Developing an iPhone Game On Nights and Weekends, Part 1

Peter…founder of Magnetic Studio…and developer of 123 Pop, talks about developing an iPhone game…

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/123pop-part1.mp3

Or listen to it here…

[wp_youtube]jPjDSNBa1vw[/wp_youtube]

Show Notes:
Peter: Hey.

Interviewer: Hey, welcome to the show. How about you introduce yourself?

Peter: Sure. My name is Peter Lacalamita from Magnetic Studio, and I’m basically an illustrator and animator. And I’ve got my new iPhone game out. It’s called 123pop.

Interviewer: Cool. So, let’s talk about what you’ve been doing in the game industry before you were inspired to make this iPhone game.

Peter: Well, actually I’m not really an iPhone developer per se. I’d say about a year ago my brother-in-law showed up at my house and said, “Look what I have.” I was looking at this iPod, and there were games on it. Actually, maybe, this was more like a year and a half or two years ago.

In any case, I was totally inspired by this little device, the fact that it actually played games. It had sound. Actually, no. I think his first generation iPod didn’t have sound, but in any case the game that I saw on this thing really motivated me to look into it. From there I just basically picked up an iPod. I started programming in Unity, and I just fell in love with the process and just kept going and going until eventually here I am with a game out in the Apps Store.

Interviewer: What was the game? Do you remember the game that inspired you from the iPod to actually get going and get started?

Peter: I think it was actually like a kids game. It wasn’t that brilliant in terms of concept. It was more like a movie which turned into a kids game, like it was one of those really badly made movies. But I was just impressed by the fact that, hey, if someone had a good story or a good concept for a game, what it showed is that you can use Accelerometer. You can tilt it, which was at the time was, like, that’s kind of cool.

What I saw was the potential that yes, this thing can handle, this little thing can handle the graphics and the frame rates that are needed just to keep things smooth and flowing.

Interviewer: Do you play a lot of console games? Before that, were you playing Web games, console games? What types of games do you normally play?

Peter: Sure. I used to have an Omega 500. I was always playing games on the Omega. My typical weekends were, like, going to the software rental store in downtown Toronto which, unfortunately, eventually you weren’t able to rent games back then. This was probably back in the mid 1990s, 1995, 1996, something like that. I was always playing games on the Omega.

Even before that, there was my Commodore 64 that I was playing games on and also actually doing a little bit of basic programming. Pretty much, I actually like strategy games and multiplayer games. I have a PS3. I always play War Hawk. I’m definitely into strategy games, thinking games, not necessarily into single player games just because I think the idea of being another human being as opposed to just going through a single player game.

I also find that the single player games are usually, you’ll eventually win because the AI is usually ridiculously not that smart. So, yeah, I’m definitely attracted to multiplayer games and strategy games.

Interviewer: So what multiplayer games have you been playing online?

Peter: For example, War Hawk is my favorite and Battlefield 2. There’s just a few others that I like to play. But I’m also the sort of person that will still pick up… I also have a Wii as well because my young children play on the Wii. So, I’ll also play Big Brain Academy and games like that.

Interviewer: So, you saw this kids game that inspired you, and you like multiplayer games. Were you thinking about doing a multiplayer game on the iPod, iPhone? What inspired you? Let’s talk about the specific game you chose, and what inspired you to choose that.

Peter: Sure. Well, this game, 123pop, that I made. I was thinking to myself, OK, I’m going to make a game for the iPhone which I’ve never done before, I have to choose something that is relatively simple but yet fun, a game that would utilize my experience as an illustrator and animator. That was sort of my criteria.

Definitely, my next few games I put out, hopefully, in the next six months or so are going to be more graphically rich and more, maybe, character based or something that’s more graphically intensive. But, for my first game which is 123pop, it had to be something that was simple because I was pretty sure that if I did aim too high that for my first game out it wouldn’t be a good idea to spend six months, eight months on something constantly just because I also have my free lance career, and I can’t just stop that. I have to actually pay bills and stuff.

So, I set out to do something very simple and something that was sort of universal because there’s kind of a math element to this game, and it involves adding numbers to get points. For me, this was one of the best ways just to go at it because it would have wide appeal, and it would be very simple.

Interviewer: Yeah. For the audience out there listening, can you describe the game, just summarize it, just so that they have a sense of what genre it is and how to play it and stuff?

Peter: Sure. Basically, 123pop is a puzzle and math game. It’s great for the whole family because it is complicated enough that adults would enjoy it because there’s all kinds of little things going on. As well, it’s great for kids to play because it’s relatively simple, and you can actually select the difficulty in the options. It involves adding numbers together to score points.

For example, you basically would touch three numbers, and these numbers are all bouncing around in a surreal environment. Let’s say you touch one number and then a second number. The third number has to be the sum of the first two numbers that you tapped.

So, for example, if I tapped a one and a three. Then, the next number that I touch would have… What’d I say? Did I say a three or a two? Let’s say it’s a three and a two, and then I’ll say the third number has to be five. If that’s a five and a five, obviously the third number has to be a ten. So, that’s kind of the game mechanic.

Interviewer: Did you think about this game mechanic initially when you started, or did you have to do any prototyping? How did you finalize the actual game design making sure that it’s fun?

Peter: Sure. I actually started with an idea because I was thinking to myself, what would be the best project to approach? I just sat on this idea, and the initial idea was just tapping numbers that were on screen. So, I started with a very simple idea, tapping numbers on screen. And then, as I started to develop it, I started thinking to myself, OK, well, how can I make this a little bit more than just tapping the numbers?

So, I felt the best approach was to start simple with what the core game mechanic was, and then as you evolve, as you code it and you put it all together, and you play it and play it and play it, you then ask yourself, OK, how can I sort of balance this a little, either making it easier or making it more difficult?

With every obstacle that I threw in, for example, I added in a whale…A whale would jump in now and then from the water, and it pops the numbers. So, you have to be kind of quick. So, when you see this whale coming, you’ve got to hurry up and make your sequence.

Another thing that came about was, hmm, what if I had a rocket actually showed up in this thing, and this rocket is slowly rotating, and it’s at a random spot at a certain interval. As this rocket is rotating, if I touch this rocket it’ll actually go in that direction, and it’ll spin off.

The whole point there is well, if I’ve got a bunch of numbers in one corner and this rocket’s in the other corner and if I time it right, I’ll aim this rocket at the highest numbers in the nearest area. In this way, you’re able to add more and more points. The higher the numbers, the higher your score goes.

Another thing I wanted to mention about the game play is you basically have 60 seconds for each round. In each round there’s a target number. Let’s say that’s 75. You basically want to get more than the target number in order to advance to the next round. So, the rounds keep going on and on based on the 60 seconds, and you have to basically beat the target number in order to continue. If you don’t beat the target number, the game then ends.

Interviewer: OK. Don’t you think that’s pretty brutal to just end the game? That seems non-casual like that. The game ends if you don’t reach that number.

Peter: Yeah, basically. It’s almost like you have 60 seconds to reach a benchmark. If you don’t… But let me tell you. The benchmark in the beginning, it’s not that hard. But what does happen is with each round, that variable does, I guess, somewhat increase.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Peter: So that when you’re getting to the second and third round, then it definitely will go even more so. It does increase, but then it also increases a little bit more, depending on what round you’re on. Yeah. Sure.

Interviewer: So, when you add the numbers together, does that count towards the points?

Peter: Yes.

Interviewer: OK.

Peter: Sure. Let me explain. What happens is, what you’re doing is you’re adding, you’re touch two numbers and then your third number is the sum of the two numbers. That sum number is what you’re adding to your score. So, for example, if I’m only adding one and one and two, I’m only going to increase my score by the number two. But if I add five and five together and I get 10, then I’m going to add my score by 10.

So, the cool thing is that you’re always looking at the highest numbers, and conversely you’re always using that rocket. You always want to aim that rocket at the highest numbers. The interesting thing that comes about is that while you’re playing you’re always looking at those higher numbers. Well, sometimes you also have to balance your thinking with, OK, if I just wait and just go for the highest numbers, I’ll get a higher amount then for my score.

But at the same time, if I had to wait 10 seconds and I could have made a five as a sum number twice in the span of… Or let’s say it was a six and two sixes in a span of 10 seconds, then I would have been better off just going for the lower numbers because you just don’t have a higher number there.

Another thing is I like a lot of randomness in games just because I never like to see repetitive stuff although the case could be made that there are going to be things always that are going to be somewhat random. But in a nutshell I’d add some randomness to it like this game is. I think it adds something.

And what I do, for example, these numbers, when they’re generated it’s always random. So, there are times when there just isn’t a sequence, but the way that I’ve coded it is such that there always is a sequence in a given amount of time.

Interviewer: What about power ups? You talked about randomness. You have that whale, I think you mentioned. What about power ups? Do you have any kind of, I guess, accelerators or power ups that enhance the experience?

Peter: I do have one other object that comes up in the game at random times, and what it is is like this floating star. The actual floating star is somewhat like the mascot because it’s actually the icon image. What happens with the star is kind of cool because this star will randomly float in, and what happens is if you touch the star it has somewhat like a blast radius, so anything in that blast radius it collects those stars. And then, you can also add to your points.

And again, because this guy is drifting left and right and what not, like sometimes he’s going up, sometimes he’s going right. So, it’s the sort of thing that you might be focusing on, trying to get these numbers and all of a sudden the star comes in. If you touch him at the right time when he’s near a cluster of numbers, then you’re going to get all those numbers to your score. So, that’s kind of cool.

Another thing I should also mention there is there’s also a vortex object that shows up. Again, these are things that are somewhat random. When the vortex comes up, it actually sucks all the numbers in. So, sometimes you’re actually in the middle of doing the sequence, and all of a sudden this vortex comes out and sucks all the numbers away.

And though your sequence is, you may have a one and a five, it takes those numbers into the vortex. Well, you have to remember that way, what kind of sequence was I making. That third number has to be the six. Another thing to add to that is as well that in some cases in combination with the vortex or the star, if the vortex is collecting all the numbers and the star just happens to be in the right area, and you touch him when he’s near the vortex. Because the vortex is actually positioning all those objects towards it and if you enable the star, to actually touch the star and it grabs the numbers, and it’s right near the vortex, you can get a lot of points that way.

Interviewer: So you have these changes. So when you first prototyped it, how long did it take to get from that initial prototype to this finalized game play that you just described?

Peter: I would say the process took about a month and a half.

Interviewer: And that process, was it just privately testing it with yourself or were you having your kids play it? How did you go about it play testing it to make sure and to come up with the refinements needed to make it a game that you found fun?

Peter: I basically bothered my family and my friends literally every week. If I saw them, I’d be like, you’ve got to try this out. Please, please, please try this out. I know I’m annoying, but you’ve got to try because I just want to see what you think. I tell you it was so amazing to see my friends or family play it.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Peter: What was even more exciting is when me and my two kids and my wife were trying to get the high score just between ourselves. It just felt really good to see, like, even if I made no money on this game, honestly, the idea of other people playing my game, it’s just a huge feeling. It’s like, well, they’re actually enjoying this.

To be honest, I remember as a kid making little games on my Commodore 64, and even before my Commodore 64 I had a Timex Sinclair 1000 which you probably don’t even know about. It was hardly a computer. It literally was this. It was black and white. It had 2K of memory. You hooked up at the time… I hooked up to my black and white TV in my room. This is probably the late ’80s, actually.

In any case, I even made a little game on the Timex Comet 1000 that my friends were playing once, and I was just sitting back, going this is awesome. And, of course, it was very, very simple, somewhat like Elmo’s like Moon Lander type of game. I guess the point I’m trying to make is it’s hugely satisfying to make something, and I actually have people smile and say, hey, I like this.

Interviewer: Your kids, how long were they playing it? When you got feedback from your kids, were you thinking that it should be targeted towards kids? Were you still trying to make it a family game?

Peter: Actually, that’s kind of a struggle for me because I actually made it for myself. Firstly, I was like, OK, let’s make a game that I would like to do and I kind of had problems. Then, I was thinking, this will definitely be good for kids because it does kind of help them with math. It’s kind of cool in a way that you’ve got to use a rocket and stuff like that.

It is a bit of a brain challenge a bit, and I thought, yeah, my kids absolutely adore the game. And so, I was thinking, yeah, this can be for kids, but the downside to saying this is for kids, then adults might think, wait, I’m not going to play this. This is for kids. Why would I even bother? Who knows?

Someone might even be interested in playing it and sees that, well, this is for kids. Hey, I’m not a kid. So, it is kind of a struggle. It’s like, even when you go through the categories for the Apps Store, it kind of, like, I know that the children’s area in terms of gaming is, it’s definitely very active.

I don’t know what to say about that. I’m kind of like torn in a sense that if I say it’s for kids, then adults won’t play it. But the thing is it’s also for adults, too. I guess in a sense it’s kind of a family game, and I’ve definitely been putting that in my queries to reviewers and broadcasters like yourself. I try and package it that it is a family game so that people don’t think, oh it’s just for kids.

Interviewer: It took a month and a half. Were you having them play it on the emulator? How are you having the people play test this thing?

Peter: I pretty much always put the game to the device and play it there because I figure that is the real world scenario.

Interviewer: I’ve heard it’s extremely difficult. I wouldn’t know, but I heard it’s extremely difficult to actually test something on the iPhone.

Peter: Do you mean getting the…

Interviewer: Yeah.

Peter: Do you mean getting the actual software onto the device?

Interviewer: Yeah. Exactly.

Peter: Well, you know it’s funny because I’m not really a tech guy. I’m more of an artist, but I definitely had problems here and there. But I think that one thing that people can take from this little interview is that you can do it. It’s not hard. If I can do it, anyone can do it, to be honest.

If you know how to use a computer, as long as you understand it and you’re into commissions and when things happen and why things happen and variables and different types of variables and what not, nothing is insurmountable. It can be done.

Another thing that I should also mention is that I actually created this in 3D, and like a lot of game engines, there is this huge community out there that’s so willing to help you. One of the more…

Interviewer: Go ahead. Finish that.

Peter: I was just going to say that an example in terms of getting over these obstacles and definitely there were a lot, don’t get me wrong. I think at every stage of my game there was an obstacle that I had to figure out and solve. The best technique for me in terms of solving these issues was to go online, especially I think it was called Answers.Unity.3D or is it Unity.Answers, I’m not sure.

In any case, there is this community website. I imagine it’s probably done by Unity. In any case, you can literally post a question, and you will literally get an answer, like, three or four hours later via this forum. That’s what I used and even the other sites. It’s funny because when I used to program when I was a kid, there was no Internet.

Now, you can literally just type in a class and find out what are all the options for that class. It’s all hypertext and what not. It’s so easy to find out on the Internet what you need to do to solve the problem, to solve an issue. It is complicated, but there’s always a solution. In fact, that’s my motto in life. There’s always a solution. You just need to just work at it.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about the fact that you’re an artist. So, you do free lance art work.

Peter: Yeah.

Interviewer: You had to do a programming project. So, initially you spent that month and a half prototyping. First of all, how frequently were you doing the play testing, and secondly what were some of the challenges as you were trying to get started? I mean, how do you go from someone who doesn’t do programming, who doesn’t do game development, who just does art work to someone that’s going to program a game.

Peter: That’s a good question. You know, sometimes I look at what I did, and I go, how the hell did I do this? The funny thing is even if I leave what I’m doing for a week. Let’s say something comes up and I’ve got to work on this project. I put it aside. I go out, whatever. I come back a week later. It’s like, I look at it, and I go, what is this? This is like Chinese to me. I don’t understand. It’s definitely very hard.

But I guess your question… Your question was how do you go from zero to, how do you go from not programming to all of a sudden…

Interviewer: Yeah.

Peter: I guess the thing is, maybe, it’s fair to say that I do have some experience based on the past.

Interviewer: Sure.

Peter: I think that definitely doing tutorials helps although I’m not really a good tutorial. When it comes to tutorials, I sort of look at the stuff, and I kind of play around with it and I’ll cut and paste some of the scripts and play around with that. But I’m not one of these guys who takes a linear tutorial and goes from A to Zed. And then goes, oh OK, I know this now.

No, it’s more like, I look at the tutorial. I’ll skip through a lot of stuff, and I’ll only isolate what I need and what I want to learn. I think though that definitely tutorials do help beginners. Going from zero to doing a game, definitely the best place to start is to look at the tutorials. And also, like even on the Unity website, there’s a ton of stuff there.

You look at objects, game objects. How do you move them? That’s another thing. One of the first things I ever did was I put an object in the stage, and I basically said, you basically add a component called rigid body, and then you enable gravity. This thing will all of a sudden collide with other objects in the scene, and it takes like two seconds.

Just going through that, you get a sense of, OK, I look into the inspector window, and I can see these components. And each component does something. It changes these values in this component window. It will have a result, and it’ll have a consequence.

I think the same thing can be said about all the software that I use in terms of 3D animation ?. It’s the sort of thing where I think you just have to love it and just sit there at it and go at it and just play around with it and see what happens. It’s sort of like trial and error.

For example, I actually never went to school for animation. I went to school for illustration at Sheridan College. It’s the sort of thing where these interfaces are almost very similar. So, the interfaces are sort of similar. You know how they’re structured, and then it’s just a matter of trying to get the most out of that particular piece of software. Because, for example, everything I’ve ever known when it comes to computers is just being self-taught. Sure, I did take computers in high school, but it wasn’t that intensive.

Interviewer: So, you would recommend that listeners who don’t necessarily do a lot of programming, who want to get started to just do tutorials and try to engage in the development community or find a community that’s really helpful.

Peter: Well, absolutely. I think there’s a huge online community that you can engage. There’s also even in major cities, there’s all kinds of gaming jams per se or what not. It’s always good to reach out to those communities. I just find in general that… Everyone has just been… I don’t think I’ve ever had a… It’s weird. I said, how to you do this or how do you do that? It’s not like, leave me alone. I’ve never actually seen that. I’m sure it exists.

Interviewer: Well, did you go to any of the game jams in your city to help develop this product?

Peter: No, I didn’t. But I go online all the time and look at the fact that there is this community, especially in Toronto. There’s this huge community, and it’s a shame I’m not part of that or, at least, not yet. I definitely want to go to those things. I do actually have some connections in the industry in terms of independents like myself. And we do kind of exchange notes, especially since my first launch.

It’s almost like, every time I go up in the ranks, I’m like, oh, check this out. I’m number 75 or something like that. So, definitely there’s a few people that I stay in touch with in terms of sharing notes. I actually have a few interested clients who are going to be developing some iPhone projects. I’m hoping to, with one or two partners, to create something really, really cool.

Interviewer: During the month and a half while you were prototyping this, how was the family feeling? Was it a subject of conversation? Was it an important part of everyday conversation? How did the game development play in your relation to other family duties or just family conversation?

Peter: Well, it’s funny because just in general, me as a human being, I’m a pretty intense guy when it comes to my career. It’s everything to me. So, the family joke is there goes dad again, talking about his game or there goes dad again talking about his illustration or there goes dad again talking about his short film.

I guess they know I’m kind of a pain that way, but my family luckily is used to it. It’s almost like, whatever I’m working on I tend to grab people and say, “What do you think of this? I get them involved.” Definitely, people who know me know that I’m into my work and it just so happens that now it’s a game. At least, in this case, they can actually participate because of…

Interviewer: Yeah. That’s what I was interested in. Does that participation, does that add more enthusiasm to the conversation? Are they more curious about what you’re working on? Does that help you in terms of motivation to just stay focused and get the game done?

Peter: I think it does help, definitely. I know that, definitely. It definitely helps. Sometimes, the only problem is I need to balance. Definitely, a challenge for someone like me is balancing home life with the work, whether it’s a game or whether it’s animation or illustration. There’s always that challenge.

I would say that in terms of building a game I don’t think it’s a good exercise to just keep it to yourself and only code, code, code and build, build for yourself. You’ve got to share it because you’re making it for people. You’re not making it for you. Yes, it’s good to make it for yourself. Yes, it has to have vision.

Interviewer: The development process being so short, it adds more fun to the process, too.

Peter: Oh, absolutely, yeah. Another thing is my kids download games all the time for the iPod and stuff. They’re avid gamers online, and I’m always peeking over their shoulder, saying, “Hey, what’s that? What are you playing there? What is that?” So, they’re definitely kind of somewhat involved. At least, if they can take from this whole experience that, hey, dad didn’t know anything about coding two years ago, and now he’s got a game on the Apps Store and it’s selling and it was even featured by Apple.

Perhaps, that will inspire them to think that if I want to learn something, all I have to do is sit my butt in that chair and get to work and get cracking and do it as opposed to talking about it because that happens. Sometimes, we talk about stuff that we want to do, that we want to do when they’re at this age, that we want to do before we die. At some point you have to put the plan into action and go and do it and don’t just keep talking about it. Actually do it.

Interviewer: This will end part one of this conversation, and what we’ll do is, for the listeners out there, part two will just cover the remainder of what it took to actually get this game out and to market it. So, cool. Thanks.