The launch of Windows Phone 7 – expected at some point in October – marks a major year of change for smartphones.

Sales are growing rapidly as people switch from feature phones, providing game developers with a new audience to attract. 

That's certainly the message from Philippe Rapin, founder of French studio Press Start, which along its iPhone and bada releases, is on the front foot with Microsoft's new platform with two games - Twin Blades and Butterfly - primed for launch. 

Pocket Gamer: How did you get involved with developing for Windows Phone 7?

Philippe Rapin: We had an Xbox version of our flagship game, Twin Blades, released on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel.

At the time we had noticed that there was a greyed Zune option in XNA Game Studio and that intrigued us a lot because we knew we were merely a few clicks away from having a Zune version of the title.

When Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 would use the same set of tools at the Mobile World Congress, we were already in the starting blocks so to speak, so we contacted Microsoft and it invited us to its MIX event.

Two weeks later we had a first version of the game running on the phone, which was possibly the first content complete game on WP7 ever even before The Harvest.

Microsoft liked it and offered us a slot on Xbox Live.

What is the platform like to work with?

The XNA Game Studio is a great framework to work with. It is easy to learn, yet thorough in its application, and as developers that's a great strength.

The other benefit is that it's free and easy to install, so any member of the team can run it and test games on their own workstation – that greatly enhances the productivity not only of our coders, but also of our artists and designers.

What opportunities does Windows Phone 7 offer?

As indies, one of the hardest challenges is to stand out from the crowd and grasp enough visibility for consumers to find you. Being featured in a separate, quality driven channel will make it easier for players to find our games.

Also, new platforms offer our best chance of competing directly with well established industry players, because their IPs aren't as well rooted in the consumer's mind.

Do you think the emphasis Microsoft has put on games with Windows Phone 7 will give it an advantage over other smartphones?

I think it will do so on two levels; obviously there's the leaderboards and achievements that Xbox Live offers to Gamerpoints whores, but the fact there's a separate channel where every game is cherry picked and run through extensive QA by Microsoft ensures players have direct access to qualitative games.

They won't find themselves lost amidst a flood of mediocre titles like on other platforms.

What specific aspects of Windows Phone 7 are you looking to take advantage of?

We're looking at cross platform multiplayer. It’s a real challenge but the opportunities it represents are extremely exciting.

It's not something we want to rush into heads down, and we’re going to take the time to make it's legitimate, but if carefully thought through, it can really bring value to a game.

How would you say it compares to the likes of iPhone and Android?

Honestly, it's quite different. In a general manner there’s the ergonomics of the OS which I think rivals with the iPhone’s. Games wise, specifically it has a 'try before you buy' feature which is quite popular on Android.

On the hardware side there are plenty of different of sexy designs already. It's promising all round. 

Do you think the smartphone market is becoming overcrowded?

It's only overcrowded if all these platforms aim for the same consumer segment. I think what will define these platforms is the behaviour of its clientèle.

Do they play games? Are they willing to pay for it? Would they play little sessions or longer ones? Does connectivity matters to them?

Once things settle a bit we’ll have a clearer picture of what everyone wants and where they are, and developers will be able to target the consumer base more efficiently, depending on what kind of game they make.

On the technical side it involves several coding languages, but we’d rather support a couple of devices on five platforms than, say, 400 devices on Java. They were truly twisted days.

Any future plans for Windows Phone 7?

Oh yes, we do, but we're 100 percent focused on delivering our two games Twin Blades and Butterfly in time for launch right now, so we’re not ready to make any announcements just yet.
Thanks to Philippe for his time.