The Tales of an Indie iPhone Game Studio

Delano, from Resolute Games, discusses iPhone games and iPhone apps

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/agdc-resolute-games-interview.mp3

Or listen to it here…

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

Delano: Hi, I’m Delano Taylor. I work for Resolute Games Corp. in Memphis, Tennessee. We do iPhone games and iPhone apps.

Interviewer: What games and apps have you done for the iPhone?

Delano: Right now, we have five games currently on the iPhone App Store. Our first game is Thumstruck. It’s a music, rhythm-based game with a little strategy and puzzle elements to it.

We also have Segment which is a puzzle-type game where you take your own photos and break them up into different pieces, and you have to race against the time to re-organize it.

We also have AppRoach which is a bug squashing game. It’s just very frantic and very exciting. You try to squish as many bugs as you can to keep them from eating your food, and you also use power-ups like fly swatters, bug bombs and spray cans.

Interviewer: While you were developing these games, did you use any special tool or technology to help these games develop faster?

Delano: We just used Apple’s SDK, yeah.

Interviewer: How did you come up with these ideas, and were you concerned that they were too simple? They actually seem perfect for the market, so…

Delano: Well, we have up to 25 people working for us, and most of the employees are still in school or have graduated or have second jobs. So, we just all collaborate on what we think would be fun, creative and use the features of the iPhone. It’s something that can be played probably five minutes or up to hours.

Interviewer: What’s the response for the games? Are players liking it?

Delano: Right now, the response is very good. The Memphis community is really getting behind us right now. We’re trying to branch out more outside of Tennessee, but everything has been very positive.

Interviewer: Are most of your players then in Memphis, and how is it to be a game studio in Memphis which isn’t well known for being a game studio? It seems like you’re almost the only game studio there.

Delano: Actually, we are the only game studio in Memphis.

Interviewer: That’s true indie.

Delano: Preferably Tennessee, also. Most of our players are from Memphis. We have branched out a little bit being that some of our employees are from out of town, and they go to school. So, they’ve been able to network at school with other players.

Interviewer: Sure.

Delano: It does have its drawbacks because a lot of people are expecting us to fail simply because we are the only Memphis-based game studio, but at the same time we’re kind of like the forefathers in Memphis trying to create a stepping stone for other people to come and create games here.

Interviewer: Do you guys do anything to build up a community, a game development community, within Memphis? Do you have meetings? How do you find more people that you can talk to in the area?

Delano: Actually, all of our games are connected to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. We just sponsored a Thumstruck Contest where the winner will get a $10.00 gift certificate to iTunes, and the winner of our first contest was actually from Australia.

And we’re also coming out with Thumstruck 2 in the near future, and we’re getting collaboration from all these different bands from all over the country. I mean, I’ll try to promote their music on our game.

Interviewer: What are other marketing methods you guys are using to promote your game? You talked about Facebook, Twitter and getting all these other bands which could work out because they can promote the game to their followings. So, what other marketing methods are you guys using?

Delano: Besides the social marketing aspect, we’re using websites like FingerGaming and AppTreasures as well as iPhone fan sites. We’re just doing self-promotion right now in Memphis with different contests and just getting word of mouth as well as showing it to any and everybody in Memphis.

Interviewer: Now, if you’re just promoting it in Memphis, can you make enough revenue to keep doing this? Don’t you need to have a global reach to make…

Delano: We’re trying to branch out a little bit more. Most of our revenue is coming from apps not just the games, and we’re thinking about doing contract work. I really can’t talk about that right now, but yeah, we’re also going to try to branch out more.

We’re starting on the iPhone. Hopefully, we get into the PSP and Xbox Live Arcade, but that’s in the near future.

Interviewer: Let’s then talk about the psychological aspect of being the only game developer in Memphis. When you talk to other people who are outside of the game industry, which is pretty much everyone in Memphis, what are their thoughts, and how do you say that, “Hey, we’re going to succeed”, when their assumption is that everyone is going to fail just like everyone who says they are going to do country music. Say, if you’re country music in Maine, no one is going to believe it, but if you’re in Memphis, Tennessee, people may take it more seriously.

Delano: Well, actually a lot of people are behind us. Memphis is a big gaming city. We don’t see a lot of tournaments or any big publicity coming in Memphis, but we’re just trying to be the forerunners of it. And any type of event we have going on in Memphis, we try to put our stamp on it as far as promoting games and everything. The gaming community in Memphis is really behind us, and we just try to stand by them and get as much feedback as we possibly can.

Interviewer: Any last words then for indie game developers wanting to start a studio in the middle of not a well known game development place?

Delano: I say just, if you’re very passionate about it, you stick with your guns and do what you can. Try network and talk to as many people as you can, and just stick with it. I’ve had people tell me my whole life that this is the wrong path. You’re not going to amount to anything. You just want to play games for the rest of your life, but the gaming industry is a multi billion dollar industry and everybody plays it: social, casual players and even hard core players. So, just stick with it.

Interviewer: Yeah, so on a personal note, how do you then handle that criticism? Do you pretty much tune them out because this is something that a lot of indies may go through, whether it’s developing a game for a new genre or it’s going against the grain of what most people are doing?

Delano: Well, at first it was kind of a setback and a deterrent, but after a while you just start to use that as motivation because I’ve been told before by my parents and my teachers and my mentors that if you have a lot of people hating on you and trying to put you down, you must be doing something right.

Interviewer: Sure.

Delano: So, the more haters that you get, the more successful I believe you are going to be.

Interviewer: There you have it. That’s perfect advice for indies. Take care.