Build it and they will play: The making of Fieldrunners

Fieldrunners is as big a license in casual gaming as has emerged over the past 12 months.

Bringing together a tightly orchestrated tower defence experience with eye-catching and iconic characters, developer Sub Atomic has a hit on its hands which is currently enjoying success on the iPhone and PSP Minis, and with a DSiWare version set to arrive before long too.

But what of its humble beginnings and the ambitions that realised the potential of the App Store early on?

We caught up with the company behind one of the App Store’s most enduring success stories to find out more.

Pocket Gamer: Can you explain a bit about yourself and your career prior to Subatomic Studios?

Jamie Gotch and Sergei Gourski began their careers working at Stainless Steel Studios, a Boston-based studio founded by Rick Goodman.

Stainless Steel Studios was a company that focused on real-time strategy games and is best known for creating the Empire Earth series. While at Stainless Steel Studios, we gained valuable experience working on multiple real-time strategy titles.

It wasn't a long stretch to translate our experience in the RTS genre into Fieldrunners.

Were you daunted by the task of making a tower defense game work on the iPhone?

Fieldrunners originally started out as a Xbox Live Arcade title. We had gone so far as to create a functional prototype with some of the towers and units that now exist in the iPhone version of the game.

However, after Apple's announcement of a completely open distribution channel on the iPhone, we simply could not resist the chance to bypass the daunting concept approval phases imposed by all the other major distribution networks.

How was the process of developing for iPhone?

We knew we could create a very enticing gameplay experience with Fieldrunners and transitioning the controls from a controller to a touchscreen device was simple and straightforward.

Despite some skepticism, and as evidenced by the PSP release of the game, the traditional controller scheme would have been similarly effective. The key difficulty came from not knowing the full capabilities of Apple's wonder phone. Fortunately for us, those capabilities came very close to our expectations.

Transitioning into handheld development meant creating a robust engine that would perform and was the key aspect to our ability of pushing the boundaries of the device.

It took a little over six months to translate most of our 3D assets into this new 2D engine. All through the development process our design was refined to suit the needs of casual, mobile gamers.

The units, towers and waves of enemies had to be meticulously rebalanced by hand in order to provide an addictive gameplay experience that is fun for the casual gamer and challenging for the more experienced audiences.

Was there anything you wanted to add to the game but were unable, due to technical or time constraints?

We knew that as much fun as the game was, our fans deserved more content. The major missing element to the initial release was a complete lack of sound and music.

To remedy this issue, we recruited the aid of industry veteran and an amazingly talented sound designer, Aubrey Hodges. After several iterations, Aubrey was able to create a stunningly memorable soundtrack and a compilation of audio effects that would add a professional level of sound quality to Fieldrunners.

When did you realise you had a hit on your hands?

On the fateful day of September 29th, 2008, we submitted Fieldrunners to Apple. Like most developers after shipping a title, we took a break from the brutal last days of its development.

Only a few days later, we began seeing the buzz being generated around its release. Soon thereafter, we began receiving requests for video footage and more screen shots. Soon after the game broke through the top fifty mark, we knew that it was going to be a success.

Were you surprised by the reaction Fieldrunners received?

From the first moment that it hit the store, our fans demanded more. When people want more, it means you have a good thing. For a long time after Fieldrunners' release, we responded to our fans' requests and delivered numerous updates to bring Fieldrunners into full fruition.

Supporting a title long after it has been released may sound strange and would certainly not work in a traditional distribution setting. However, the idea has long been used to grow and enhance the user experience.

This idea is much evidenced by the success of such titles as World of Warcraft and Pocket God, and dates back to early MMORPGs such as Asheron's Call.

Which aspects of the game are you particularly proud of?

We're especially proud of the visuals, from the personality of the characters to the colourful art style that makes the game attractive to many different audiences.

We're also very proud of its simplistic gameplay. We believe that its success was primarily attributed to these two major factors.

Had you always planned to bring Fieldrunners to other platforms?

Soon after the successful rise of Fieldrunners on the iPhone, we received offers and invitations from publishers to bring the game to other platforms. The offers and proposals exceeded our wildest dreams as mere mortal developers.

However, a degree of suspicion needs to be raised if the offers seem too good. We had entered the world of publisher relations. As developers, we had little experience dealing in business development and negotiations.

Luckily for us, we knew just the right person for the job. Someone who we knew was a phenomenal negotiator with immense knowledge and experience in publisher negotiations.

What was it like to be included in the PSP Minis launch line-up?

In the early months of 2009, Sony has approached us about potentially launching Fieldrunners on their platform.

Shortly after, at GDC 09 in San Francisco, we received awards for Best Mobile Game of 2008 and Achievement in Art. It was at this GDC where we first met a wonderfully spirited Sony representative, John Booth.

John's offer to be a part of Sony's PSP Go Minis release was enticing, and it was his willingness to champion our goals and ideas, making the Minis experience an excellent one.

Can you tell us anything about Subatomic Studios’ future plans beyond Fieldrunners?

Subatomic has some new games in the works, but nothing yet ready to be announced! Stay tuned!

Thanks to the folks at Sub Atomic for their time.

Fieldrunners is available from the App Store [link] priced $2.99, €2.39 or £1.79, and via the PSP Store, priced £3.99.

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And check out our other Making of interviews such as
Doodle Jump
Glyder
Pocket God
Real Racing
Rolando
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
Toy Bot Diaries
Zen Bound