Insurgent Games on virals, Attack of the Memes, and Android's potential

As iPhone gaming titles goes, we're impressed with teh internets - Attack of the Memes.

But what of the minds behind the title?

We caught up with Insurgent Games Micah Lee to find out if he was mad, crazy, or just looking to talk to the right journalist.

Micah Lee: While going viral is definitely nice, I have no idea of how to make it happen. It just sort of happens on its own. So, of course, I would love it if this game became wildly popular, but I just thought it would be funny, and I had a blast working on it.

So, in case it doesn't end up getting massive sales because it's about lolcats, I made sure it had actual fun and addictive gameplay too.

The controls are very simple (use the D-pad with your left thumb, tap trolls with your right thumb), and game lasts anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes most of the time. So I think that it's a perfect fit for the platform. But there's definitely some old skool components: the dial-up modem sound, and some of the memes come from the year 2000.

I was seriously considering adding some elements of BBS culture in there too, and poking fun at Geocities and AOL, but I wanted to make sure the average younger player got at least most of the jokes.

I think iPhone developers should get paid for their work, and the 99c Race to the Bottom isn't good for anyone in the long run. If there's an iPhone game you want, it doesn't make much of a difference if it's $1 or $2, you're gonna buy it.

If you don't particularly want it though, and are on the fence, $1 really helps the purchase. I'm hoping that since this is a quality game and doesn't just rely on buzzwords to give it value (though they help), people will want to buy it.

Also, looking at the top 25 games, only about half of them are 99c. I think that it's a myth that you need to price a game at 99c to become popular. Canabalt has had wild success, and it's been $2.99 since it was released.

About 2 months, working part time on it. I still have a day job.

I definitely wanted a social aspect to the game, and the existing social gaming networks have some perks compared to rolling my own global leaderboards, such as being able to easily compare scores with friends. It ended up being a decision between OpenFeint and Agon.

OpenFeint won out in the end because I asked people in iPhone gamer forums which they preferred, and everyone seemed to love OpenFeint the most. Plus, I'm a fan of open source software, so I'm happy to be supporting them.

Right now, we're solely working on smaller, fun projects. They're more fun to make and risk less, and in my opinion are a better fit for the iPhone. For me, when I play more serious video games, I prefer to be sitting in front of my 23" monitor and using a real mouse.

Not to say that there aren't good, larger, serious, iPhone games, but I think it would be very hard to pull off until I have a really good idea for one.

We haven't released any Android games yet. I'm actively learning how to program for it though and working on some test projects. I think it's definitely a viable platform for small developers.

The operating system is powerful, there are considerably less restrictions than working for the App Store, and now with the Motorola Droid and other new Android phones coming out, the hardware is up there with the iPhone.

The one thing it lacks is good game development frameworks, forcing you to re-invent the wheel with each new project until someone releases a good one. The iPhone has plenty of tools that make game development a whole lot easier, such as cocos2d, Unity3D, and soon even Adobe Flash CS5. There's nothing like that for Android yet, and that's the biggest hurdle.

You can check out a video of teh internets - Attack of the Memes here, or priced $1.99, €1.59 or £1.19, head to the App Store by hitting the button.