The Eclipse Interactive journey: From Rock(pool) bottom to the App Store - Part 2

In part one of our exclusive developer interview with Manchester-based Eclipse Interactive we learned a little about how the company was founded, the background of founders Nic Garner and Les Ellis and what games the team had worked on previously.

In this second part, we cover future projects and ask what Eclipse’s dynamic duo really think about Apple’s insanely popular iPhone, as well as the chances of rival formats Android and N-Gage.

Nic Garner: I don’t feel that it’s particularly appropriate to compare it with dedicated handheld consoles. We need to remember that iPhone is, first and foremost, a mobile phone.

That said, given the drawbacks of its natural state of compromise it measures up rather well. More appropriately, in the context of mobile phones, it finally manages to fulfil the promise mobile phone gaming made when J2ME first emerged on handsets.

Les Ellis: While I’ve no doubt that Sony and Nintendo are keeping an eye on the iPhone market I don’t think it’s really a direct rival… yet. But as it evolves it will be.

The DS and PSP are more suited to prolonged use and have the slight advantage of decent controllers built in, but while those systems are established they lack the 'Shit, that’s cool' factor that the iPhone seems to get every month when something new and ultra cool is released.

People don’t take risks on DS and PSP. Stuff like Airport Mania or Flight Control probably would never have seen the light of day or been anywhere near as popular if it wasn’t for iPhone.

Being able to avoid risk-adverse publishers and the prohibitive cost-to-market of DS and PSP means that people will really push creative boundaries. Something Sony and Nintendo, and I guess to some extent Microsoft whenever they have a crack at this market, need to look at more.

NG: Yes, it’s difficult to get your product noticed if your preference is to remain inert, but, let’s face it, the App Store is simply that, a store and such criticisms are wholly inappropriate. If you just stick your lovely product on the shelf of a real-world store it won’t get noticed by many people and it’s unlikely to sell many units as a result.

In this sense, it’s no good just moaning about the poor visibility and slagging off the store owner, because it’s unreasonable to expect the store owner to do anything more than provide a good point of purchase, good public access, and the occasional favourable mention if it’s in the store owner’s best interests.

That’s all you’re paying him for and as long as those aspects are met satisfactorily there are no grounds on which to moan.

Beyond setting out the stall and presenting the goods well, it’s not the store owner’s responsibility to enthuse the buying population for specific products. That’s squarely the responsibility of the developer and/or publisher.

Of course, once you’ve lifted your product in the general consciousness it’s not unreasonable to expect the store owner to feature it amongst the other best sellers, but that’s exactly what happens already. To my mind, Apple has got it absolutely right.

LE: You wouldn’t expect to get standalone shelves at GAME or HMV if you didn’t have a great game and some kind of marketing push behind it. It isn’t the traditional kind of marketing that pushes iPhone games, but if you are smart and proactive about it then it can be done with surprising results. The downside to this is that some smaller developers are 'gaming' the App Store which is something that does need looking at.

More than ever, the gap between the top titles and those at the bottom is getting bigger by the day. Whether this leads to a reduction in the amount of throwaway back bedroom titles being dumped on the store remains to be seen, but games are going to have to be better and more innovative than ever to stand out on their own merit.

NG: We are, yes. In itself 3.0 and its inherent development opportunities is exciting enough, but couple this with the projects we are undertaking for Darkside Entertainment, a small UK based publisher we’re currently building a relationship with, and it all starts to look really exciting.

The thing that’s really tickling our fancy right now is the DLC aspect. Not only will this potentially expand a product’s revenue generating proposition, but it will also (importantly) expand a product’s creative proposition. This will open the door to an endless number of fun possibilities.

LE: The business side loves the DLC and the longevity that it gives games is certainly appealing. The push functionality has led to us being able to bring some incredible new features to a couple of games that we believe haven’t been done before. Darkside loved the ideas and are keen on getting as much 3.0 functionality into its games as possible.

NG: To my mind, N-Gage always was, and will remain, the red-headed stepchild of the mobile industry: it always promised great things, consistently disappointed, and is now reduced to little more than an annoying problem that unfortunately becomes your annoying problem occasionally.

It’s a shame really because Nokia could have led the way with it, in the same way that Apple is doing now with iPhone, years ago. But what can you expect - corporate hubris is a cruel mistress.

Android, on the other hand, is a different affair altogether. It’s interesting and we’d love to get something over to it, but it’s Java based and that pisses me off.

LE: If Nokia had supported N-Gage and the development community properly instead of just lurching from one nightmare to the next then it would be a great format to make money from. Right now, unless you’re EA or Gameloft, it’s just more pain than it’s worth.

Android is still in its early days so it’s easier to stand out on their Marketplace to attract people. With so few games and a decent number of handsets sold, you should sell more. If they start to reach Apple numbers in terms of handsets and Apps on store then it could become a different story as the Android system just isn’t as easy as Apple’s.

NG: I hope so, but in terms of mobile phones, I doubt it. It’ll always be Dr Pepper to Apple’s Coke.

LE: I don’t think Android’s future is necessarily dependent entirely around mobile phones. When more household items start using this tech, like landline phones, set top boxes - hell, maybe even your microwave and central heating - then it will start to grow faster.

N-Gage has had a pretty rough ride of late. Do you think it has much of a future?

NG: Frankly, no - but I genuinely hope it manages to find its reason to be because I take no joy in seeing entities with promise fail.

LE: Nokia has to take a close look at themselves and how they operate because there are issues there that show they are further behind the likes of Apple than they think.

It’s been shown by the likes of Scott Foe’s Reset Generation that they can do good stuff, but to date the N-Gage and Nokia experiences we have had have been the most painful a games developer could go through.

NG: We’re currently in the planning stages of six new Darkside Entertainment projects. The first is a very down-to-earth and eminently playable community online game that we believe will appeal to core and casual gamers equally.

It’s been in development since April and is scheduled for launch at the end of June. Unfortunately, we can’t say too much about it at the moment but we will be able to give Pocket Gamer a preview when it goes Beta in the next few weeks.

This will be followed quite quickly with a simple but challenging shooter. All I can tell you about the other projects is that one’s a puzzle game, one’s a racing game, one’s a trading game, and one’s a side-scrolling platform RPG.

LE: Work continues on the Vir2L games announced at E3. The community based online game for Darkside Entertainment is starting to come together very nicely and is hopefully going to push online gaming on the iPhone.

Even Apple is excited by that one. The shooter is in the same vein as the likes of Flight Control and those simple single-screen but addictive games.

LE: We have a mix of propriety and third-party engines available to make sure we have the best tools available for each project. One of those for example allows us to create massive open 3D world environments using tens of thousands of polygons.

NG: If any tech we develop shows promise in this respect we will make it available to the development community.

LE: If it’s good enough and they want it we’d make our tools available.

NG: We’re always considering these avenues, of course. Getting round to exploring them in earnest is a different matter completely. Our hope is that the release of the first Darkside Entertainment project brings success enough to justify moving the property onto these platforms.

LE: We are constantly looking at opportunities to step into these other areas of development. The time is getting closer where we are in a position to include games on these formats in our portfolio. We have the ideas already, so it’s just a case of making the jump when the time is right.

NG: We have never asked for, or expected, favours from anyone and we’re prepared to succeed or fail by our own hand. Additionally, Eclipse is unique because of the talented, creative, diligent, knowledgeable, and mostly willing guys and gals we have working here.

LE: Certainly not being reliant on banks, debt or investors has put us in an interesting position. We have some great and creative people here who can produce wonderful innovative games. If that’s a unique position I’d be proud of it.

NG: Just about to lead my first group of customers on the first tour offered by my successful new motorcycle touring company.

LE: Cutting the brake lines on Nic’s bike.