Interview

FIPLAB reveals the joys and trials of debut iPhone game, CopterKid

A Fascinatingly Interesting Proposition

FIPLAB reveals the joys and trials of debut iPhone game, CopterKid
We're always interested to find out how new game teams start. London-based FIPLAB released its first iPhone and iPod touch game, CopterKid, at the end of July.

A good opportunity then to catch up with recent graduates Anirudh Sharma and Rishi Modha and find out their initial thoughts about development, the App Store, and how to promote your game.

Pocket Gamer: How did FIPLAB come about?



Anirudh Sharma: The two of us have known each other since high school.



Growing up, I spent four years in Japan, which really sparked off my love for video games and gaming as a whole. I moved to London in 2001, and then went on to study Mathematics and Economics at the London School of Economics.

Rishi Modha: I was a keen gamer from a young age and always had a strong interest in entrepreneurship and technology.



Aged 14, I founded a successful Xbox website, and subsequently dealt with many of the big names in gaming. However, through FIPLAB, I have been able to experience the other side of the industry.

Neither of us exactly have backgrounds that compliment game development - I studied Business Management at King's College London - but we're quick learners, have a passion for producing highly-polished titles, and are determined to keep building upon our products as per user feedback and suggestions.
The FIPLAB office

Anirudh: Also, the App Store's low barrier to entry makes it possible for small teams to enter the market without a lot of resources and capital. (A little secret: we borrowed an old iPod touch 1st Gen from a friend for development!)

The SDK is well put together and despite the App Store's flaws, it allowed us to take the leap and materialise our ideas into something real.

Why did you choose the name FIPLAB?

Rishi: It stands for Fascinatingly Interesting Proposition. We were finding it hard to get an available domain name, and during a random discussion, an idea by Anirudh was termed to be a Fascinatingly Interesting Proposition. We just ran with that, as the domain was open for purchase and it seemed to be mutually well-liked.

What was the inspiration for CopterKid?



Anirudh: For our first game, we wanted to keep things simple but unique, polished and very slick. We're both immense fans of the original Helicopter online flash game, having competed against each other way back in school.

Naturally, we wanted to create a game that provided a fitting tribute to the original but in our own stylised way. We wanted to bring this classic up-to-date. We felt none of the existing apps did the original justice. The not-so-polished replica apps that did exist on the App Store didn't cut it for us - and we truly wanted to add our unique twist on this ridiculously fun yet simple concept.
CopterKid - the concept

Rishi: Since the iPhone/iPod touch have mass appeal, we wanted to create a game that did too. We think with CopterKid, anyone can enjoy playing it, from kids to adults, males and females. It's a challenge regardless of your age, although younger kids seem to be surprisingly good at it, even on their first go!

How did the development process go?

Rishi: We had to undergo a lot of ups and downs, but eventually made it through. My advice to new developers would be to stick with it. There will be highs and lows, but if you put the effort in and produce a good game, the feeling you get when people enjoy and compliment it makes it all worthwhile.

In terms of development, we did sketches, produced a spec document and I used my contacts to find a great illustrator, Tomas, via another designer we had used for a website project. He's responsible for all the vivid design work you come across in the game.



Anirudh: With regards to coding, we knew exactly what we wanted and we tried to outsource programming via oDesk, but being perfectionists, we couldn't find anyone with the same passion.

In order to create successful projects, we realised we must build a business rather than a single product, and in doing so, bring together a team of dedicated and talented individuals.
CopterKid - Egyptian desert island

Rishi: Other issues we had to overcome included lag, poor performance and getting the game ready for OS 3.0.

We eventually found another recent graduate from Warwick, Mike, who helped to address performance issues by porting the game to OpenGL, along with adding great features such as the detrimental effect you see when you get shot by the UFOs in level 2.

How easy was it to get the game approved onto the App Store?

Anirudh: We submitted the app for approval on the evening of the 12th of July 2009.

On the 17th of July, we received an email from Apple stating, "Your app requires unexpected additional time for review", which left us pretty clueless and worried. We immediately contacted Apple only to receive no clear indication of when our app would be processed/available, so we kept our fingers crossed.

The app was on the App Store on the evening of the 26th of July, which was a very pleasant surprise.

Rishi: My iMac came out of standby late that evening, and I checked my inbox to see a "ready for sale" email. With much delight, we jumped into action on Twitter, Facebook, the forums etc to finally tell everyone we could that our game was finally out!

Anirudh: Unfortunately though, the App Store experienced corrupted data prior to their "search improvement" update on the 29th of July and our app was among the few hundred that were affected. Despite a heavy hit on sales during that time, we've managed to slowly recover as reviews and videos came rolling in over the next few days.

How have you marketed CopterKid?

Anirudh: During the whole development process, we promoted the game heavily on Twitter, Facebook, online forums for iPhones/iPod touch gaming and obviously by word of mouth. We got the community involved on a weekly basis, from voting on our app icon to suggesting names for the CopterKids.

Rishi: Being our first game, we had to learn a lot, but now that we have a solid team, we think future development will be a much smoother process.

Where did the idea for the high score prizes come about?

Rishi: Simple and addictive games do well when you're trying to beat your friends' scores. Thus, to encourage people to compete amongst themselves on a global scale, we felt something more was needed.

Anirudh: This game isn't the easiest to master either. It really takes skill. We felt that if people were buying our app and supporting us, it'd only be fair to give something in return - especially for those who really put energy into our product.

Our cash prizes for the top three global leaderboard scores aim to do just that. In the first week of our launch, we had several hundred sales and about a hundred scores submitted to our leaderboard. We encourage more players to submit their scores.



What are your plans in terms of updates?

Rishi: We want to keep improving CopterKid so it can fully realise its potential. We've already submitted a tweaked version to Apple, and are now working on a larger update with new power-ups and features. Plans for the longer term are new islands, such as a user-suggested volcanic island, a cave, inside the body of a beast and so on.
The new power-ups

We've also just submitted a mini-update to Apple to address minor gameplay issues and made the first islands easier - as per the request of our followers.

What's the feedback been like?

Anirudh: It's been overwhelmingly positive, not only from reviews and forum members, but on the App Store itself. At first play, people may find the game hard, but after a few attempts, they develop a technique and are rewarded with distinct islands, progressive difficulty and surprises as they move from level to level.

Rishi: We didn't want the game to be too easy, otherwise setting a record high score becomes more a matter of how much time you've got on your hands than skill. Right now, you can rival the top scores on the game with only about ten minutes of (pretty intensive) gameplay.

You spoken about the potential of the Blackberry, Nokia and Android app stores, so do you have plans to take CopterKid there?

Rishi: They are still in their early stages, but have a lot of potential. In terms of games, these platforms have less of a market than the iPhone. However, the higher price that can be charged helps to offset the smaller market size.

I think it is a great area to enter into with business/utility apps, and perhaps some interesting gaming ideas too - developers would be wise to start gaining exposure to these new platforms/stores.

Anirudh: One of our biggest desires is to port CopterKid to Flash and make it available to play online through social networks such as Facebook. However, at present, our prime focus is on mobile platforms, and mainly, the iDevices.

What other game ideas you do have?

Rishi: We have a few game concepts drawn up. We're experimenting with the idea of simple, addictive arcade games, strategy games and puzzle-based games. Whatever we end up doing, you can be sure that the games will be highly polished, easy to pick-up-and-play and suitable for all kinds of gamers.

Anirudh: They'll definitely be a Fascinatingly Interesting Proposition, be rest assured! We hope to have another game out before the end of the year.

Thanks to Anirudh and Rishi for their time.

You can follow their Twitter feed.

CopterKid is now available priced 99c or 59p on the App Store.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.