Podcast Interview: The Design Behind a Paper, Rock, Scissors variation game for the IPhone…

Dan talks about developing Paper, Rock, Scissors for the IPhone

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/paper-rock-scissors-iphone-podcast.mp3

Or listen to it here…

Show Notes:
Interviewer: I’m at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and with me today is a special guest. How about you introduce yourself?

Dane: My name is Dane Carroll from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I work at Ecliptic Entertainment, and I work on iPhone media and iPhone applications.

Interviewer: Sure. What games have you done?

Dane: Right now, we are currently working on three separate titles. We have two finished games. One is not released in the stores yet. We need to do some finishing touches and trying to do a twist on advertisement with it. The other game is a paper rock scissors variation with humor. We try to twist it with something a little different to it.

Interviewer: How did the PaperRockScissors thing go?

Dane: So far, it’s still new in the App Store. It’s doing pretty well though. The first day it took a while for the hits to come through. You can’t put your game in the store and imagine, hoping the money will start flowing in. Once you stick it on the store, it will take awhile to start to catch on, and they’ll start ramping and building a deadline. Right now, we’re at the deadline stage and we have to push it further again in the media, and that’s why we’re here at GDC.

Interviewer: How are you going to push it further? Is it just getting it in the press, or is it something else?

Dane: Basically, using the Viral Store as our advantage, there’s Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, all those applications and then using other connections with indie developers. All indie developers, you really need a band moving from a company of 4 to 10 to a company of 30 and 40 is a big jump, and it’s really hard to make that transition in the market. So, any help you can do to push each other a little bit further in the market is very good PR.

Interviewer: How long did it take to develop an app for the iPhone? Is it something that’s really difficult, or is it?

Dane: The iPhone SDK, I have to admit, is really very intuitive. It’s a very good software developer kit. Depending on what you need now, if you’re trying to go with a full developed title that has physics and other factors that are in it, particle fix three graphics, then your development cycle for the iPhone is going to take a bit more time.

In my opinion right now, it’s probably not the best thing to do because the iPhone is at such a hype. The main developer is putting things out there, and again your great games might be buried underneath the trash that’s on the iPhone.

So, what you really need to do is to focus on short development cycles and work on a game that is unique or separate from it. You could try to find games that work on the iPhone and kind of rehash it into something that’s similar but your own, and you might be successful but I think in the end if you really want to stay you want to try and develop a brand name for yourself or some type of thing that represents your company because people will remember it in the long-term.

Eventually, I think all the hype of the iPhone development is going to go away, and we’re going to start seeing more major companies show through and holding those top ranking positions in the top 50, the top 25, the top 10.

Interviewer: In terms of business models, do you just do a straight charge of people, or are you trying to use advertising or how does that work?

Dane: Currently, we’re testing since we’re a new developer, we are indie, we are trying to test different models. Right now, we’re trying the 99 cents app model which is a tier one model in the app store. I believe there is sort of beyond five tiers, but right now we’re trying to aim at the tier one, a small development cycle of a month or less and see how the revenue stream comes in.

Free apps, they get downloaded no matter what. You could put a free app of nothing out there, and you are going to get downloaded and you can swamp it with ads and you might make a buck or two a day.

Interviewer: Sure.

Dane: The ads are really hard to make money off of unless your app is really phenomenal and on the top downloads. To be on a free app, top 50 download you need tens of thousands probably to get there in daily sales, and to be on the top paid apps you only need about 5,000 right now. It’s a little easier to get on the top paid apps, and it actually pays off more, obviously, because it can pay for itself.

Our development cycle right now is we’re working on several different titles. One is going to be a year long development cycle. We’re working on one right now that we’re hoping to be done in three months, and then we release PaperRockScissors in a little under a month cycle. It’s something with humor that we want to see if the crowd reacts to it.

Interviewer: Are you guys going to do – I know that online interaction and MMO type styles are getting into the iPhone, and some of them are doing pretty well. Are you guys going to branch off into that category, or are you going to try to do something else?

Dane: I talked to the company earlier today that is working on Java-based applications for the phone, and they actually created an MMO platformer game on the Java-based phones when he was in Europe. For them it’s working somewhat.

Europe has a little bit different pricing when it comes to phone contracts. Right now, I think they charge for data streams rather than a flat rate for your data streams so that affects their user base because obviously they can’t be on all the time.

Here in the United States, I guess, with iPhone coming out there is a lot more potential for the MMO, but I still think it’s probably not there yet to get the quality or to get the experience that you want in an MMO. I personally believe, that’s my opinion, because you sit long times at a computer playing an MMO, and on a small device I just don’t see it as being as successful.

But I do think that Facebook and integration of social networks is something that is majorly going to be a big factor in making a name or establishing an iPhone. We need to try to find a new way to push the medium and do something different with it. We’re still treating the iPhone as a phone right now.

Interviewer: Sure.

Dane: We’re taking stuff we know, put it on the product. We’re integrating touch screen but it has an accelerometer, a GPS, contacts, web functionality, touch. It has so many capabilities that we could actually utilize to make a unique experience.

Hopefully, with the added fact of adding social networks in because Facebook really is just an SDK and other companies have done it without the SDK. If you can network with those type of companies and give the user something they are familiar with and love, I think that would be a great way to have.

Interviewer: Have you looked into then using Facebook Connect with your iPhone app or stuff like that? Is it just mainly that you get the profile, or are you going to do something different with that?

Dane: Definitely, we’re looking at the Facebook app, well, the Facebook SDK.

Interviewer: Sure.

Dane: To enhance some of our applications. To be honest, this is going to be a new start-up company, and me and Andy, we’re going to gingerly test that area. We’re probably going to take another game that is user interactive, focus on putting it out there but not spend a large amount of development cycle on it. Then, based off the returns of that or based off the response we get from that, then we’ll probably test that area more.

Interviewer: Cool. Any last words then for indie game developers looking to get into the iPhone?

Dane: If they’re looking to get into iPhone, it could be tough. It’s easy to develop. It’s hard to get recognized, but to be a developer I think you’ve just got to develop a fixed game and just keep going at it.

Interviewer: OK.

Dane: Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it, and try to get as much PR as you can. Don’t spend money on ads. Don’t do any of that. Just go out and talk to people. Try to get an article in the paper. Do interviews.

Interviewer: Sure.

Dane: Do whatever you can to get out there and get people to know your name because then people will start talking about you and you’ll get a viral swarm or something will come through and you’ll be OK.

Interviewer: Cool. Thank you very much.

Dane: Thank you.