Fieldrunners was a walk in the park to convert to PSP
Walk in the park. See what I did there?
Subatomic Studios's iPhone mega-hit Fieldrunners is a great candidate for both the developer and for pocket gamers to get a handle on Sony's new range of budget games, the PSP Minis.
Fraser took a look at the PSP adaptation of Fieldrunners at this year's GamesCom, and he was suitably impressed by the quality of the conversion.
"Fieldrunners was always a thoroughly well turned out effort, but the PSP version pushes every element of the visual presentation into the premium realm," he explained from the show floor.
"From the particle effects that shower the ballistics to the death animations of the Fieldrunners to the high-definition detail of the backgrounds - every pixel sings from the PSP's screen, making this anything but a slapdash port."
Although it's clear Subatomic Studios has put some sincere effort into the PSP port, Develop reports that the game creator has revealed the process was remarkably easy. Whether this is simply due to a the way the iPhone game was written, or an underlying compatibility between the two platforms, is hard to say.
But if Subatomic Studios's story is anything to go by, Sony might well find itself the recipient of a lot more iPhone developer's affections.
That doesn't mean the Fieldrunners developer has forsaken Apple's platform. The two additional PSP levels (Frostbite and Skyway) will be heading back in the opposite direction, to be released as paid add-ons for the iPhone.
The only question now is whether this could signal the beginning of a new trend: Paid updates for the iPhone? More news as we get it.