Interviews

FDG talks Bobby Carrot iPhone, the joy of the App Store and future projects

Executive producer Thomas Kern spills the beans

FDG talks Bobby Carrot iPhone, the joy of the App Store and future projects

With mobile phone gaming mascots worryingly thin on the ground, FDG Entertainment’s Bobby Carrot has become something of an unlikely icon amongst telephonic button-bashers.

The games in which this charismatic buck-toothed hero stars have racked up over one million downloads and garnered all manner of awards and accolades over the years, and the fifth game in the franchise - whimsically entitled Bobby Carrot Forever - is about to make the bunny-hop from mobile phone (where it's known as Bobby Carrot 5: Bobby Forever) to Apple’s iPhone.

The enhanced conversion (we've already had a glimpse at Bobby Carrot Forever on iPhone) was originally due to hit the App Store back in November but German developer FDG announced last month that it would be holding back the publication in order to fine-tune the game.

In the meantime, we decided to get in touch with FDG executive producer Thomas Kern and ask him about the development of this highly anticipated remake.

Pocket Gamer: What attracted you to developing on the iPhone and why did you decide to revisit Bobby Carrot Forever instead of creating an entirely new game?

Thomas Kern: To be honest, we have been quite surprised by the impact of the iPhone and iPod touch on the portable gaming world. We have been developing J2ME games for seven years now and had to face annoying issues such as fragmented distribution channels, never-ending device lists and huge barriers between developer and customer facing operator portals.

Last but not least, the low revenue share sucks. All of a sudden, Apple – a completely new player –enters the market and shows with the App Store how it’s done!

Since Bobby Carrot is our most successful franchise, we decided to port the final chapter of the game series to the iPhone. A new instalment was never planned because to continue surviving in the mobile J2ME market, it’s necessary to do smaller projects.

We started to work on the iPhone version and soon realized how much power the device has. Since we’re all gamers at heart here at FDG, we couldn’t just do a normal port and decided to go over the concept again to enhance it with all the things we and Bobby fans would surely love to see.

How does this version of Bobby Carrot Forever improve over the mobile phone original?

First of all, many people liked the MIDI musical score of Bobby Carrot Forever on mobile phones, so the first act had to be to create a rearranged version of the soundtrack. This time we could go digital so I enhanced the MIDI score to make it an even greater experience. Then I went to Florian (the graphic artist) and had a discussion about what we can do in a reasonable amount of time to enhance the visuals of the game.

It’s worth noting that the puzzles in Bobby Carrot are very complicated, as they are not just the usual puzzle stages with just a few diamonds, blocks or coloured balls. The game was always about an adventure-like experience and if we were to change the graphic details and tile set, all of the levels would require a rework to include any new graphic tiles we added.

We decided to do everything possible and even add more levels. You can expect a bigger tile set incorporating a higher level of detail, new graphics, new animations, cut-scenes, a little story mode, new ending scenario, extra artworks, 15-plus hours of fun and a brand new 'zoom view' mode. Viewing an entire level in Bobby Carrot was always a problem on small phone displays. You had to change to camera mode and scroll around to see all the elements and decide which path to go. With the iPhone version, you just touch the middle of the screen and the real-time zoom-out function shows you everything you need to see.

Last but not least: the sound effects. J2ME games have limitations on mixing music and sound effects, and there’s also the problem of file size. So I went to Philipp (our sound expert) and he created a lot of amusing sound effects for the game. These really enhance the experience and all in all Bobby Carrot on iPhone feels like a real portable console game as a result.

How will the game be controlled?

You touch the borders of the screen to move Bobby in the desired direction. Zoom mode is just a touch into the middle of the screen, and if you want to enter the game menu you simply have to hold the device in portrait mode.

Additionally, if you want to move Bobby up/down, you can use the upper left/right and lower left/right edges of the screen. We are very happy with the result and are looking forward to hearing what players think about the touch-controls.

Do you think the lack of buttons on the iPhone makes its harder to port ‘traditional’ games to the machine?

It’s definitely a challenge if all you wish to do is port existing games. But this is what creating games has always been about; it’s only when developers face challenges that new kinds of games appear on the market with fresh ideas. We like Apple´s approach, and in my opinion, people should forget all those iPhone external controller ideas – we don´t need them. If I want to play a controller-based game I can still switch to my home console or DS or PSP.

The game was originally scheduled for release in November - can you tell us why the release was put back?

To be honest we underestimated the amount of additional work. On top of that, we made two mistakes in the early development. We didn’t use OpenGL from the beginning so we ran into performance issues when we included all animations and the zoom mode.

Then we had internal timing issues when the iPod touch 2nd generation hit the market. It has a faster CPU and we needed to change the code to stay compatible and run at the same speed as iPod touch 1st generation and iPhone. Luckily we purchased all devices early and found that out very soon.

When can we expect the game to appear on the App Store?

We are at 95 per cent now and just started to fine tune the game. We hope to release it in December but obviously we do not want to put it on the market in an unfinished state. We will give the game the time it needs to be perfect and hopefully this will ensure our customers enjoy it more.

The Bobby Carrot series has sold more than one million copies since the first title was released. Why do you think the franchise has been so successful?

We had the opportunity to sign a pre-install deal with Samsung, so the first game in the series has been played by many people worldwide. It’s so easy to pick up and understand and the adventure-like 'puzzle-without-time-pressure' approach proved to be very successful.

You cannot really enjoy action games on a phone due to control issues – except you are very resistant to frustration. So many 'normal' gamers found this to be the perfect alternative for fun on the run. The cute main character also soon became a hero and we received lots of very encouraging customer feedback. From the day we had it pre-installed, people asked for more and so we made a sequel, then another, and so on.

Even though our distribution channels are limited in the J2ME market due to the aforementioned problems, we managed to sell many copies in Europe. Unfortunately, American operators refused the game, but we’re launching it in Japan soon. Americans will get its chance to join in the fun with this iPhone version, obviously.

Do you have any other iPhone projects in development?

Yes, definitely. Of course we need to see how well Bobby Carrot does first, but we expect it to be a great market for FDG. We’re planning to release a low-priced classic series of our mobile games which will be ports of our most successful game titles, including Bobby Carrot 1-4. We are also planning more enhanced versions of other successful games like Mr Mahjong and of course we plan to create original games to even better utilize the iPhone’s capabilities.

Will Bobby Carrot be starring in any future adventures?

Yes! There will be a Bobby Carrot 6. We have some really cool ideas for the next part. Meanwhile it might be interesting to know that Florian (the graphic artist) and Oliver (level designer) have created Bobby Carrot Forever levels for every day of 2008 and this has resulted in a library of more than 400 high-quality levels. These have been designed to be used in a level-download subscription for J2ME users, but we are ready to port them to the iPhone and deliver even more rabbit-fun throughout the coming year if the demand is there. We are talking about more than 100 hours of additional entertainment.

Looking ahead, what does the future hold for FDG Entertainment?

Well for us, the new era of downloadable games development starts with the iPhone, but we’re also looking into services like WiiWare, XBLA, DSiWare and PSP Downloads. These portals make the fog around the market disappear and make our minds clear again for fresh ideas; now we have more motivation than ever!

Our thanks to Thomas for his time.
Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.