Our latest interview is with Dennis Sijnen, founder of No Monkeys and developer of a couple of iPhone games, both of which we've reviewed.
I was a game designer at Gamehouse.com before I started developing games for the iPhone (at their studio based in the Netherlands that was once known as Zylom.com before it was sold to Real Networks back in 2007). I have a technical background and I always liked programming games as well but as the projects grew in size I had to spend all my time on game design.
When the iPhone was first announced I immediately saw that it had great gaming potential and the distribution model allowed me to enter the game development market very easily as a 1 man game studio. So, I took the leap, quit my job, founded No Monkeys and started to design, code and distribute my own iPhone games.
I'm very happy with the success that both games have had critically. Alphabetic has a 4.73 stars review average across all stores and it received great reviews on several iPhone gaming sites. And although it was just released a couple of days ago and it might be a bit early to tell, the initial response to Green Fingers has been great too.
Financially it is not paying my bills yet I'm afraid. Alphabetic sold enough to compensate me for the time I invested in it (about 2 months) and I hope the same will happen with Green Fingers.
My goal is to create a small library of fun, unique and super addictive games that can provide me with a steady income so I can keep doing this for a while.
Well, of course ideas can come from just about anywhere: movies, music, other games, clouds, anywhere. I usually have a couple of game mechanic ideas, theme ideas, game structure ideas floating around in my head or scribbled down on a piece of paper somewhere.
The tricky part is picking a couple of great ideas and then combine them into something coherent that works on the iPhone. I'm not a big fan of games with onscreen controls like virtual d-pads and virtual buttons. I tend to like games that allow you to manipulate game objects directly.
Alphabetic was designed to be a Hidden Object game that you can play in 2 minute sessions. I wanted to make a simple game where objects would fly around the screen and the player would have to look for the correct one. To simplify that concept even further I started looking for a fixed set of objects that had a natural order to them so I ended up with the alphabet. That also eliminated the need to show the player what they are looking for. I picked the neon colorful graphical style because I didn't have any money to hire a graphical artist and I wanted to keep it very abstract anyway.
I feel writing that stuff down helps me focus later on in the production process.
Green Fingers started out with the simple swapping mechanic. I wanted to make a Tetris like puzzle game where you don't manipulate the falling puzzle pieces but instead you have to manipulate the 'collection area'. When I added the plant theme to it, everything sort of clicked together and Green Fingers was born.
It is a bit early to tell. I have another game in development that is about 60-70% done. I was a bit stuck on that one so I put it aside for a few weeks to make Green Fingers. It uses the accelerometer as a control mechanism and will be an arcade/action title.
I always start with a prototype to test the basic gameplay. I usually impose a strict time limit of one week to create the prototype. If I can't produce something that proves the gameplay and is fun in that time frame, I dump the idea.
When it is fun and the gameplay works, I spend 1 or 2 weeks to tweak it and to write a game design that describes the final product as detailed as possible. I'm a one man studio but I feel writing that stuff down helps me focus later on in the production process. It reduces feature creep and it also helps to have something on paper when you hire external people like graphical artists and sound engineers.
I wish Apple would create something like Genius for apps so people can easily find apps/games that they might like...
After the design document is finished, the game enters production and I spend a couple of weeks to implement all the functionality. When almost everything is done, I bring in a graphical designer and start adding polish to the game.
In the last phase I'll give builds of the game to play testers regularly and try to work towards version 1.0.0 based on their feedback. When I feel happy with the game I submit it to Apple and wait impatiently for their approval.
Yes, patience is definitely a virtue if you want to be an iPhone developer these days. Green Fingers was first rejected by Apple because (they claimed) it doesn't inform players that data is send to a server and stored there. It does actually, so I contacted Apple about it immediately to object to the rejection. I was surprised when they almost immediately send me an email back and asked me to resubmit it. I did and I was even more surprised when it was approved a week later. Dealing with the approval process can be a hassle and it can become frustrating at times but I don't feel it is as bad as the press is telling us it is.
The iPhone is a great platform to develop for...
The App Store is pretty cool but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Detailed conversion statistics are high on my wish list. I also wish Apple would create something like Genius for apps so people can easily find apps/games that they might like even if those apps are not in any of the top 100 lists. Getting enough exposure for an app is the biggest challenge with 65,000+ apps in the App Store.
The latest game I really enjoyed was Space Invaders Infinity Gene and I liked Moon Drop as well. Some of my all time favorite iPhone games are: geoDefense, Rolando, Ivory Tiles, Scoops, Eliss and Flight Control. I still play most of those regularly but I stopped playing Flight Control when they added the extra airports.
My biggest advice would be: lower your expectations. Don't be fooled by the "I made $800,000 in 6 weeks" success stories that you read from time to time. The iPhone is a great platform to develop for and probably the easiest market to enter at the moment but that unfortunately also means that the App Store is swamped.
But don't let that scare you off. If your heart is into it, buy a Mac, pay the $99 entrance fee, download Xcode and start coding away. It is great fun and I have a feeling we are only at the beginning of this awesome adventure...
Don't forget to follow Dennis on Twitter for the latest on No Monkeys.
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