As we indicated yesterday, Another World for iOS will feature both the graphics of the original game as well as re-mastered "HD" graphics done specifically for this release. (A two-fingered swipe up the screen will toggle the visuals at any time.) In speaking with Chahi, I learned that this 20th Anniversary Edition of the game is running a tweaked version of the core script from acclaimed 15th Anniversary Edition, as executed by Chahi's own custom script interpreter that has been converted from 68000 assembly to C++. All of the sounds in the game have been re-mastered as well, to deliver an enhanced audio experience as compared to the original.

The preferred control method on the Amiga original was the keyboard. The iOS version brings two different methods of controlling our hero. The first and easiest to visualize is an on-screen virtual D-pad. The second method is a system that the developer refers to as "Touch Mode" and indicates that a great deal of time was put into it, to get things just right.

Touch Mode presents almost no visual control interface on screen. Lester's movement is controlled in this mode by tapping on, or dragging outwards to, the left or right side of the display. A double-tap sends him into a sprint, and sliding up or down initiates a jump or a duck. Chahi likens this control mode to the system used in Mirror's Edge. One difficulty the developers faced in engineering this mode was the number of simultaneous actions that Lester can perform, such as running and jumping. To make this work, once Lester is running, a swipe up the screen will send him into a long jump -- there's no need to sustain a touch to keep him running. Chahi indicates that this mode is particularly useful on the iPhone and iPod touch, where one's fingers obscure a much greater portion of the screen as compared to the iPad.

The developers demonstrate the game's controls and difficulty settings in a brief gameplay video.

I pressed Chahi to try and get a hint as to what we might have to look forward to in the way of future iOS projects like, oh...I dunno, From Dust, maybe… Well, it turns out that his excellent XBLA God game is not presently slated to make an App Store appearance (though he did speculate that the next iteration of the iPad's CPU might just be able to pull off such a game). But that's not to say that Another World is all we'll ever be seeing from this talented designer on our devices. In fact, during my conversation with Chahi, he expressed clear enthusiasm for the iOS platform and the flexibility that its multitouch interface and rich, sharp display bring to gaming. The generous physical display size of the iPad, in particular, excites him, making it the member of the iOS family that holds, for him, the most interest. Chahi tells me that the overall development opportunity that the iOS platform brings to gamemakers reminds him of the long-gone days of developing for the late '80s game consoles such as the Gameboy and the Atari Lynx.

It was a real pleasure to chat with the master about his masterpiece, and iOS gaming in general. Another World is an exquisite work and had a significant impact on me when I first experienced it 20 years ago. I am so very pleased to know that a new generation of gamers will soon have the opportunity to experience Another World for themselves. I encourage anyone familiar with the game or simply intrigued by what they've read here to watch Eric Chahi's excellent GDC 2011 presentation, Classic Game Postmortem: Another World / Out of this World, hosted at the GDC Vault.

You can count on our in-depth look at Another World as soon as the game arrives in the App Store on the 22nd of this month.

Junk Jack

Inarguably, Junk Jack is derivative of Mojang’s and Re-Logic’s respective titles, but I think you’ll be surprised when you hear that the team didn’t even know about Terraria when the game and it’s iconic smoking miner, Jack, were initially sketched out. Since then, the team has embraced that work and has allowed it to inform development.

“...we tried to get some inspirations without being too trivial,” Pixbits told us in a recent e-mail exchange. “When you develop for the iPhone you have to think about the fact that everything goes in a different way compared to a normal desktop game, controls are different, game experience is different, and also the time pattern you spend while gaming is different, so our focus in this regard was to develop a slick and fun gameplay, while maintaining the sandbox experience that users love and that we all know.“

“We don’t want to go beyond, since we really both respect Minecraft and Terraria (we play together to both of them), we just like to offer a similar gameplay experience to entertain with when you are not at home.”

Junk Jack is being developed with procedurally generated worlds in mind, and so a good chunk of time is being spent in the actual coding to ensure a smooth experience. The final world size hasn’t been decided quite yet, but you’ll get three different save files for three different worlds, none of which will trade usability in exchange for size.

Games like Minecraft typically lack structure, and that’s something Pixbits wants to provide in its open-world, exploration, and crafting game.

“We can say that the main goal of Junk Jack is to explore, craft and survive inside a procedural generated world full of features that we plan to add constantly. We were unsatisfied with the ‘only-sandbox’ approach, just because we felt that an iPhone game should give players secondary tasks to entertain themselves.

“That’s why, for example, we have implemented a simple yet effective mail system that allows the player to craft his own mailbox and use it to accept fun quests asked from various people which need to retrieve their lost items, providing rewards in exchange.”

Pixbits tells us that the mailbox is just the beginning of some sort of quest line -- the studio will continue to add tasks and give people something to do inside their respective worlds. Also, the studio will be looking to fans for ideas for future updates. To hear Pixbits tell it, users will have an actual stake in the game and will guide their hands after release.

Junk Jack is planned to hit at some point this September. The version you're seeing here is strictly for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but an iPad version isn't out of the question. It's just not on the docket at the moment.

When I talked with Chair Entertainment's Donald Mustard the other day about Infinity Blade I couldn't let the opportunity to talk a bit of Shadow Complex slip past me. If you don't know, Shadow Complex is a brilliant Metroidvania-style action title that I still consider to be one of my favorite games ever. How could I resist asking Mustard if Shadow Complex could ever be released the iPad? I want it everywhere at anytime.

I told Mustard before I even fired off the query to be prepared to hear something stupid. Shadow Complex is in no way a touch screen type of game. In fact, I can't think of a single way the game could be ported to iOS and end up playing as well as it does on Xbox Live Arcade. I think I caught him a bit off guard with my steamy, hot fanboy desire. He ended up asking me initially in response, "What do you think? How do you think Shadow Complex would control on the iPad?"

I replied, "I don't know! I just want to hear you say it," I exclaimed. We both laughed and then Mustard shared his thoughts on the matter.

Yeah, I mean, for me, I don't know," Mustard said. "I think for Shadow Complex to show up on a touch device would mean we'd have to figure out a way for it to control really, really tight and really, really awesome. I'm not saying that can't be done. In my few minutes of thinking about it I'm kind of like, 'well, I don't know. We'd have to compromise a lot of the tightness that came with the control scheme of Shadow Complex.'

As Mustard said, Shadow Complex for the iPad could happen. But for it to be a reality, Chair would have to feel comfortable with the way the controls translated to the device. It would have to feel perfect, just like the XBLA version does.

For me -- that's what it comes down to, if it can't be amazing, then I don't want to do it. I don't want to shoehorn controls in. I don't want to force it. Again, I'm not saying that it can't be done, but we'd have to come up with a way that it would still feel like Shadow Complex and still feel that tight. To me, one of the things that really made Shadow Complex feel good was that the controls were extremely responsive and worked. I'd have to be able to pull off a triple jump while shooting a foam gun while turning on my friction dampener to turn on so I could run across ceilings all with the touch pad. I dunno. We'll see. If anyone out there has a brilliant idea on how to make it control great, let us know!

Infinity Blade is Chair's first game since Shadow Complex. I tend to think sequel whenever a game hits with as much acclaim and sells as well as Shadow Complex did, so with this in mind, I asked if IB was the game Chair wanted to make following Shadow Complex. In short, yeah, it was.

This is the game I… when someone came to me and said, 'we would really like you to make a game for iOS devices and we'll have four months to do it…' What would you do? This is the game I would make. Absolutely. Given those constraints and that opportunity, yeah, we think this game is awesome for that.

But will Chair stick with the iPhone after the release of IB? We'll see. Mustard and Chair are committed to making strong games on every platform.

For us, we just want to make awesome games. We want to make games people like to play, that entertain people and make them happy. I'm pretty device agnostic. To me, every console there's opportunities to do really unique, cool stuff. We will continue to make games for every device and console that makes sense to make games for.

Infinity Blade, which is an actual iOS game created by Chair Entertainment releases this holiday on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPad.

It's easy to get the gist of Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade by watching a sizzle reel or by reading the various impressions pieces on the web. It's a medieval action RPG that pits you against various titanic foes in pitched battles that'll require you to approximate sword slashes and parries with swipes and gestures. But what you won't get from these mediums are specifics.

This is why I contacted Chair for an interview about IB. The game looks so great, looks so promising, that I just had to know more about it. The man I spoke with, Chair creative director and lead designer on IB Donald Mustard, filled me in.

It's More Of An Action Game
Think of the RPG aspects of Infinity Blade as a strategic compliment. The action part of the game, which has you reacting to attacks from large and small foes, and then dispensing your own punishment composes the core of the game.

When we sat down to look at the device and we had an opportunity to make a game for it we kinda had this idea kicking around in our heads for awhile about how could we make a really cool sword-fighting game that actually felt like you were sword fighting as opposed to mashing buttons. We thought that the touch screen on these devices would be the perfect place to do something like this.

Right down to its core, we thought it'd be really fun to have a game where I could have a big, nasty enemy on the screen that's coming at me with a sword -- a sword that could be coming from any angle at any time. And because I have a touch screen, I could swipe my finger exactly where that sword is coming at me and parry it away and knock that guy's blade back and then swipe at the guy.

As for those RPG elements, they come from how you customize your character with items like swords, shields, and armor found in the environment. Every sword and shield has EXP attached to it -- as you use the item, the EXP drains into you and into your overall EXP pool. You'll also master the item once it is drained. When you level up, you'll gain skill points that you can then apply to your character, so draining an item is something you want to do. Unless, of course, this happens:

You'll find yourself with a mastered sword that's pretty cool, but... let's say you have an ice sword that you've mastered and you're coming up to an enemy that's weak to ice. You've got a fire sword equipped currently that you're gaining EXP from. You're like, 'Well, do I really want to re-equip my ice sword that I'm not going to get EXP from in this fight? I really want to use it on this guy because he's guarding a treasure. I know can beat him easier that way.'

I should note that you can also use magic rings to cast spells. You'll have to draw the symbol of the spell on the screen. These can level up too and become stronger.

You're A Knight In His Version Of Gannondorf's Fortress
Interestingly, IB kicks off where most games end. You're an aging knight at his end goal ready to square off against the God-King and his last remaining Titans. It's an interesting twist that we'll learn more about as we play the game.

It's Not On Rails
There's a lot of speculation about IB being on-rails, as in the game will do the walking for you. That phrase has stigma attached to it, despite the fact that several games have managed to be great, guided experiences. IB is not an on-rails title, but it does plainly point out where you need to go via "nodes" in the world. To me, it sounds like Myst with some actual guidance.

In IB, you'll be able to move your character in the game world with a simple click on a destination, which is probably why it's commonly thought to be an on-rails game. The point of this streamlined method of control, though, had more to do with ease of play as opposed to a specific point of level design at first.

We really wanted to come up with a way to navigate the castle that was different than games I've played on my iOS device. We're not huge fans of games that try to emulate what a controller would do on the touch screen. We're way bigger fans of games that use the touch screen in a unique way that's more suited for that device. We tried with everything we did in Infinity Blade to make it a game that you can be play with one finger. That was our mantra.

When it came to navigation we settled on more… we call it cinematic click navigation. So, basically, I can use my finger to look around the environment by just holding down on the screen as I swipe back and forth to move the camera. And then I can click on certain points in the environment, kind of more like Myst or some adventure game, and then my character will cinematically move towards that location. While that's happening, I could be picking up gold or see other nodes to go in different ways.

The Multiplayer Won't Just Be Knight On Knight

Post release, Chair plans to release an update that will add competitive multiplayer to the game via Game Center. This component won't just be knight on knight action and furious swipe fests. Chair will try to put you in the shoes of some of the monstrosities in game to make things different.

We've got some cool ideas, how we could make it different than what you'd expect, to make it fun. One of the things that will be key to that is not just having it be 'my knight fights your knight.' But having it be more like, 'How can we have multiplayer that is a knight versus the boss?' We want to give people the opportunity to play as the big, 15-to-20-ft. tall titan. How do we make that work in multiplayer and have that be fun and engaging and balanced?

Epic Citadel Was The Show-Off App, IB Is The Game
Epic Citadel [free], which was the first App to use Epic's Unreal 3 Engine, was a commercial. IB will be the first Unreal 3-powered game. I want to make sure you're aware of that distinction because it's very clear that Chair is really behind IB and working as hard as it can to make a functional, iOS-specific and friendly title.

I think there's room for lots of different kinds of games on every console. Our personal taste is that we tend to gravitate more towards games on any console that are designed more specific to that console. So, if I'm making Shadow Complex on the Xbox 360, I'm going to do everything I can take advantage of what the Xbox 360 does well, whether that's the way it renders graphics or the way its controller is layed out. I'm going to utilize every tool on that device to make it cool.

The same with a touch screen device. There's a lot of things you can do with a touch screen that I can't do with a traditional joystick. And we tried to focus the game design to really take advantage of swipes and clicks and different things you can do that are cool as opposed to try to shoehorn in a traditional control scheme. I think ultimately that makes for a more seamless, more unique experience.

Infinity Blade is due out this holiday for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch, and the iPad. Updates will, as Mustard said, follow soon after its release.

Daniel Zandelin, who is apparently a big fan of Mario Kart DS

Donut Games is the developer/publisher of well over a dozen iPhone games including fan-favorites like Rat On A Scooter XL, Comet Racer, and Cows in Space. Officially titled "Swedish Game Development Group AB," Donut Games has all of their games available in flash form on their website, where they can be played for free. With a arcade-like menu and three-star rating system for the levels in all their games, Donut Games has earned a large fanbase by consistently providing simple, quick experiences that draw players in for more, usually with a focus on increasing high scores.

I got the chance to find out a little bit more about one of the important faces behind the company, Daniel Zandelin, one of the founders of Donut Games.

Touch Arcade: What is the history of Donut Games as a company?

Daniel Zandelin: We're a small team of game enthusiasts, with roots going back to the good old days when the 8 and 16-bit gaming systems evolved. As a kid in the '80s I was quickly sucked into the intriguing gaming world of the Commodore 64, and together with my older brother, Ola, I grew an early interest of developing our own games, which lead to a bunch of quirky, buggy BASIC-games. Many years (and programming languages for that matter) later, in 2003, Ola started his own indie company to develop shareware games, and a couple of months later I quit my current job to join him.

The shareware market, which had just started to transform into the casual games market, was a blast! You could be a small team of 2-5 people and release quick, innovative downloadable games on the internet without the need for large budgets, and our titles (which we released under the Arcade Lab brand) were very well receieved.

As the casual games space and its portals grew more mature, productions grew bigger and a few certain genres got established and didn't leave much room for creativity or variety. So in 2006 we launched DonutGames.com, which started off as site for our Flash games. This project would give us our much needed room to play with new concepts and try out new ideas or whatever fun or crazy thing that popped into mind. When Apple announced the AppStore in 2008 and we started to dig deeper into the specs and SDK, we realizied this was the perfect platform for us: a device that you can carry with you anywhere you go, a store that is open for all and an excellent hardware to build your apps upon.

Comet Racer, one of our favorite creations from Donut Games

Touch Arcade: What exactly is your role within Donut Games? Could you tell us about some examples of your contributions to some of the company's games?

Daniel Zandelin: My role differs from one game to another, but my main areas of involvement are programming, sounds and last minute tweaking. The creation of a Donut game typically follows this flow: Ola, the concept master mind, brings up a new idea for a game, decides a theme to go with, and creates a mock-up of the basic artwork needed to get started. A programmer picks up the game and makes it playable, and we evaluate the result to see which elements are in place and what can be improved.

Once the basics are in, the level designers start working on the levels, and may eventually request more features from the programmer. In the last phase, I start working on the music and sounds. Once they're in, it's time for the final tweaking, which may or may not include additional visual effects, an extra mini game, and other last minute adjustments to make the game feel more solid. Simply put, Ola starts off the games, I finish them, and the whole Donut team is involved in the in-between.

Touch Arcade: What's the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you during your time with Donut Games?

Daniel Zandelin: This happens occasionally: When I'm sitting in a public place and a stranger next to me picks up an iPhone and after a few seconds I realize they just launched a Donut game. It's a weird feeling!

Rat On A Scooter XL, one of Donut Game's biggest sellers

Touch Arcade: If you had an unlimited budget to create an iPhone game, what sort of game would you make?

Daniel Zandelin: Back in the '90s, me and my brother started working on a really whacky point-and-click game for the Amiga in which players controlled a crazy kid with long greasy hair called Matthew. I don't remember all of the details of the story that we came up with for the game, but Matthew owned a tiny, aggressive poodle and had a secret band in his cellar together with his best friend who owned a shabby old Hammond organ. It would play like a “Get item A to unlock item B, use item B to find item C” sort of game, but instead of logical puzzles it would involve things like flushing yourself down the toilet to find certain items. I'm not sure everyone would appreciate a game like that for the iPhone, but if money was no issue it sure would be fun to bring this old concept to reality.

Touch Arcade: What is something that you'd personally like to do in a future game release?

Daniel Zandelin: I know that this may sound dull, but I'd like to continue with what we're currently doing. We have great fun creating these games, our model works really well for us and our fans seem to enjoy what we're doing.

Thanks Daniel. Check out Donut Games' catalog on the App Store. Daniel is username DonutGames on our forums.

Kromrey, who spent time as a producer at I-Play Mobile Gaming, has most recently been part of Apple's own, internal iPhone apps division and was involved with the phenomenally successful Apple iPhone game release of Texas Hold'em [App Store].  He came to Namco Networks, bringing with him a team of developers from both Apple and EA, with the goal of "bringing freshness and newness to iPhone gaming."  He indicates that his group has plans to not only bring a number of popular Japanese Namco titles to the iPhone, but also to generate wholly new titles written specifically for the platform.  And when asked if the division intends to act as a publishing arm for independent developers, his response was a definitive "hell yes!"  In fact, the group has signed two such deals, one of which will bear App Store fruit within the month.

Kromrey calls the iPhone "a wide open platform," ripe for both hardcore as well as casual game titles that everyone can enjoy.  And games along these lines should appear scattered across the price-point scale.  His group feels that a sound strategy for iPhone game releases involves basic, quick-play games at a low ($.99) price point, more involved and full-featured titles at a moderate ($4.99) price point, as well as long-play, large-scale games complete with microtransactions at a premium ($9.99) price point.  And, in our reckoning, this seems the right strategy to maximize a studio's market penetration.

iPhone 3GS owners have particular reason to be excited about Namco Network's newly formed division.  Kromrey calls the difference in capabilities between the iPhone 3G and 3GS "huge," and points to Namco's popular I Love Katamari [App Store] as an example of a title that illustrates the increased power of the 3GS.  And, more than just delivering games with higher framerates on Apples' new unit, Kromrey's team fully intends to exploit the features of the new device (such as the OpenGL ES 2.0 pipeline) in full.

In other, recent interviews, Namco Networks' Apple Games chief has been asked about the possible arrival of Tekken, Soulcalibur, and the like on the iPhone platform.  And while he would not confirm any specifics, Kromrey indicated that, with such titles, getting the controls exactly right is key, and that depending in particular on success in this area, the iPhone may indeed see such titles lighting up its four-inch touchscreen.

Eager to know more about both Sonic CD and the iPhone Retro Engine and Retro Engine Development Kit (or RDSK), we fired off a series of questions. The interview is totally worth a read, but beware, it will only make you want Sonic CD and other games produced by the RDSK even more.

Eli Hodapp: How flexible is the RSDK? Is it tied to a game like Sonic or would something like Castlevania with RPG elements be possible?

Christian Whitehead: All of the actual Sonic CD logic is script driven, so the Retro Engine is more than capable of different styles of gameplay. A game like Castlevania would definitely be possible, since the engine excels at handling 2D side scrollers. Stuff like top down RPG's would be fine too, I wouldn't count it on doing something like a full on 3D racing game though!

EH: What is involved in building a game in the RDSK? Does the it somehow interpret the ROM file to generate levels and sprites automatically? Can you tell us how closely your RSDK relates to the original ROM code?

CW: Using clean reverse engineering, I've been able to extract the level layouts and sprites in a pretty automated fashion. The formats in Sonic CD (especially the PC version) were pretty easy to deduce. I haven't touched the original ROM code though... I don't have that level of understanding of Motorola 68k assembly.

EH: How much research did you do on the Sonic CD game? The physics in your demo look spot on, what was the trick behind that?

CW: Quite a lot to be honest, it owes much to my many years as a Sonic fan. If you go to http://www.sonicretro.org/ you'll see a community that's very interested in dissecting the original games. That's why the demo was made in a short time, I know Sonic inside out, and so have a very clear understanding as to how it can be recreated. It involved a lot of frame by frame analysis of the game running in an emulator to observe how the game (and all its objects) behaves in detail. I could go on and on, but y'know... trade secrets?

EH: On your site you mention putting together the Sonic CD proof of concept in a month. Does that count development of the Retro Engine and RSDK, if not, how long did those take you to do?

CW: Officially, the Retro Engine and RSDK have been in development since March 2008. However, the iPhone version of the engine actually only took a week to set up!

EH: During your month long process of porting what you have so far of Sonic CD, what was your average work day like?

CW: I'm a freelancer and a musician too, so it was sort of in between a lot of this stuff. Lot's of late nights, and giving up partying! But yeah, it certainly wasn't some insane crunch period you hear about at some of the big name studios.

EH: What is the work flow of starting a new game in the RSDK? Say you wanted to remake Gunstar Heroes, what would be involved?

CW: To create a game like Gunstar Heroes, or to literally port it? Obviously a literal port requires a degree of reverse engineering to find out how stuff like level layouts and sprites can be extracted first. But creating a new game in the style of Gunstar Heroes would just be a normal game development process. One thing I want to make very clear: The Retro Engine and RSDK are not magic, it will NOT instantly port a game for you (or toast your bread either). All it does is provide a fast and efficient 2D framework, which has features very similar to what were present in many 2D games of the 'golden' 16 and early 32 bit era along with a nice editors and powerful scripting system. It takes the hassle out of having to set up API's, you can just get down to business.

EH: What are your plans for the future with the RSDK? Has Sega been receptive to your Sonic CD demo? Ideally would you want to sell them the RSDK technology or just a perfectly ported copy of the game?

CW: Personally, I'm only marketing end product Sonic CD to SEGA, not the actual engine. I'm proud of my work and it'd be a shame to let it go and not be able to develop it further for my own future endeavors. The pitch was made to Sega about 2 weeks ago, and after an initial response, I hadn't heard back until they made that blog post. That's what made me decide to show it publicly, they asked what to port and I wanted them to see a clear answer.

EH: In 1990, John Carmack and Tom Hall built a similar demonstration based on their own game engine running the first level of Super Mario 3 titled "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement." Nintendo politely refused their offers to make a Super Mario port for the PC and they went on to use that same engine for Commander Keen. Do you have any similar contingency plans if Sega gives you the cold shoulder and/or sends you a cease and desist?

CW: Gary the Porcupine anyone?... Seriously though, I do have my own game ideas that I'll be pursuing if this all folds up. I really like the iPhone as a gaming platform, so it wouldn't be the last you'd hear from me.

And there you have it! Sounds like amazing technology, and I can't wait to play a game built with it whether it's Sonic CD or some other game. Since we first posted about it, their comments have been flooded by people demanding Sonic CD. If you want to see Sega explore the Retro Engine instead of their current barely-playable emulator, let them know.

Guillemot's involvement in the game industry began with the formation of Ubisoft Entertainment by him and his brothers in 1986.  Ubisoft quickly became a very successful publisher as gaming evolved into a major industry.  But as Guillemot tells it, he longed to get back to the days of home computer gaming, when people owned a computer primarily for reasons other than gaming, but would engage in casual gaming as a matter of course.  Seeing the rise of the mobile handset, which he (correctly) believed most everyone would soon be carrying, Guillemot saw an opportunity to provide games in a model analogous to the home computer days of old.  And so was born Gameloft in 1999.

The highly successful Gameloft of 2009, with 4,000 employees worldwide, develops games for around 1,200 different mobile handsets as well as most major home and mobile consoles.  But Guillemot makes no effort to hide his particular excitement for Apple's iPhone platform.

When Steve Jobs announced the App Store and the business model, I said they are going to do as well on the App Store and on the business model as what they did on the iPhone itself, which is creating something which is quite mature, quite balanced, quite sustainable in the long run.  And that's why, as a company, we decided to really invest and support it, because it was, to me, really a kind of very advanced thinking to have these three elements [iPhone, iTunes and the business model] connected and together, reaching consumers with a very comprehensive approach.  So, I think it was very much 21st century in the making and a clear cut from anything we had seen so far.

In his view, Apple set the tone for the mobile gaming device of the 21st century.

What I think is that two years ago, handset makers and carriers were a little bit lost. We were telling them that they should bet on the game side -- to make sure that the handset would be game friendly. But, for some reason, they were not. And then Apple came and convinced many people -- the right way: see, it works! And now what we see is that everyone is trying to emulate them. Apple came from outside and took the lead.... And so I expect that, in the race where the leader is still running and still accelerating [ laughs ], it's challenging. Because, if they already overtook you and they're still accelerating, you really have to consider that seriously if you want to remain in the race.

And while he is dedicated to supporting the newly emerging units that seek to surpass the iPhone, he points out that for gaming those companies are at a disadvantage.  The just-launched Palm Pre, for example, Guillemot considers to be a nice device, but feels its webOS HTML5 development model puts it just about where the iPhone was for gaming before the SDK was announced.  The Android devices, he feels, also hold less promise for gamers as compared to Apple's device.

Android is Java ... Java takes two-thirds of the power.  So, when you drive a car - if you take the same car with 1/3 of the horse power, you will not have the same experience.

Guillemot was pleased by Apple's announcement of the iPhone 3G S on Monday and is eager too see what advancements the new hardware will enable for his studio's games.  And while he feels the more capable device will raise gamers' expectations and make the coming year more challenging than the last for iPhone gamemakers, he appears to be rather undaunted.

Perhaps no surprise from a man whose studio creates games for most every mobile platform on the planet.

The Luna City Arcade is a two-story, 60' x 40' building housing, presently, about 80 retro video games and pinball machines primarily from the late '70s and early '80s.  Peter has a Game Day every few months at the arcade, which is located about 70 miles west of Washington D.C.

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the Game Day and gather some photos and video footage of the retro gaming goodness taking place as well as corner Peter for a few minutes to get his thoughts on retro gaming and a few details that went into the making of Adventure and Vector Tanks for the iPhone.

See the fun that was had in the only existing arcade of its kind, the Luna City Arcade.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

After the jump, see our causal video interview of Peter, held in the loft above the arcade.

The video interview with Peter is divided into two ~10-minute parts.

Part 1:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Part 2:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

As mobile devices began seeing widespread use, Hawkins formed mobile game development company Digital Chocolate in 2003.  The now 350 person, San Mateo, CA-based company has developed games for a wide variety of mobile handsets and has received a number of accolades, including the Best Developer of the Year awards from both IGN and Mobile Entertainment.

And while four of the five iPhone games Digital Chocolate has released for the iPhone since December have hit No. 1 in the App Store -- no small feat -- Hawkins admits to VentureBeat that the company was late to the game with the iPhone.

The iPhone for us was a spectacularly pleasant surprise. We had no idea it was going to be as good for us as it turned out to be.

Hawkins indicates that the iPhone presents a rare opportunity for Digital Chocolate and that it is really incomparable as a game platform to the myriad of mobile handsets on the market.

It’s by far our most effective platform. We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms. Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo. Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness. It has taken ground all over the world. But it has only penetrated one half of one percent of its total market.
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The platform can finally keep up with the things that you want to do. It reminds me of the Sega Genesis, when EA finally had a platform that could keep up with the games we wanted to make.

See VentureBeat's full interview to hear more of Trip Hawkins' thoughts on Apple's mobile games console.

We've been closely following Firemint's Real Racing game since its initial preview back in August 2008. We were very impressed by the brief clip that was provided at that time and have been anxiously awaiting its release.

Now, seven months later, we are finally approaching the game's release, and despite the number of existing of iPhone racing titles, Real Racing seems even more impressive than ever. Since that time, Firemint has also released Flight Control which is a wonderfully polished and addictive original iPhone game. While Flight Control was a much simpler project, the quality of that title makes us believe that Firemint's Real Racing will deliver on the hype.

Firemint's CEO Robert Murray has provided TouchArcade with this exclusive interview to reveal some details about his company, the game, and why Real Racing should stand out amongst the competition. They've also provided new screenshots and a new high definition video:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Both Robert Murray and Alex Peters of Firemint have also been active in our forums and have also agreed to field some of our reader's followup questions in this forum thread.

Q: Thanks for speaking with us Robert. Can you tell us a little about Firemint, the company's background. How long you've been around etc...
 
Rob: I founded Firemint in 1999. I’d been working on PC and console games for a medium sized game development company and decided to start my own business. Initially I focused on providing high-end technology products to game development studios, but in 2001 I had the opportunity to develop a Nintendo GBA game, Nicktoons Racing, which led to further titles. Firemint really took off in 2003 when we started recruiting additional staff. 

Since then we’ve had growth bursts where we sometimes doubled in size in a short period. We now have 40 full-time people in our team and close to 30 published titles, mostly on mobile phone,  including three years of EA Sports Madden NFL 3D, The Fast and the Furious: Fugitive and Pink Slip, FIA World Rally Championship and also The Sims DJ for click-wheel iPod.

Our core business is still developing games commissioned by top tier publishers, however we are increasingly working on original IP, both for ourselves and for our publishers.
 

Q: So, getting straight to the heart of the matter, as you know, there's no shortage of racing games in the App Store. Tell us about Real Racing and what makes it different or better?
 
Rob: Well, Firemint Real Racing is a high calibre pro racing game. I haven’t seen anything like that on iPhone yet. I think there are a lot of racing games on iPhone because it is a genre that the platform lends itself to very naturally. Similarly you will find lots of great first person shooters on the PC, simply because the controls work so elegantly.  I think this is a great thing for racing fans with an iPhone.

As for what makes Real Racing special, we have a lot of unique features that I think people are really going to love.

For example, we have a cockpit view with animated driver and integrated instrumentation.  In other camera views we have a HUDless UI (that is, there is no head up display cluttering the user interface).

The game has amazing graphics and effects like lighting, specular highlights, filtered light effects, shadows, reflection mapping, smoke and skid marks. Our engine delivers extremely high polygon and texture throughput, optimised through years of work on lower spec’d hardware. The control system works the way you want it to; holding it in front of your face, in your lap, upside down in bed or using the touch screen if you choose.  We’ve brought together a brilliant physics engine with the right camera and control systems to produce that elusive ‘feels right’ vibe.  The game has a massive amount of high definition content , with 12 uniquely built tracks, 36 cars and numerous online leagues.

The other unique aspect is the connectivity built into the game [with YouTube and other social media networks].

However, what’s really important to Real Racing is not just the unique features, but how polished they are and how well they fit together into the whole game.  Some games feel so polished, so whole and complete that everyone appreciates them, whether they are fans of the genre or not. When you deliver a game like that, all people can say is “it’s great, you have to play it”, they can’t always explain why in terms of features. That sort of game, and that sort of polish is the holy grail for us and it is what we want to achieve with Firemint Real Racing.

Q: We've seen demos at YouTube integration and you mentioned other social media connectivity?

Yes, you can upload a YouTube video of your best laps, you can rank yourself worldwide or against your friends on Facebook, you can play in ongoing leagues against global competition to battle for a place in division 1.

We’ve developed a platform called cloudcell.com to support all the web integration we wanted to include, so that the game becomes much broader than just playing on your device. It’s a web-based technology that allows us to plug in social media network APIs on one side, games on the other side, and join them up with a customised game-specific web site in the middle.

We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel by building friends lists or video players when there are already brilliant solutions out there. Instead we’re incorporating the existing social media and user generated content services that people already use and love, like YouTube and Facebook. The beautiful thing about our solution is that it can easily grow to incorporate new platforms, for example at the moment we’re looking at the best way to incorporate Twitter.

Q: Can you detail the control systems available? Accelerometer obviously...

Rob: Accelerometer steering is definitely our favorite control method, and we have really done some amazing stuff with that. However you can also touch to brake, and you can choose whether to use braking assist or not.

We have the option for touch acceleration and we also have the option for touch steering for those who don't want to use the accelerometer control. The full detail of the control systems are still to be finalized as we are still focus testing. Controls are something that we will be tweaking right up until release as it is so core to the game.

Q: Where there any particular gaming inspirations in developing Real Racing?

Rob: Well each team member has their own favorite console racers, but we get a lot of inspiration from Gran Turismo and Race Driver Grid. More broadly however, our inspiration comes from racing itself in its purest form. We want a full pack of closely matched cars jostling for position as you gradually gain ground and ultimately win the prize. We want to capture that authentic and satisfying feeling of a race well won and that 'just one more go' feel.

For our Christmas party last year we took everyone in the studio go-karting. It was a really pure experience, and a real joy for all involved. There is a natural rush you get as you chase down the next closest kart, gaining time here, losing it there. It intensifies your focus. The go-karting was a real inspiration for us, it was unbelievable fun and pure.

Q: Did you have problems optimizing the game for 1st Generation iPod Touch vs the iPhone vs the 2nd Generation iPod Touch?

Rob: Optimising has been a big and ongoing part of this game’s development. We are squeezing a whole lot of performance out of these devices. We didn’t encounter any differences between the devices that caused any dramas.

We are used to working with sometimes very limited mobile phone hardware and dealing with a massive amount of platform incompatibilities. iPhone and iPod Touch are a joy to work with by comparison.

Q: What can you tell us about audio and music in the game?

Rob We're going to include licensed music tracks from a mix of bands, including some of the rockier ones you have already heard in the trailers we've put out. We're also working with an audio guy who specialises in console car racing sounds to make sure that the engine and other car sounds are spot-on, and there's an ambient soundscape of crowds cheering, announcers and so on.

The sound uses all of Open AL's 3D surround capabilities to fit right in with the "real" theme. There is a lot of tweaking up and implementation still to go in the audio so don't expect too much from our early builds.

Q: Can you comment on the price?  Release date?

Rob: I can't say very much about this yet, except to say that this is a highly polished game that was almost a year in development and is being compared to Sony PSP and Nintendo DS quality. We want to keep the price affordable but we also need to make back some of the money we've invested! So it's a safe bet to say it will be a fair chunk more than 99 cents

Although we announced Firemint Real Racing a while ago we intentionally never named a specific release date because we didn't want to create an artificial deadline for ourselves, and then either rush the game out the door before it was finished or disappoint the people waiting for it. However, it is now at a point where we can announce an April release.

Q: Any inclusion of Multiplayer in any form?

Absolutely, the game includes an extensive array of connected features. It recently won the International Mobile Gaming Award for Excellence in Connectivity. So there are a number of ways to compete, and more uniquely to take the competition into the web with our cloudcell.com technology. This technology enables YouTube uploads of your best laps, rankings, online competitions and integration with Facebook and iGoogle.

Our favorite form of multiplayer is league play.  You will be able to compete in multiple leagues online being promoted or relegated from divisions based on your championship winnings. The championships can be played out asynchronously (in your own time) as long as you submit your results by the deadlines. League play will see an ongoing battle to rise up the ranks and you will always be matched up to competition at your level.

Q: How does the iPhone compare to the other mobile platforms you've worked with?

It's definitely one of the easiest and most robust development platforms we have ever encountered. The guys love coding for it. It's also an incredibly powerful device, particularly compared to the mobile phones we were developing for a few years ago.

Thanks Rob. We appreciate the details about the game and are sure our readers are also looking forward to it.

If you would to ask Rob more questions please post in this thread. Rob is about to jump on a plane from Australia to San Francisco for the Game Developer's Conference so will not be able to answer questions immediately. He did promise that he would be able to get to the questions this weekend, however.

Meanwhile, we've included a bullet point list of features from their press release for reference:

• Boasting via Broadcast – Upload video replays of your laps to YouTube with the push of a button.
• Unique In-Car View – Cockpit view with animated driver and instruments showing race data.
• Control Options – Firemint Real Racing includes combinations of accelerometer or touch-based steering, automatic or touch-based acceleration and automatic or touch-based braking.
• Pick Your Ride – 36 cars, 12 tracks, four modes of play, three classes and three divisions provide exciting variety and replay value.
• iPhone Racing Simulator – Players can experience the thrill of racing anytime, any place.
• Connected Car Racing – In addition to YouTube functionality, players can sign up for league racing online and use social media networks to compare their times with friends.
• Advanced AI – Opponents each have different personalities affecting the way they compete. Some are aggressive, some are careless, and they all want to outrace you!

Real Racing should be out sometime in April.

Metal Gear Solid Touch

In the interview, director Nakamura shares a few gameplay details.

G4: Kojima Productions is known for taking advantage of new hardware for some great gameplay. How will multi-touch change the way we control Snake?

Ikuya Nakamura, Director: The theme for MGSTouch is "Simple MGS."

As a result, we have come up with a simple, yet strategic control scheme that takes advantage of the unique strengths of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

G4: How does the actual gameplay work with targeting and shooting? Is it an on-rails shooter? How much control do you actually have with Snake?

Nakamura: Players can trace their finger along the screen to move the targeting sight, then tap the screen to fire at enemies. Headshots are possible.

In addition, you can pinch out on the screen to switch Snake's weapon to a sniper rifle, or lift your finger from the screen to take cover and hide behind walls.

They indicate that the iPhone holds appeal for Kojima because of its unique input methods, large high resolution screen, and the fact that, as a platform, it holds the potential to get the game into the hands of those outside their typical gaming audience.  Kojima hopes that once people get a glimpse of the Metal Gear Solid world through Metal Gear Solid Touch, they will become interested in the overall series.

Payback's been around for quite some time now. Can you tell us how it began, and give us a bit of info about the game on other systems?

It began way back in 1998. I'd written a few games for the Amiga in my spare time and decided I wanted to have a go at a commercial project. I experimented with a few ideas (everything from a first-person RTS to a Zarch/Virus-style game) before stumbling across a certain little-known game called GTA. I really liked the concept and there were a lot of additions I wanted to make to it - not to mention that it wasn't available for my platform of choice at the time.

I initially developed the game in my spare time, but it soon became a full-time job. Payback was released for the Amiga in 2001 and won several "game of the year" polls. Support for 3D graphics cards and PowerPC processors quickly followed.

Amazingly, the game is still popular among Amiga enthusiasts today.

We reviewed Payback when it debuted in late January.  See the full interview with Daniels at Pocket Gamer's website.

Handheld Games Corp's CEO Thomas Fessler has reported to Touch Arcade that performance of their 3D TouchSports Tennis game [App Store, $4.99] is noticeably different across models. TouchSports Tennis delivers some impressive 3D rendering (video) and required optimization specifically to run consistently on every device.

Our first step to increase fps performance was to introduce hardware dependent levels of detail. Where we can easily display two 1500 polygon tennis players with 32 bones each on the iPod touch 2G and maintain fast and fluid game play, the original iPod touch just chokes, and in some instances so do the iPhones. To speed up the touch, we reduced the players to 800 polygons in farther away moments of gameplay, and are now using 1000 polygon models for close ups, bringing the original iPod touch game play performance level close to that of the iPhone 3G. We've taken this approach across the board with great results.

The most clear difference is that fact that the iPod Touch's processor was quietly boosted to 532MHz (up from 412MHz) with the 2nd generation model introduced in September. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3G, Original iPhone and 1st Generation iPod Touch continue to run at the original 412MHz. Though not the intended purpose, this video from Handheld Games Corp shows that the app load time of the 2nd Generation iPod Touch is notably faster than the 1st Generation model.

It seems that there are additional factors, however, as there are performance differences even found between the models that run at the same speed. The models rank in the following order (fastest to slowest) for 3D rendering, with the 2nd Generation iPod Touch being the fastest "by far".

#1. iPod Touch 2nd Generation
#2. iPhone 3G
#3. iPhone (original)
#4. iPod Touch 1st Generation

Due to the heavy 3D nature of his game, Fessler speculates the GPU speeds could have been tweaked as well, but there is no hard evidence of this at this time. Due to these findings, Fessler even says he would not recommend anyone interested in gaming to buy a used 1st generation iPod Touch.

Our in-depth look at the iPhone's internals, "Under the Hood: The iPhone's Gaming Mettle," has been updated to reflect this new information.

Nathan Hunley of Igloo Games, author of Dizzy Bee

‘BUDGET? What’s that?’ laughs Nathan Hunley, Dizzy Bee’s designer, when asked how much the development of his first iPhone game cost. ‘I made Dizzy Bee by begging. Every few months I had to borrow cash from my dad to pay for rent and macaroni cheese. Friends helped translate some text, and did the play-testing, and I was even borrowing the iPod Touch I did my development on.’

Simon Oliver of Hand Circus, author of the upcoming Rolando

Despite being one of the iPhone’s more ambitious first-wave games, the oddball Rolando is largely the work of one person – Simon Oliver, a Flash developer who contracts for design consultancies such as Ideo and All of Us. With a day job creating experience prototypes and game-based museum exhibits, Oliver had been circling the indie development scene for some time, searching for a way in. ‘I’d been looking for the right platform to focus on, but the opportunities for innovation and huge potential user-base of the iPhone stood out,’ he explains. Oliver set up Hand Circus, his own micro-studio, in June 2008. ‘It’s just me at the moment,’ he says, ‘but the plan is to bring other people on board on a project-by-project basis, to get the best and most suitable people working on each title, according to genre and style.’

Steve Demeter of Demiforce, author of Trism

By day, Steve Demeter writes ATM software for Wells Fargo. By night, he programmes and releases casual games under his own Demiforce label. His latest, Trism, has become one of the early success stories of the iTunes Apps Store.
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Demeter suggests the iPhone games market is likely to become crowded fairly quickly. ‘Within the next month, people will start getting their first pay-cheques from Apple. Companies like EA are probably already well on their way to getting a return,’ he predicts. ‘In one year the iPhone will have a lot of all kinds of games on it. I’m interested in seeing how long that period lasts. In the end, I think we’ll see a good variety of simple timewasters – a mix of casual games and toys, simple experiences for busy professionals.’

Hats off to these and all indie developers who are turning the iPhone into the best mobile games platform on the market.  See Design Week's story for the full interviews with these three talented individuals.