Cuboid Crazy...

I have been checking a few of the inexpensive games out on the playstation network, such as pain, and magic ball, both of which are awesome... I recently checked out cuboid, and found myself addicted to the simple puzzle game, the graphics are great, and it is a simple game to learn. I think it is a great game for the $10. In fact, I think it is a must have for the $10. I think all 3 games I mentioned are $10 each, so if you have a ps3, log onto the PSN, and purchase some great cheap games...

iFighter: interview with James Hui

iFighter Lite is currently one of the top free games at the App Store and is getting great reviews around the Web. We were fortunate to reach iFighter's lead programmer Mr. James Hui and to score an interview with him.

In this interview we learn about his journey from Apple ][ to iPhone OS 3.0, the pitfalls of cross-continent software development, how the App Store could be improved, and much more.

Q: How did EpicForce get started, where is the company located, and how big is it?

It all started with a game called CubicMan that I did for the 1.1.4 jailbroken iPhones by using the SDK toolchain. We later formed a hobbyist group to bring that to the official SDK. The artist from that group, a good friend of mine, and I then founded EpicForce to make it our full time career! Officially there are only 2 of us. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and my partner is in Hong Kong. Another friend will join us next month and the company will be incorporated in Hong Kong. We are expanding and will start recruiting extra helping hands!

Q: How did you, personally, get started in software in general and in game programming in particular?

I learned programming in order to make games back in the Apple ][ days! It was always a dream of mine to be a game developer, but I didn't join the game industry straightaway after graduation. It was a "dream come true" for me when I joined my previous employer Firemint (Flight Control!!! and Real Racing, etc...) few years ago. Lots of talented people there, especially the owner Mr. Rob Murray! I learned lots of tricks from them :)

Q: Outside of work what are some of your main interests? Do you have any free time for your own gaming? What is your favorite non-iPhone game at this time?

I spend most my spare time with my the family, when not coding. I'm married with two boys and that's good enough to keep me busy after work! I only have time for casual games nowadays and my favorites at the moment are World of Goo and a Flash game called Samorost 2.

Q: What aspect of game development appeals to you the most?

I believe it's the creative side of it that's most appealing, and the satisfaction to see other people playing your creations! As gamers ourselves, we just try to make games that we would like to play and experience. We don't have a particular guideline to follow.

Q: What attracted you to the iPhone as a gaming platform?

Firstly, the App Store! I have to thank Apple to make the App Store so approachable for everyone, even for a small developer like us!

The iPhone SDK is also nice! It's just superb when comparing to other mobile platforms, such as the Symbian SDK. Of course, iPhone and iPod Touch themselves are very attractive too. So cool to have them and to show off to friends ;)

Q: EpicForce's first iPhone game, ChocChocPop, was very well received, with top positions at the store and award nominations. In business terms, how successful was ChocChocPop?

I would say ChocChocPop was doing just OK. It generated just enough income for us to survive in the past few months for the development of iFighter.

Q: In the sense of a technical "post mortem", what was the major learning experience with ChocChocPop?

It was during the development of ChocChocPop that we put together our programming framework which was based on OpenGL ES. The major advantage of our framework was that it's kind of cross platform. We can make a Windows build from the same source and give it to people who have no iPhone to play-test the game, but of course they can't experience the accelerometer control ;)

And now we built iFighter on top of that framework.

Q: You must be very proud of iFighter. Congratulations on the million downloads of the Lite version. Where did the idea for iFighter come from? Why did you want to develop a WWII-themed shooter for the iPhone?

Thank you! We all like to play old school shoot'em ups and we thought it'd be nice to make one for the iPhone. My partner is the artist + game designer and he came up with the idea of WWII theme, which was similar to the background of the classic 1942.

Q: Roughly, how big is the iFighter project when you add up programming, art, testing, etc?

We have spent almost 6 months on it, 1 artist, 1 full-time programmer + 1 part-time programmer. Since we're not working in the same office, we wasted some time with bad communication. If we were in one office, we would have done it in 4 months.

Q: Every review (including ours) praises the use of the accelerator in the game. Did you develop any special sensor-related routines or algorithms?

We don't have any special algorithms. Maybe it's just the fine tuning magic numbers that we put in that make it works well.

Q: Do you have any tips or tricks to share with iFighter players out there trying to beat their own best scores?

I personally prefer to use the accelerometer control with finger tapping to make it firing a little faster than the default auto-firing rate.

Q: Both ChocChocPop and iFighter Lite have a very polished look and feel to it. This is expected from the big companies, but not frequent in smaller companies. How do you explain the level of quality in your games? What would be your advice for others trying to accomplish the same?

Yes, our goal is to make the best quality games as best we can. Our artist is a perfectionist and we love to pay attention to the details. I've learned the magic word from my 4 years+ experience at Firemint: "polish!" This is what you need to make your games stand out from others.

Q: After writing ChocChocPop and iFighter, if you could ask Apple to improve one thing in the SDK, hardware, store, or other, what would it be?

The SDK is great, especially the upcoming 3.0, lots of promising new features.

As far as the App Store goes, there is just too much stuff out there. I think Apple needs to have some sort of filtering system to get this situation under control. People can just write a 'Hello World' app and sell it for $0.99.

Q: Have you started planning your next iPhone title? Can you tell us what gaming genre it will be or reveal anything else?

Yes, we have a few ideas floating around and we haven't decided exactly what will be the next one yet. And also, since we are getting some extra people next month, we may have more than one project going at the same time. Personally, I'd like to make another action title myself.

Thank you very much, Mr. James Hui. We look forward to the new missions in the full version of iFighter!

The latest games on my iPod Touch

Every day new games arrive at the App Store. Here I review the latest ones I have downloaded to my iPod: Zen Bound Lite, Edge Lite, Wolfenstein 3D, and iFighter Lite.

I picked these to download because of the good reviews they are getting. However, as you will see below, I didn't like them all equally.

(As the name "Lite" indicates, I tried the free versions when available. This doesn't affect my reviews because I am not commenting on length of game, or variety of maps, or progressively increasing levels of complexity, or anything like that.)

Zen Bound Lite

Putting rope around this carved dog, I feel myself enlightened already...

I like original games, but this one is just silly. The objective of the game is to wrap objects with rope... I don't know why some people love this game so much. I do like the name "Zen Bound", though.

Edge Lite

I'm currently stuck on this spot...

Like Zen Bound, this is also one of those games that exploits the visceral experience of direct manipulation of a virtual world (through touch or through balance). Playing this simple game with keys, mouse, or gamepad wouldn't be half as fun.

The objective of this game is to make a cube tumble along a series of geometric and animated obstacles.

It takes a little bit to get used to cube-physics, but, once you get the mechanics of the movement figured out, you can appreciate how rich and varied the maps are. This game has that "let's try it again" quality that you see in classics like Tetris or Pac-Man. Speaking of classics...

Wolfenstein 3D

"Pressing" those touch buttons on the lower corners is cumbersome.

I was able to grab a couple of screen shots before getting too low on health.

When I saw this game announced (thanks, Pedro!), I knew I had to buy it and try it. Who can forget?... It was 1992, games were being release for MS-DOS, and not all PC's had a sound card...

Unfortunately, nostalgia is the main selling point in this iPod Touch port of the game. Even though there are many possible configurations for the controls, mixing the inertia sensors and touch sensors in various way, it never really stops feeling awkward. To play a first person shooter, nothing beats a mouse.

Still, if you want to relive the first moment you got surprised by a digital attack dog coming out of nowhere and jumping at you, you really can't go wrong here.

iFighter Lite

Pressing the "bomb" button brings in the big plane (B-17?) on the left.

This unpretentious game gets everything right: it's smooth, looks great, it's easy to control, and it provides immediate gratification.

iFighter is a conventional vertical shooter reminiscent of so many arcade games of the '80s. From your top-down perspective, you move your fighter plane left, right, up, and down, shoot other planes and ground-based forces, call in a bomber to wipe out many targets at once, all while the ground scrolls down under you.

Everything is very polished: control, graphics, sound, animations, interface, etc. It is one demo that will make you want to buy the full game.

Any other games I should try on my iPod?