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Today we bring you an indie interview with Glenn Corpes, the creator of Ground Effect. You need to go get this game now if you do not already own it!

Company: Glenn Corpes
App Store: Ground Effect $2.99

How long have you been developing for the iPhone/iPod touch? What did you do before you started developing for the iPhone/iPod touch?
Just over a year, although I bought a mac and registered as a developer about a year and a half ago.

How long did it take you to develop Ground Effect and how many people were involved?
Almost a year, the team were:

Pam Douglas: a constant source of inspiration and sometime source of stress, by the time we had finished she had become quite an expert on the subtleties of the iPhone game market, I’m sure half of Ground Effect’s sales are because of her efforts.

Andrew Cakebread: Long time friend and programming colleague from 15 years ago at Bullfrog and several other places since. He did a couple of months work on the game in return for a copy of my library which he went on to use to develop Tilestorm and Eggbot’s Irish adventure.

Jack Corpes: My 15 year old son. Designed several of the levels and craft paint jobs and was the primary source of feedback in the early days of the project.

Mikey Corpes: His 13 year old brother. More paint jobs and level designs though his speciality turned ou to be the more evil levels later in the game.

Tartan Monkey: A highly talented artist with a day job. Hence the pseudonym.

Ben Carter: His name should probably be higher on the list but his work was done so long ago, he ported our library to the iPhone at around the time I registered as a dev. This really smoothed the transition to a new platform for me.

How did you come up with the idea for Ground Effect?
I worked on a game for the PC, original Playsation and Sega Saturn called Hi-Octane. About half way through it’s development time it was a great driving game but stopped being fun when the guns went in and the controls were dumbed down. I wanted to do a driving game that focused on that pure hover-racer with momentum feeling for 14 years. I also calculated that the iPhone would also be able to display a very detailed landscape, that had been an ongoing research project for almost a decade itself. The two ideas just came together

What inspired you for Ground Effect from initial concept to formalized game?
Just the fact that I was sure both ideas could come together on the iPhone. The idea was that it was relatively risk free and should have been possible fairly quickly.

What inspires you? And is it different for each game?
I have a background in 3D graphic technology. Most of the game ideas I have are based around a bit of technology, taking it in a hopefully fairly unique direction but keeping the game idea simple. I’m not into huge epic games myself, I much prefer games that take a simple idea and explore it.

What have you found most difficult about being an indie developer?
The responsibility and lack of support, the days wasted trying to get my head around the way photoshop handles alpha channels. The cutting and pasting bits of Objective C without taking the time to actually learn the language. Stuff like that.

Can you describe your development process?
That’s a big question. Ground Effect was built on a simple cross platform Library, my programming tasks were split between challenging technical problems to do with the graphic engine, boring formalised stuff to keep the cross-platform stuff working, the fun of actually tuning the handling system and the AI drones and the relatively mindless drudgery of the front end menu stuff. I sort of worked on which ever bits fitted my mood that day.

What does the creative process look like during the initial stages?
It started as a camera flying over a simple heightmapped mesh, multitexture was added, support for objects loaded from 3DS max, the level of detail (LOD) system. After a few months it was possible to fly a basic camera around a random rocky landscape.

Did you do any pre-marketing before Ground Effect was released?
We uploaded a couple of videos to Youtube and started threads on all of the iPhone game forums we could find. Only the Touch Arcade one got any attention. We managed to get articles on a few other iPhone gaming sites. Sadly this was all started a little too early as the game took a few more months to finish than we’d been hoping.

What are you working on now?
I’m working with Josh Presseisen (of Ravensword fame) on a completely different game based on some of the same tech. It’s a bit too early to say much about this yet but graphically, it’s going to be way beyond Ground Effect. I’m also doing contract work on a few console games.

Any plans for updates to Ground Effect?
Yes, we are working on new levels, these will be available in an update very soon.

What was your most frustrating task while developing Ground Effect?
The whole process was refreshingly painless. I guess if I did have to pick one thing it would be the time spent trying to get various little bits of Objective C to work but that was kind of my own fault for just jumping in without taking any time at all to learn the language. Also, switching back and forth from PC to mac took a while to become natural.

What have you found to be the most successful way to market Ground Effect?
We have been very impressed by the extra attention the game has been getting since we promoted it through www.freeappaday.com in early March. It really is all about people knowing your game exists and the half a million extra people who got to play it seem to be making that happen like nothing else has.

How much does user feedback affect your planning of updates and also future projects?
It’s a complex relationship. We had a lot of feedback from people demanding guns and to be able to update their craft but we also got a lot of people who clearly appreciated the game for what it is, a pure racing game. I personally believe that weapons ruin racing games, I could be wrong but I’ve stuck to it and Ground Effect will never have them. On the other hand, if people want weapons, big explosions and a hell of a lot more happening on the screen, they will not be disappointed in what is coming next. It isn’t a racing game though 🙂

Do you write games for yourself or for others? And why?
I find it completely soul destroying to work on a game that I don’t even like, I’ve done it enough times over the years. I believe that the only way to do it is to explore the areas of my own gaming taste that might actually appeal to others. My taste isn’t that weird…

What process do you go through to overcome creative block?
One of the advantages of doing so much of the development on my own is that when I didn’t feel inspired enough to work on a creative part of the game, there was always plenty of less exciting stuff or messing around in Photoshop to do. I was alwats too busy to ever get properly blocked.

Since its release what you do differently looking back?
I’d make it very clear that the first two levels are tutorials as it’s kind of depressing to see (via Openfeint stats) how many people never get past them and onto the levels with jumps, exploration and high speed banked turns.

What was the development atmosphere like? What kind of music did you listen to?
For a lot of the time it was kind of unhealthy, me at home, sat at a desk surrounded by 3 monitors for far too many hours at a time. Music was mostly my 24 hour super-playlist on random. The bands on this list with the most tracks are The Pixies, The Gang of Four, The Fall, The Cure. From that list it looks like I only like bands starting with “The”, there is a lot of other stuff honestly…

What was a must have during the development process of Ground Effect?
Not sure what you mean by this. Keeping the PC version going alongside the iPhone version was vital for debugging, it also would have been impossible to design levels without it. Away from the computer being able to get out on my Mountain bike or go skateboarding with my kids once in a while stopped me from growing to completely fill my chair…

What games influenced you in your decision to make Ground Effect?
It seemed to me that the iPhone was a platform where simplicity worked like no platform for a few decades. I thought a simple arcade style racer where the controls had been designed around the accelerometer and the graphic engine looked good (I knew I’d have a huge draw distance with a smooth frame rate at least) was bound to work. Of course it didn’t quite work out like this, a lot of customers wanted to know where the guns and upgrades were but you live and learn…

How close was the end product to your initial conceptualization?
Very close, almost exactly what I was hoping for.

Before the release of Ground Effect were there any huge last minute changes?
Very late in the testing phase one of the testers found you could get a better time by jabbing the boost button very quickly rather than long, well planned boosts. Fixing this was a complete nightmare and involved rewriting part of the code that had been fixed for many months. It also broke all of the AI opponents.

How did you keep yourself motivated?
Fear of the ever increasing quality of the apps released every day since I started the project.

How much did the art drive the game? The vision of what it was to look like how much of that was the driving force?
A lot of the look of the game is driven by algorithmically generated graphics. The islands are fractals, the tracks are extruded along a spline, the lighting, shadows and texturing of the level are done at load time by a few hundred lines of the most fun-to-write code in the game. The way the trails dissipate and fade is done with custom code. I’m mostly a graphics programmer with an ancient history as an artist (the last game I did the graphics for was Populous in ’87!) but I can’t claim it was all in my head at the start of the project. It doesn’t really work like that. It was in my head but the picture was very fuzzy, more of a potential picture based on experience and, I dunno, crossed fingers and hope maybe. I’m very pleased with how the final game looks though.

What tools of the trade are a must have for you when it comes to programming, art and music?
The code was done in a weird mix of XCode and Microsoft Visual Studio. Everyone who had any input into the art used Photoshop and the guy who designed the craft used 3DS max.
The music came from Pam talking to Diefenbach (the Danish band) and getting the instrumental version of a Rock in a Pond.

If you were stuck on an island with a laptop and no internet access what apps would you have loaded?
Autodesk Sketchbook
Google Earth
Weather Pro
PuzzleManiak
Fox vs Duck
Beatmaker
Geocaching
BeeJive IM (i’m assuming I can get a signal of course)
Tweetie 2
The Facebook app
:Shift:
Noiz2sa Free
Boost 3D

We want to thank Glenn for his time and can’t wait to see what comes next!

Today we bring you an indie interview with Adam Stewart and Alex Okafor, the creators of Tilt to Live!

Company: One Man Left
App Store: Tilt to Live $1.99

How long have you been developing for the iPhone/iPod touch? What did you do before you started developing for the iPhone/iPod touch?
Adam: We set our sights on the iPhone around June of last year, and Tilt to Live is our first project. Before that we’d never done anything that would be considered “career” game development. We’ve been working as a team on pipe dream projects since high school, but Tilt to Live is our first commercial offering.

How long did it take you to develop Tilt to Live and how many people were involved?
Adam: Just two of us moonlighting as devs, Alex the Programmer and Adam the Artist. That’s how we address each other in casual conversation.

The moonlighting arrangement slowed the process down considerably. I think the game was started in June of last year, so it was almost 9 months before we agreed it was ready for launch. We could nearly have gestated a human being in the time it took to make this game. Because we both had day jobs to pay the bills, there was no financial pressure to “just get it done”. We took our sweet time exploring different ideas.

How did you come up with the idea for Tilt to Live?
Adam: The humorous look/feel was established as soon as we indulged that title: Tilt to Live. You can’t have a name that goofy and still try to look badass, so we just started running with ridiculous ideas. In the end, that helped set our game apart from all the glowing, techno-thumping shooters in the App Store. I don’t know why more developers aren’t sick of working in that style. It’s not bad, it’s just… well-worn. It’s the town doorknob.

The gameplay was inspired early on by Geometry Wars’ Pacifist mode. That’s the mode where they take away your ability to shoot, and you can only whittle away enemies by running through these bars that exploded. That was our nuke, basically, and from there we brainstormed different survival strategies that became our other weapons. It’s been exciting territory to develop, and we’re still not finished exploring it.

What inspires you? And is it different for each game?
Adam: This time it was an idea within Geometry Wars that we wanted to explore deeper. A lot of our new ideas have been centered around fun ways to interact with the hardware (both iPhone and iPad). I personally get excited when I’m deconstructing something that’s already established. Taking a classic paradigm, deciding what’s fun about it and what isn’t, then brainstorming new ideas around that. It’s not easy to make that work, but I find that reverse-engineering a game or genre really gets my imagination going.

What have you found most difficult about being an indie developer?
Adam: Getting noticed in a marketplace as crowded as the App Store.  That’s the hardest part, which we’re hoping will become easier as we establish some kind of presence or (hopefully) fan base.

What does the creative process look like during the initial stages?
Adam: During the very early stages, the enemies were just red dots and the player just looked like an arrow! We have come a long way since then. For Tilt to Live, our creative process went like this: There are red dots and a nuke … “Try this” … Build … “Was it fun? Okay try this” … Build … ad nauseam.  Just adding weapons and changing waves until it felt release-worthy.

Early Tilt to live!

Did you do any pre-marketing before Tilt to Live was released?
Adam: We sent out preview builds to a few web sites, and did maybe two press releases near the end. Our biggest push was after we had a gameplay video to show. It’s hard to build hype for your first title, since you’re on a level playing field with 100,000 other developers the app sites have never heard of. Any success we had there was due to Tilt to Live’s quirkiness and how we structured the emails. After some trial and error we found that the quicker we got to the point in our press releases and emails, the better our response was.

What are you working on now?
Adam: Tilt to Live isn’t finished just yet. We’re developing a new game mode for the first update that completely changes how you play the game. We call it Gauntlet mode. Players basically run a treadmill of spinning, smashing dot formations, trying to survive the tide as long as possible. That’s coming April 24th.

As far as future titles, we have our sights set on the iPad next. That hardware has a lot of potential.

Do you write games for yourself or for others? And why?
Adam: Both. We use a pretty diverse group as testers, including ourselves. If it’s not fun for the majority of us, or if it’s not a game that’d we’d be satisfied purchasing, it’s probably not worth releasing. We don’t always agree on what’s fun, but I think that keeps the end result from being “too niche”.

We also use reviews on the App Store and app sites as food for thought toward updates. We often agree with the feedback, and treat it the same as tester data.

How close was the end product to your initial conceptualization?
Adam: We set out to make a simple, pick-up-and-play, casual game with minimal decision-making before starting a game. The update will have two screens prior to playing: a Gametype Select and the Assume the Position screen, which is actually two more than we were going for. Both are necessary and fairly common, though, so the concession wasn’t a total copout.

As far as difficulty, the feedback seems to be that half the people think it gets too hard too quick, and half think it’s too easy for too long. This tells us we’ve struck a decent balance between a hardcore and casual audience. We’re going to try to continue “swinging both ways” in the updates, though we’ve announced a hardcore-only mode called Code Red for the April 24th GameType update. The difficulty will be cranked up to 11 from the start, for the hardcore gamer on the go.

How did you keep yourself motivated?
We both just find the work rewarding. And if not for that, we get hungry. The people with the food ask for money. If we have none, we get motivated.

What was your most frustrating task while developing Tilt to Live?
Alex: Coding the more elaborate dot formations such as arrows and ping pong paddles was more challenging than expected. I went back to the drawing board several times trying to get this to work fluidly and still maintain good performance. What we have now works but I still think it could be done much better. We had a lot more ideas for this, but this proved to be one of the things that got down-sized for the sake of time and stability. But with the new update, Gauntlet Mode, it’s almost exclusively all elaborate shapes, so thankfully we’ve got a better system in place now for developing them!

What process do you go through to overcome creative block?
Alex: Stopping what you’re doing and go do something else. Music is always an inspiration, but just getting out and trying to experience new things really helps get those creative juices flowing. Even if it’s as simple as going for a walk to a part of the city or a park you’ve never been to before.

What was the development atmosphere like? What kind of music did you listen to?
Adam: To give a general idea: Horse the Band, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, and The March of the Penguins soundtrack.
Alex: Some days it’s chill-out lounge music, other days it’s classical/orchestral music, others it’s just random music from more mainstream sources.

What was a must have during the development process of Tilt to Live?
Alex: The biggest design goal was to create a game that requires zero tapping of the screen during the gameplay to fully play the game. We wanted to explore the mechanics of tilting exclusively, and also avoid the “hand in the way” problem that could be a huge issue in a fast-paced arcade game.

How much did the art drive the game? The vision of what it was to look like how much of that was the driving force?
Alex: The art and music definitely guided the overall humorous feel of the game. But from a game mechanics perspective, the art took a back seat to how the game played. We would come up with abstract mechanics and gameplay ideas first and then try to fit them in aesthetically. The art made the mechanics standout and not the other way around. In the mobile space, I personally feel gameplay is more important than theme. Themes work to get the player initially interested.  If the theme and gameplay are at odds with each other then it won’t hold their interest for long. While working in a constrained box (Like “Tilt only gameplay”) can really help push the creativity of mechanics, trying to make game mechanics ‘fit a theme’ doesn’t seem to have the same effect.

What tools of the trade are a must have for you when it comes to programming, art and music?
Alex: XCode, Subversion, and Dropbox are kind of standard I imagine. As for a tool I use that a lot of iPhone developers probably don’t is Blitzmax. It’s another language entirely, but it’s proved to be extremely useful in prototyping early mechanics and algorithms quickly without all the “gotchas” of setup, initialization, and memory management in Obj-C/C++. Audacity has been key for me. I use it to mix, edit, and export the audio.

Adam: The artwork was wrought primarily by Illustrator, and I used Flash to mock up some of the animations. Also pencils. It took a lot of sketching to get the enemy design just right.

Is there anything else that you would like to say?
Of course.

We want to thank Adam and Alex for their time and we can’t wait for the update for Tilt to Live!

Today we bring you an indie interview with Anders Mårtensson, one of the creator of Labyrinth 2!

Company: Illusion Labs
App Store: Labyrinth 2 $4.99

How long have you been developing for the iPhone/iPod touch? What did you do before you started developing for the iPhone/iPod touch?
For about two years. I used to work at a major mobile phone platform manufacturer before.

How long did it take you to develop Labyrinth 2 and how many people were involved?
About 10 months for 4-6 people.

How did you come up with the idea for Labyrinth 2?
Well, Labyrinth 1 was our first game, and there was so much more we could do with it. We thought we could include obstacles, and also a level sharing system so that people could share their own levels easily with the world. Those ideas ended up in our first sequel, Labyrinth 2.

What inspired you for Labyrinth 2 from initial concept to formalized game?
Pinball games!

What inspires you? And is it different for each game?
Being bored gets us creative, so we leave the office for a while, and since we miss our little computers and get bored, all kinds of ideas keep popping up in your head. Beer helps too.

What have you found most difficult about being an indie developer?
Getting coverage on major non-gaming sites.

Can you describe your development process?
Get an idea. Take a week off the ongoing project. Do a prototype. See if it turns out great. If not, go back to the ongoing project. If yes, go back to the ongoing project and revisit idea later. Repeat.

What does the creative process look like during the initial stages?
Pretty much a one-man-job, and lots of coffee. And having the time of your life.

Did you do any pre-marketing before Labyrinth 2 was released?
Not much, we just released a video on YouTube and emailed a bunch of sites.

What are you working on now?
iPad versions of Labyrinth 2 and Touchgrind.

Any plans for updates to Labyrinth 2?
We have done a few already, but I think/hope we’ll put together some more obstacles and also new themes.

What was your most frustrating task while developing Labyrinth 2?
Getting multiplayer working. Multiplayer is in fact one of the hardest things to implement, I don’t think people realize that.

What have you found to be the most successful way to market Labyrinth 2?
Getting featured by Apple! Especially in their TV commercials.

How much does user feedback affect your planning of updates and also future projects?
A great deal. We usually have beta testing before we release it to get some feedback on how to improve things.

Do you write games for yourself or for others? And why?
Mostly ourselves. No-one likes having someone telling you what to do, and when to do it. We like being our own boss.

What process do you go through to overcome creative block?
Beer. And playing games on Wii and PS3.

What was the development atmosphere like? What kind of music did you listen to?
Pretty relaxed, no hard deadlines. The last month we are all super stressed though. We like listening to “Indie pop rocks” on Soma FM (http://somafm.com/play/indiepop)

What was a must have during the development process of Labyrinth 2?
Fun!

What games influenced you in your decision to make Labyrinth 2?
Labyrinth 1, obviously. And old school pinball games.

How close was the end product to your initial conceptualization?
I’d say pretty close. Some objects didn’t end up in the final game though.

Before the release of Labyrinth 2 were there any huge last minute changes?
Not really.

How did you keep yourself motivated?
The community feedback and all the mails we get from parents etc.

How much did the art drive the game? The vision of what it was to look like how much of that was the driving force?
We did the game first, and art later.

What tools of the trade are a must have for you when it comes to programming, art and music?
A genuine interest, and extremely high standards. Everything can be improved, always. And not to copy from others, let them copy you.

If you were stuck on an island with a laptop and no internet access what apps would you have loaded?
Civilization, it never gets old.

Is there anything else that you would like to say?
Go check out or upcoming iPad games; Labyrinth 2 HD and Touchgrind HD on April 3rd! They are going to be awesome, I can promise you that!

We want to thank Anders for his time and we can’t wait to see Labyrinth 2 HD and Touchgrind HD!

Today we bring you an indie interview with Juan Diego, the creator of Battle of Puppets!

Company: Small Wonders
App Store: Battle of Puppets $0.99

How long have you been developing for the iPhone/iPod touch? What did you do before you started developing for the iPhone/iPod touch?
We have been developing since July 2009 and before that we were just video games lovers with a lot of ideas to develop.

How long did it take you to develop Battle of Puppets and how many people were involved?
About 13 people were involved in BOP. This includes programmers, graphic artists, production team, marketing team, etc…

How did you come up with the idea for Battle of Puppets?
We were thinking about an RTS game, but we needed it to be well adapted for the iPhone. That was the hardest part. We were thinking about crusades, but since we love opera we just thought about developing the first opera game for the iPhone. That’s how it started.

What inspired you for Battle of Puppets from initial concept to formalized game?
We were inspired by games like Little Big Planet, The Legend of Zelda, etc… We just wanted a simple strategy game, available for everyone, and we added things we love, opera, puppets, theatre and of course, video games.

What inspires you? And is it different for each game?
We love cute graphics, and we love when a game is very playable regardless the platform. Obviously this inspiration varies slightly depending on genre and platform.

What have you found most difficult about being an indie developer?
The most difficult thing is to get noticed. You aren’t able to build a lot of hype and you need to conquer your customer one by one because of the lack of a big marketing budget.

Can you describe your development process?
First we have a general idea about game, style, graphics, etc… Then we create concepts, when we think that we have found the right concept we start to create the whole world. Meanwhile we are programming AI, difficult levels, etc…
When everything is finished we test a lot and we publish the gameplay until we think it is good enough to sell.
After this we have a last test level with non-testers to see their reaction. If this reaction is good enough then we are ready for release.

What does the creative process look like during the initial stages?
The creative process is amazing at the beginning. There are a lot of ideas and a lot of designs. If you look how it first began and how the game ended you would think it wasn’t the same game.

Did you do any pre-marketing before Battle of Puppets was released?
We just wanted everybody to see our characters. We wanted to see people’s reaction so we placed a lot of wallpapers in a lot of sites. Fortunately it was good, people love the art style.

What are you working on now?
We are trying to update Battle of Puppets with a lot of additional features. We want to include more maps, more armies, and if it was possible we would like to include multi-player (everybody asked for it).
We are working on a new title but I can say anything about it except that it will be a cute and funny game. It will not be a strategy game, and it will be released for the iPhone too.

Any plans for updates to Battle of Puppets?
As I told you before we are trying to bring a lot of updates and we ask people about what they like and if it’s possible we’d like to include all these suggestions on the next updates.

What was your most frustrating task while developing Battle of Puppets?
I think we haven’t had a real frustrating task, but the hardest part, I think, was to find the right characters. We have had a lot of different ideas until we found these characters. It took a lot of time.

What have you found to be the most successful way to market Battle of Puppets?
I think the most successful way is the game in itself. Each person who tries it loves it; there are a lot of people asking for wallpapers, extra material, etc… You can place banners, have good reviews, etc… But if people love the game then it works for itself.

How much does user feedback affect your planning of updates and also future projects?
Feedback is very important for us. We are always asking people their likes or dislikes on Battle of Puppets, and we try to improve the game with this feedback.

Do you write games for yourself or for others? And why?
We write our games just for us. We want people to associate Small Wonders with a certain kind of game. The best way is to create your own products

What process do you go through to overcome creative block?
We use to play games, and we watch a lot of movies too. When I am blocked I do something that has nothing in common with the task I’m doing. It’s the best way to find something new that probably works. You need to see things through different angles to find the perfect way to solve a problem.

Since its release what you do differently looking back?
I think the only thing we would do different could be to add multi-player to BOP. Everybody asked for it, and it takes a lot of time to implement right now.

What was the development atmosphere like? What kind of music did you listen to?
We had a lot of jokes between us, and it’s been very fun. Music is difficult to have a list, for example I love groups like Venetian Snares or Aphex Twin, but people here listen to Led Zeppelin, Kasabian, etc… So you see how different we are.

What was a must have during the development process of Battle of Puppets?
The day when we found our characters was a “must have” day; it was when we realized we had a great game

What games influenced you in your decision to make Battle of Puppets?
Little Big Planet, The Legend of Zelda, Monkey Island (The Secret, The Curse, etc…), for example

How close was the end product to your initial conceptualization?
We just wanted to have more things included, but we almost had 90% of what we imagined when we started, that’s great!

Before the release of Battle of Puppets were there any huge last minute changes?
We needed to fix a bug, but it was when the game was sent to Apple. That’s why we had version 1.1 in just one week after releasing Battle of Puppets

How did you keep yourself motivated?
It’s hard sometimes to get motivated, but we had a vision on this project, and that’s the best thing you can have to get motivated.

How much did the art drive the game? The vision of what it was to look like how much of that was the driving force?
Art is a very important part of the game as well as gameplay. It’s more what we need to feel with art than what we wanted it to look like.
We wanted to feel something cute, we wanted our characters friendly. That was our real driving force.

What tools of the trade are a must have for you when it comes to programming, art and music?
You can use a lot of tools, but the only one that is a “must have” for us is Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

If you were stuck on an island with a laptop and no internet access what apps would you have loaded?
This is a real hard question (I can’t live without internet).
Obviously a lot of games, Plants vs. Zombies would be one of them (I love that game)

Is there anything else that you would like to say?
I’d just like to say thanks for this interview, It’s been nice to meet you and I’d like to say thanks to everybody who have supported Battle of Puppets, we work just for you, we love you.

We want to thank Juan for his time and for Battle of Puppets!

Today we bring you an indie interview with Brian Greenstone, the creator of Enigmo 2 (among may other awesome titles)!

Company: Pangea Software, Inc.
App Store: Enigmo 2 $2.99

How long have you been developing for the iPhone/iPod touch? What did you do before you started developing for the iPhone/iPod touch?
Since the day the first SDK became available.  Previously we were doing Mac games, so the move to the iPhone was very easy.

How long did it take you to develop Enigmo 2 and how many people were involved?
The original Mac version took just a few months, and porting it to the iPhone took about 2 weeks.  There was 1 programmer, 1 artist, and 1 musician to make the game.

How did you come up with the idea for Enigmo 2?
Well, it was just an advanced version of Enigmo, but the original idea for Enigmo was inspired by a toy that my grandparents had in the 70’s where a marble would bounce off drums.  In college I thought that concept could work as a video game, but it took another 10 years for me to do it.

What inspired you for Enigmo 2 from initial concept to formalized game?
We were going for an ethereal, space theme for that game, so I guess we were inspired by that.

What inspires you? And is it different for each game?
I’m inspired by seeing cool things on the screen.  I like to come up with an idea, execute it, and see how it comes out.  It’s the whole creative process really.

What have you found most difficult about being an indie developer?
Getting visibility and exposure.  Everything else is easier being independent, but being small means it’s hard to get seen.

Can you describe your development process?
Usually I’ll come up with a game concept, create a prototype / proof-of-concept, and then I get a team together to work on it and we hash out the details.  Then we’ll spend 2-10 months developing it.

What does the creative process look like during the initial stages?
It looks like a lot of programmer-art.  I’ll often just have cubes and spheres moving around the screen to represent objects as I try to build the prototype.  Then gradually the artist will replace the temp-art with legit stuff.

Did you do any pre-marketing before Enigmo 2 was released?
Not really.  Apple wanted us to keep the iPhone version quiet so that we could get a bigger bang out of it when it went live.

What are you working on now?
Porting everything to the iPad.

Any plans for updates to Enigmo 2?
Possibly.  Enigmo 1 has been updated in some major ways for the iPad, so we may do the same for Enigmo 2.

What was your most frustrating task while developing Enigmo 2?
Dealing with performance issues.  The game is pretty complex and it is important that it runs at a high frame rate.

What have you found to be the most successful way to market Enigmo 2?
If I knew the answer to that… I really don’t know.  It’s hard to market anything for the iPhone.  YouTube videos, reviews, and word-of-mouth seem to be most effective.

How much does user feedback affect your planning of updates and also future projects?
Quite a bit.

Do you write games for yourself or for others? And why?
We only do internal projects at Pangea, although we did do an iPhone game called Beer Bounce that we had a different company publish simply because we didn’t want to tarnish our image with a drinking game.

What process do you go through to overcome creative block?
Play other games to get inspired.

Since its release what you do differently looking back?
Nothing.  I’m very happy with Enigmo 2.

What was the development atmosphere like? What kind of music did you listen to?
That game was done so quickly that I don’t really thing a development atmosphere had time to develop.  We knew we wanted to a full 3D version of Enigmo, so we were pretty focused on that.

What was a must have during the development process of Enigmo 2?
Nothing in particular.

What games influenced you in your decision to make Enigmo 2?
Well, Enigmo 1 obviously, but Enigmo 1 was inspired by The Incredible Machine.

How close was the end product to your initial conceptualization?
Pretty much spot-on.  I was actually surprised how well it came out in the end.

Before the release of Enigmo 2 were there any huge last minute changes?
Nope.

How did you keep yourself motivated?
Kept thinking how well it might do since Engimo 1 did so well.  In the end Enigmo 2 hasn’t done anywhere near as well as Enigmo 1, but it still sells quite well.

How much did the art drive the game? The vision of what it was to look like how much of that was the driving force?
Well, it drove the theme, but not the game itself.

What tools of the trade are a must have for you when it comes to programming, art and music?
Maya and Photoshop.  We use all internal tools for just about everything else.

If you were stuck on an island with a laptop and no internet access what apps would you have loaded?
The US Army Survival Handbook!

We want to thank Brian for his time and look forward to seeing what Pangea comes up with next!