Interview

Double Fine's Kee Chi talks App Store submission slip ups, impromptu beta tests and the studio's mobile future

'My first time through the submission process'

Double Fine's Kee Chi talks App Store submission slip ups, impromptu beta tests and the studio's mobile future
Double Fine's first mobile game – an iOS superhero management sim called Middle Manager of Justice – launched onto the App Store last week, and eager gamers downloaded the title in their droves.

There was one small problem, though. The game was unfinished, and had been made available for sale by mistake.

Double Fine quickly pulled the app, and has since been soliciting feedback from early players in a sort of impromptu beta test.

To find out exactly how this mistake happened, and whether Double Fine's players make good QA testers, we spoke to Middle Manager of Justice project lead Kee Chi about App Store submission, genre revivals and the studio's mobile future.

Pocket Gamer: So, how exactly did Middle Manager of Justice hit the App Store early?

Kee Chi: Ah yes, what happened that Wednesday. So, this is what happened.

When we created the app in the App Store, we set the release date to be in September. However, we had to extend the time of development, pushing out the release further than we initially estimated.

When we had made this decision, I forgot to update the release date on iTunes Connect. I uploaded the binary and didn't realise that when the app's status was 'Ready to Sell', that it was actually live.

I got quite a shock the next day when our tech director informed me that the game was live, everywhere. At that point my heart was beating out of my chest on the train – I'm sure other passengers were very disturbed.

We weren't ready to ship that version because we had found more issues post submission, and had planned on submitting again, but didn't want to revoke the binary in case there were other issues brought up by the submission process.

This was my first time through the submission process so I wanted to see it through to approval. So yeah, be careful about that release date.

Have you received much useful feedback from the players who got their hands on Middle Manager of Justice early?

Yes, I was very surprised by how many players downloaded the game in the short time that it was out there.

I didn't want the players to see the game in its premature state, however, the game was already out there, so we decided to make the best of the situation by getting feedback from the players.

We have definitely gotten a lot of useful feedback, and some of it echoed what we had planned on doing which was nice, but there were some good ideas out there that we didn't think of before!

Even after we go live in all territories, we hope to get more player feedback and make the game better with the community.

Do you think that this slip-up will be a good or bad thing for Middle Manager of Justice overall? It's sure to have created at least some confusion among your audience, after all.

Well, hopefully it's a good thing!

By the end of all this, the game is going to be better than before, so that's a good thing. At least that's what I'll keep telling Tim [Schafer, Double Fine founder].

Double Fine has been a PC and console developer since its inception. Why step into mobile gaming now?

We are playing a lot of games on our mobile devices and see so many fun games on it! And I think Middle Manager of Justice fits the device really well.



You can rescue citizens from thugs while waiting at the train station, queue up training a new ability while standing in line for lunch, or defeat evil villains while on the toilet.

Oh wait, guys, don't do that last one. Or at least wash your screens after you do that. Ew.

Middle Manager of Justice also marks Double Fine's first experience with the freemium business model. What's your take on the general state of mobile monetisation mechanics?

I think mobile monetisation is really evolving. More and more free games are allowing the players to play the game as much as they want and use IAPs to enhance the experience while keeping the free experience fun.

And that's what we've really tried to do with the IAP mechanics for Middle Manager of Justice.

We wanted to make sure that the game is fun for all players!

Since 2011, Double Fine has shied away from big budget console releases, and concentrated on crafting smaller experiences for XBLA and PSN. What motivated that decision, and what are the benefits of working on these smaller projects?

Well, Tim has always wanted the company to be a multi-project studio. And when Brutal Legend 2 was cancelled, it hastened that approach.

We already had several awesome game ideas from 'Amnesia Fortnight', where the company breaks up into small teams to create prototypes for games in two weeks. From that came Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade, and Once Upon a Monster.

I've worked on Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, and while I love those games, they were in development for many years. Having our ideas be out in front of gamers in a much shorter span is tremendously rewarding creatively, and it also allows us to be more experimental.
Middle Manager of Justice was developed in about 7 months with a very small team. We're really excited for it to be in front of gamers everywhere, when we actually mean to release it.
Double Fine Adventure is bound for release on iOS and Android, as well as other platforms. Do you think the prevalence of touchscreen devices could lead to a revival of the genre?

I certainly hope so! I'm a huge adventure game fan! My favourite game of all time is Monkey Island (so you can imagine how exciting it is for me to work with Tim and Ron Gilbert).

I think that touch devices work great for point and click adventures and all the mobile devices out there brings a whole new audience of gamers that maybe haven't been exposed to adventure games before.

I really feel that adventure games appeal to all types of gamers – everyone loves good storytelling and puzzles, right? I've converted many non gamer friends to adventure gamers with Curse of Monkey Island.

Is Double Fine a mobile studio now? Can we expect more mobile games from Double Fine?

Double Fine isn't going to be an exclusively mobile studio. But we are definitely excited to be working on games on mobile devices as well as consoles and PC!

And there's definitely more things coming from our mobile division. Really awesome stuff!
Thanks to Kee for his time.
Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013