the direction of valuable diggins or provide other useful effects.
The emphasis on these new consumables will make them a much larger part of the game, and additional upgrades for your digger will allow for even greater customization of how you play the game. The idea behind Expeditions is that you've successfully paid off your farm (The original motivation for you to go digging in the first game.) and decide to take your digger worldwide. Locales include the arctic seen in the above promotional image along with rain forests, or even underwater among others.
The whole game has a very Indiana Jones-like feel to it, with different archeological treasures you will be seeking in each of the various locations. Of course different upgrades will also be available on each level. For instance, while underwater, you will have access to improvements to your digger such as air tanks to allow you to stay submerged longer.
One of the coolest features included in I Dig It Expeditions is a mini map to show you where you've been digging along with a way-point system. The mini map has the same art style as the I Dig It interface with your path being drawn on what looks like a green and black oscilloscope screen. There are numerous other improvements both in game and in the works that InMotion isn't ready to discuss yet.
Something interesting that came of the conversations with InMotion that many people likely are not aware of is that it's a father/son operation with a small handful of other people with AAA industry experience from companies like id and Midway.
I Dig It Expeditions is currently in development and will be released during the holiday season this year. In the meantime, try out I Dig It or I Dig It Lite.
Day two of the Game Developers Conference in Austin, TX began with a talk by husband and wife duo Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova of Imangi Studios. Keith began the talk detailing the history of Imangi and how they approach making iPhone games.
Imangi Studios was founded in June 2008, based in Washington DC and neither Keith or Natalia had any kind of game industry background. The App Store created a market that would allow Imangi Studios to create low cost high quality casual games, and now have over half a million downloads across their five games on the App Store. Their most popular game Harbor Master [$0.99] reached a peak rank of #3 in Top Paid Apps with over 11,000 sales in one day.
Design Process
When Imangi Studios makes games, they start with paper brain storming in notebooks filled with sketches and other ideas. The hardest part is determining of those ideas what is going to be the most enjoyable for everyone (including themselves) to play and of course using a concept that has wide appeal is important to appealing to the large casual user base.
Like many iPhone developers, Imangi puts lots of emphasis on making sure games that are extremely intuitive, take advantage of the unique iPhone features, and with a good balance of a game experience that allows you to play for a few minutes at a time or a few hours at a time.
Fast Prototyping – Imangi Studios' prototyping process has changed quite a bit since they started. They now focus on a quick and dirty concept based largely around the gameplay mechanic and then get lots of feedback to see if people think the game is fun before continuing. The most important thing when creating a game is making sure that the concept of the game is fun.
Keith explains that while this sounds obvious, Little Red Sled started as a "Let's see if we can make a 3D sledding game." instead of "Let's make a really fun game." When they started with it, they didn't have an idea of what was going to be fun about the game and instead they had the engine built, the basic gameplay working, and then had to figure out how to make it fun. On top of that, instead of the normal 2 month development cycle, Imangi Studios had invested nearly 6 months of time into it. In contrast, Harbor Master's prototype was playable inside of 2 days, and the gameplay mechanic was hammered down inside of a week.
Icon Importance – The Harbor Master icon went through 8 iterations with multiple versions of each. Keith stressed how important the icon design is and making sure your icon pops out both on the App Store and on the phone. Important things to do are mock ups with your icon with your icon in the top 25, on the device, and next to similar apps to make sure it still stands out even if it makes it to the top of the charts or if a user has your icon right next to another similar game on their phone.
Alpha and Beta Testing – Beta testing is extremely important, originally Imangi started small with very limited beta tests. Currently they "alpha" test showing the game concepts at prototype to friends, other developers, and people who don't usually play games. Once the concept is solid, they move on to larger beta pools such as users on the Touch Arcade forums who have done great work for Imangi Studios.
They also get people who don't play a lot of games, like their parents. Watching people play your game is important, and seeing what they are drawn to and how they play the game.
Marketing and Promotion
Natalia then took over the presentation to discuss their marketing and promotion. Imangi spends 40-50% of their time marketing their products, but Imangi has never used a publisher because they want to build their own brand, and they've never used a PR firm because their marketing budget is nonexistent. Putting great importance on the launch of games, Imangi focuses most of their marketing efforts on the initial release of the game to have the biggest rush out the door.
Marketing goals for the release of their games is creating a great community buzz and getting listed in the New Releases on iTunes. Obviously, getting on the top 100 is important because that's where most of the eyes on the App Store are. Positive reviews on sites and iTunes are also important.
Create Buzz – Engaging the community is the best way to have a huge launch, so don't keep your game releases a secret. The App Store is crowded, so if you don't create pre-release buzz your game will be a secret because no one will ever hear of it. Before Harbor Master even launched, nearly 500 people had posted in the pre-release TouchArcade thread with 15,000 views.
Cross Promote – Cross promotion is also important, and Imangi's games all go through App Treasures, a group of indie developers that all promote each others' games within their games.
Forums and Social Media – Imangi utilizes the Touch Arcade forums along with social media such as Twitter and real-life outlets such as GDC or iPhone meetups. Pictures are better than words and Natalia emphasizes how important screenshots and video are to show your game instead of typing a bunch of text for people to read about your game. She also implores developers to be nice because people on forums are going to be very direct about their criticism. "You will be told you suck."
Getting Featured – Getting noticed by the press is important because while you're reaching users, more importantly, you're reaching Apple. Natalia feels it's fairly obvious that Apple often features apps based on what's reviewed on the big iPhone gaming sites. Natalia doesn't deny that getting featured is like winning the lottery, but doing everything you can to generate buzz can only help you get noticed by Apple to be chosen to be featured.
Frequent Updates – Natalia also feels constant updates is important to maintaining sales, citing Pocket God as an example of a game that has sustained itself since its release with a constant stream of updates.
Move On – Overall, if your game isn't successful and hasn't taken off, Natalia stresses that sometimes it's just time to move on. If a game isn't taking off, global high scores isn't going to be the piece of the puzzle that makes your game a success. Being realistic about your expectations with what you make is important, it is going to be nearly impossible to break in to the match 3 or slide puzzle market. As most things in life, learning from your mistakes and failures is important. The original game Imangi was difficult to understand how to play, Harbor Master barely even requires instructions.
The App Store is an incredibly indie friendly market place, with your small company size and low overhead you can experiment and react quickly to what happens in the market. You can also built relationships with players, something that has really never happened with big studios in the past before the iPhone.
GDC Austin kicked off today with an information packed talk from Randy Smith and David Kalina from Tiger Style Games discussing the evolution of their first iPhone game, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [App Store]. Much of their origin story was previously covered in our interview with the duo.
Randy and David discussed that prior to the App Store, there never was any good way for indie titles to reach a mass market. The iPhone brought together a great hardware platform and the possibility for an indie developer with no financial backing to publish their titles to a large audience. (And they don't deny trying to follow the App Store gold rush.)
The original vision of the game includes things like it being "unique and inspired" and "not about orcs." David and Randy then went on to explain the business side of Tiger Style, discussing an amazingly flexible and transparent development team. An interesting aspect of the talk was their conscious decision to price the game at $2.99. They looked at the market, the competition and decided to carve out a high quality niche:
While they've been thrilled with their initial success of nearly 100,000 sales of Spider, with 12 distributed team members and an 8 month long development cycle, they put an enormous amount of resources into the project. Still, they recommend that indie developers shoot for this "quality alternative" of high quality titles priced above $0.99 that exceed expectations and to engage the community (slide).
They also revealed that they are working on more levels, new features, a Lite version, as well as "Game 2".
At GDC Austin, we also met with Appy Entertainment, creator of Face Fighter [99¢ / Free], a fun fighting game where you create your opponent based on any photo on your phone. In the game you can beat up co-workers, loved ones, pets, or anything else. Face Fighter has been out for a while, but if you've never heard of it, there's a free version a try. [App Store]
The whole game has a very Indiana Jones-like feel to it, with different archeological treasures you will be seeking in each of the various locations. Of course different upgrades will also be available on each level. For instance, while underwater, you will have access to improvements to your digger such as air tanks to allow you to stay submerged longer.
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