In January 2011, Matt Cavanagh was working as a lead designer at Bizarre Creations, the Liverpool-based studio behind the Project Gotham and Geometry Wars series.

Cavanagh had managed more than a decade-long run at the developer, but when Activision closed Bizarre the following month, he made the move to mobile, founding Totem Games a few months later.

The transition has been harder than he expected, however.

Cavanagh was dismayed to see his first game – retro shooter SpaceOff – launch to warm praise and poor sales. He believes the game's challenging difficulty level alienated iOS gamers, suggesting SpaceOff was "too much a gamer's game."

To find out more about what he learned from his first mobile move, we caught up with Cavanagh and asked for his views on the iOS audience, business models and the leap from console to mobile design.

Pocket Gamer: Why do you think that SpaceOff failed to attract a larger audience?

Matt Cavanagh: I was quite surprised that there has been so little take up for SpaceOff when our feedback has been so positive. It is a very simple game to play and is as challenging as your opponent makes it.

Single player is pretty tough, however. As an arcade game I believe that's how it should be. It's all about challenge.

I think creatively the game has been a success. I'm happy with the review scores the game has received and with the feedback from the public. Commercially however, we've found it difficult to get SpaceOff noticed in the crowded iOS space.

How would you describe the typical iOS gamer, and how do their gaming expectations differ from console players?

The best and most popular iOS games are all quick fixes.

It makes sense to be honest – if I want to commit an hour or more to playing a game there are platforms better suited to this than my phone.

iOS games are about killing some time.

What sort of marketing support did SpaceOff launch with, and what business model did you adopt for the title?

We made a very conscious decision to self-publish a paid-for app. We knew it would not be easy but really wanted to learn about the process so that we would be in a stronger position for future titles.

We were pretty naïve about how many people we would be able to reach with a minimal budget, though.

Pre-release, we visited colleges and shows to raise the profile locally and to observe how people interacted with the game – this helped us to tailor our marketing message.

At release we made videos, spoke to journalists, got reviewed and used social media to the best of our ability.

But, looking back, I think the only people that we reached were other people in the games industry and the small percentage of iOS gamers that actually read reviews.

To self publish effectively we should have started marketing much earlier in development and allowed much more time around launch. It is a massive task.

When it comes to developing your next game, what might you do differently?
SpaceOff is still a current project and will keep appearing in different formats and for different devices, but we're also working on a title called Free Quiz.

This is obviously very different in many ways. First of all, as the name suggests, it's designed around a free model rather than paid.

Secondly, the name Free Quiz is much more likely to be found with an App Store search than SpaceOff. The importance of this for app discovery is something that we have learned the hard way.

Furthermore, quizzes are already a very popular game type on the App Store. The two player aspect and gameplay of SpaceOff meant that it was unique on the store, which was pretty risky for a first project.

In the long term I would love to make a free RPG title and am hoping to start this after Free Quiz.

What advice would you give anyone about to make the leap from console to mobile development?

I loved working for Bizarre Creations and there's a lot to be said for working for a big company: regular income, paid holiday, community and the esteem of working on big titles.

It is not an easy decision to give this up and start from scratch, but for me (and my family) it has been the right decision. We're in it for the long haul.

If you decide to go for it, try to keep your overheads as low as possible. We would not have survived if I had paid for office space, salaries or for game content (music, art, coding etc.) to be created externally.

Do consider fitting contract work in too as it helps to pay the bills in the short term.

Strongly consider designing your game around a free-to-play model. The vast majority of people do not pay for their apps, so it is wise to consider 'going free' if you want to reach them.

Do not underestimate the time required for the marketing of your app and start this as soon as you start development with social media, blogs etc.

When making console games the product is often kept secret until the game is nearly complete. This does not work for mobile as you need to build your audience in advance, especially if you are marketing on a budget. We still really struggle with this.
Thanks to Matt for his time.