Demonstrating, once again, how the iPhone has opened up opportunities for creatives from different industries, is the example of Ashraf Meer.

Coming from a background TV commercials, he's set up a studio in New York, called Cashmeer, to fulfil a longterm idea he's had about a game where the music you play creates the 3D environment.

Let's find out more...

Pocket Gamer: Why did you decide to start a iPhone company?

Ashraf Meer: I'd been trying to pin down this idea of music you can move through into a tangible form for over five years. I started out trying to make an iPod game, then an iTunes visualiser, but having no programming background, I found it difficult to find programmers who could work with the budget I had (basically zero).

In 2006, a friend of mine knew a developer who worked in Australia on mobile games, so we started a company, pooled our resources, and tried to get the concept to work on a Nokia N95. We got very close, but ran out of money, and cracks started to appear in our friendship, so I had to dissolve the company.

Then the iPhone SDK came out, and I got very excited by the speed and low cost of developing for the platform. But the SDK didn't offer access to the user's music library, which was key to our concept. When the 3.0 SDK was announced with access to the library, I felt the stars had lined up in my favour. I got a small investment from an entrepreneur, and found a developer who knew how to make games and plowed ahead.

What are you links with Indian developer Mobiledevz?

I actually tracked down Suneet Mausil, one of the principles of Mobiledevz through LinkedIn. I needed to find someone who could code for the iPhone, but also who had deeper C++ skills and an understanding of what makes a great game. When the author of ‘Game Programming In C/C++ A Beginner's Guide’, contacted me I couldn't resist.

We made contact and he was able to work with my schedule and budget. On The Well, MobileDevz were strictly contractors, however since then, I've been to Bangalore and met Suneet in person and on future games, including our next one, Eat Right (working title), MobileDevz will be a partner and share in revenue.

The audio decoding that happens in The Well is unique, and Suneet did an incredible job cracking it. This game couldn't exist without his talents.

Where did you get the idea for The Well from?

I was driving home from my parents house in DC to New York late, late at night. I had a Zero 7 track playing and I was in that sort of zen state you get in on long boring highways. I started to think how great it would be to get inside the music.

A few weeks later at work, at Imaginary Forces, a design company, I worked on a pitch for a car spot in which they wanted to incorporate an iTunes visualiser into the music. Instead of using the visualiser as a texture or background, I thought, why not have the car actually driving through the visualiser in 3D.

The clients were underwhelmed (though they did recycle the idea in a recent spot), but I was hooked. I spent the next five years trying to think of how to make that happen. Games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero were already out there, but I felt that they were more about playing the game, than about feeling the music. For me, as a former raver (I once worked for DJ Josh Wink), it was that kind of experience I was going for.

Can you explain in a bit more detail how it works - how your music is turned into a 3D environment?

I wish I could, but the code and algorithms are not my area, and my patent lawyer probably wouldn't let me anyways. However, I will say the basis of the idea is similar to how a graphic equaliser works. I promise to get back to you with this as soon as we launch.

What do different types of music look like?

Obviously the rhythm of a track will vary the landscape considerably. So a faster track will create more opportunities for collisions and will be more challenging.

But I didn't want the game aspects to conflict with the player's enjoyment and immersion in the music, so a mellow track should feel mellow but can still be as much fun as harder one. What will be great about The Well is that the look of it will be controlled by the player.

It's the simplest sort of 3D, just primitive cubes, but the colour, speed, scale and direction of those cubes can all be controlled. I hope users will make suggestions for features and changes that will make the experience more and more personal with each update.

Can you explain about the patent you've filed?

Our patent covers the basic principle of the game: creating a 3D environment from musical data. I can't go into it more than that until I get that official patent pending authorisation. The patented technology facilitates not only The Well but also several other concepts we hope to develop. I know a lot of iPhone developers don't bother with patents, but for us, we were so proud when we cracked this that we wanted to protect our work.

Hopefully, having the patent will also help us to build value for our company and brand.

When do you expect to have it finished?

We had the game running as a prototype in August, but I want the game to be as flawless as possible, even if that makes it more minimal, so we are finessing the code.

I expect to have a beta by the end of this month, then do a few weeks of testing and submit it in October. I want this game to work for the players they way they want it to work, but until we had our protection in place, I couldn't talk about it, so I see the release as the real beginning of the development of this game.

I’m really excited to finally be able to show it to gamers and music lovers and get their feedback on what features and functionality they want to have.

Thanks to Ash for his time.

You can keep up to date with developments on The Well via its website.

Or if you would like to be a beta tester for The Well, contact Ash at ash [at] cashmeermedia [dot] com.