Riding the New Wave

Well, XNA was good, and this was before the whole community games thing. At the time, you could develop games, but there was no way of getting them out there. That was probably the primary reason at the time that I discounted it as a platform to work on.

The thing about the iPhone is that the distribution is phenomenally good as well - the cut that Apple takes is great, and is so streamlined. You compare it to WiiWare, or even XBLA, it's such a streamlined process. You can do it via computer, via your phone, it's very easy and the automatic updating system is just fantastic.

Nowadays, I think there's a certain amount of response from guys like Sony and Nintendo to this, and there are rumours of what's going to be on PSP 2 in terms of digital downloads, plus there's the DSi and DSWare, WiiWare, etc.

But I think Apple's placed so far ahead, there's going to have to be a rapid reaction from the others - just in terms of the sheer amount of the content that's produced. Obviously there's not the same level of quality control that you get on XBLA or WiiWare, but I think you'll get so many more interesting games on the iPhone because the barrier to entry is so unbelievably low.

All these people with ideas, people that have been wanting to make games for years - like me - they can finally realise that idea and get it out there.

I remember going on some of the early development courses years ago, for Java... It was such a mess, such a mess. From everyone's point of view. For customers it was an appalling user experience - it was overpriced, the games were terrible, there were compatibility problems. It was horrible from end-to-end. The only people that benefited were the carriers.

When the iPod Touch came along it didn't feel like a mobile phone. I know a lot of people initially who didn't know whether to categorise it as a mobile phone platform, or as a games platform alongside the DS and PSP.

That kind of evolution, as it flits from side-to-side in people's perceptions, has been interesting to watch.

Yeah, and sure, Apple is pushing the iPod Touch as a competitor to the DS and PSP, it's definitely interesting. It's going to push all of these people in different directions.

I don't think so, if you look at what some of the traditional developers are saying, people like GameLoft and Digital Chocolate - they're saying the iPhone is amazing for them, and generating the majority of their revenue since launch, despite the fact that it's only about 2 per cent of the market at the moment.

People are going to have to catch up - the old way of doing things isn't going to be possible any more, it's going to be driven by the handset manufacturers, not the carriers.

The thing is, it's constantly evolving, and Apple is constantly taking feedback from developers in terms of the early problems. For example, initially you could review products you didn't have, and I think you'll always get issues of people accusing each other of leaving fake reviews, or paying people to leave positive reviews...

Anything that's user-moderated, there will always be an opportunity for manipulation of the system. And yes, there's about 150 new apps released every day, so the sheer abundance makes the browsing experience a bit cumbersome at the moment.

But I think the success of the App Store is way beyond what was initially expected by Apple, so I'm sure we'll see revisions to allow things become more visible.

I think the nice thing is, and the thing that differentiates it from more traditional platforms, is that you're not competing for shelf space. So the Store is infinitely large, and it's not as though Apple has to take down the small games in order to put up the larger games.

Obviously there's a certain amount of space in which they can showcase products, but I think due to the nature of the way that digital distribution works now, it means that the effect of people picking up on a unique and interesting game, once it catches on it has the ability to go absolutely huge via word of mouth, blogs, social media - people can discover things, and they can be a wild success.

A lot of games that people are developing, they're not necessarily doing it to make loads of money - they're doing it to share their content. In the indie scene the process of creating and sharing is just as important as financial success. There will always be people doing interesting things out there, even if they don't become million-selling games.