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Interviewed: Bert McDowell of Electric TopHat

Feature by Ben Briggs, May 29, 2009

Today, we're going to interview Bert McDowell, from Electric TopHat - creator of Modulo and a couple of other games currently available on the App Store. Enjoy!

Hi Bert, we'd just like to thank you for this opportunity to speak with us.

Hi Ben, not a problem at all.

So, when did you get into game design? Were you interested before the iPhone came along?

I suppose I have been thinking about game design for years. Like quite a lot of developers creating my own games is always at the back of my mind, in one way or another. The iPhone has presented a way for the independent developer to access that dream, at least that's the way I've taken it.

Indeed. Now you've come to realise your dream, how tough is it out there on the App Store?

Very, there are over 46,000 applications on the store just now. A large number of these developers will not be making any return on their investments. I'm sure that many will drop away as a result. It's still early days for the platform though, and hopefully Electric TopHat can overcome the odds to survive.

The iPhone has presented a way for the independent developer to access that dream...

Apple are soon to release iPhone OS 3.0 to the public. What do you think this will do for the App Store?

OS 3.0 is a big change, at least for developers. The introduction of in-app purchasing could add new depth to the lifetime of an application. I'm not sure how it would affect the store, a re-vamp may have a bigger impact than anything that is arriving in the new OS.

Agreed, we think in app purchasing could definitely eliminate having one app for every book, for example. Let's talk about your games. Where do your ideas come from?

We have three apps on the store currently, two of which were inspired by other games and developed in homage. They were interesting to build, and gave us a chance to get to grips with the development process, environment and language, which were all brand new to us.

Modulo was something completely different. The original concept was thrown out there by Dave, over coffee. We were trying to come up with something new and all sorts of ideas were being thrown around. Modulo sort of stuck due to it's simplicity and originality.

As for our future applications, we have a few other ideas sitting on the back burner, some have been inspired by friends, others have come from random thoughts or a whim. I find it very strange looking back at where some of the ideas have come from, very strange indeed.

We picked up Modulo and thought that whilst the gameplay was really fun and interesting, the presentation wasn't as high quality. You released a teaser trailer for the new look, did you improve upon the gameplay in any way?

I think our mistake was with the wood theme, by the time it dawned on us that it was just not working we were at the point of releasing the game and it would take significant graphical changes to fix it. Hopefully the 1.1 update will provide a more polished experience overall, and not just a new look.

The update still contains the original 180 levels, though we have added a couple of additional features around these levels which may change the way you play. We added the minimum number of moves that the puzzle can be completed in, this tied nicely into the new ranking system that has also been introduced. Each puzzle and difficulty set now receives a ranking from zero to five stars, how you do there will affect your overall game ranking. The new system is compatible with your completed puzzles in the 1.0 version, so there should be minimal impact to the current userbase.

Modulo 1.1 also includes an additional 60 levels which are part of this new game mode, we christened it attack mode. It's has the same goal as the classic mode but each individual puzzle has a set number of moves it will need to be completed in. We found adding the limit changed the way we played, forcing us to think and be strategic with our moves. Hopefully you will like it.

We were trying to come up with something new and all sorts of ideas were being thrown around. Modulo sort of stuck due to it's simplicity and originality.

What about your other games? Are you committed to providing updates or do you just want to have a great library of titles for gamers to pick through?

Updates are interesting and have become part of the iPhone development cycle. I think if a product is selling or there are a few die hard fans wanting something we will try our hardest to provide it. Such as the Tocco Robo update that I'm currently working on, it's not a massive change but it may keep a few players happy.

Our main focus is to bring new interesting products to market, it's much more fun for us to create them and hopefully a lot more interesting for the gamer.

We're going to take a look at Tocco Robo later on this week, but from our initial impressions it's not as polished as say, Bejeweled, or as full featured as Smiles. Indeed, we noted in our Smiles review that "it's no surprise to anyone that this type of game has proliferated through the App Store, and therefore it's incredibly difficult to stand out". Why does Tocco Robo stand out?

Tocco Robo bears a closer relationship to Zoo Keeper on the DS rather than Bejeweled, it was designed to be cute, colourful and simple to play without anything else other than a high score as your reward. Though I'm not sure it did stand out enough when it was first released, it had taken a lot longer to get to market than was originally planned. I was experimenting with how far I could push the UIKit and the game play suffered due to this. I fixed these issues in the last update and we seem to be getting a little more interest, which is always good.

The main difference between Tocco Robo and the other collect three puzzlers is the lack of user punishment, the player has the ability to move the Robos around the screen giving them the chance to build their own chains. It feels more like a toy than a game to me, you can lose yourself in it for hours or minutes depending on the difficulty mode.

Agreed, we did like that because it means that you can't run out of moves. We haven't tried Brett Nova though, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Brett Nova IV (The Hordes of Spidor) was our first adventure on the iPhone, a Galaxian style game that let us play with the device's accelerometer. It's really easy to pick up - tilting moves the Iron Duke across the screen and tapping fires the craft's fusion cannon. The current version features 30 levels and two difficulty modes.

It's not a bad game and was ideal to develop as a first product, a simple 2d game with a well known formula that players can easily pick up and play. It gave us a toe to test the water.

Cool. Finally, what's next from Electric TopHat? Have you got any details?

We've got a collaborative project coming up, involving Sooper Double D, The Amazing Rolo and some talented students from Abertay University. This is an R&D project that will hopefully transform into a releasable game, it's going to be documented for the NEoN festival which is being held in November. So it's worth keeping your eyes on this one.

As for our solo projects there are a couple of projects at the planning stages, nothing concrete and they don't really have much detail yet. We may have a more solid idea what these will become in the next week or two. It's an interesting time for Electric TopHat.

Bert McDowell, thank you for letting us spend the time interviewing you. Good luck with your future projects!

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