Complete with a trusty Pocket Gamer Gold award under its best, CarneyVale: Showtime is undoubtely one of Windows Phone 7's brightest early stars.

It's worth pointing out, however, that Team Gambit's debut release on the platform comes with considering backing from Microsoft. Given it originally popped up on XBLA, its transition to Windows Phone 7 has benefited from assistance from the Redmond giant during its development right through to publishing and promo.

As such, assistant producer Yeo Jingying's view of the platform gives a good insight into the inner workings of the big boys on Windows Phone 7, and how such an experience counters that of the independents.

We caught up with Yeo for her take on Microsoft's mobile might.

PocketGamer: How did you get involved in developing for WP7?

Yeo Jingying: CarneyVale: Showtime was first developed for the Xbox Indie Games Channel, and the game managed to win the XNA Dream-Build-Play Competition in 2008. After that, we signed a distribution agreement with Microsoft in 2009 which paved the way for us to develop CarneyVale: Showtime for the Games for Windows Live platform.

It was during that time as well that we were introduced to the Windows Phone 7 platform. Microsoft encouraged us to further develop our game on their mobile platform so that the game could be played in all three platforms – Xbox 360, the PC and Windows Phone 7.

We felt that the game would translate well onto a touch-based interface and thus decided to proceed with the development of the game for the platform.

How are you finding the marketplace?

Having gone through Microsoft's official certification process for the submission of our game, we feel that it's actually a more stringent process when compare to rival app stores such as Apple's App Store.

This may be due to the fact that we have a firstparty distribution relationship with Microsoft, though.

Having said that, we understand that Microsoft also allows developers to submit their games through a process similar to the App Store. That is good as it allows for a lower barrier to entry for independent game developers and provides an additional platform to iPhone and Android for them to publish their games. It also also provides consumers with a greater variety of games to play.

What sort of download numbers are you seeing so far?

We are currently unable to see our figures. We are requesting the figures from Microsoft.

What is the platform like to work with?

One particular strength is the use of XNA. As CarneyVale: Showtime was first developed in XNA, we were able to port the game to the platform fairly easily given its also a development framework for Windows Phone 7.

Another strength would be the emulator. Before we received our developer phone, we were able to begin development using the Windows Phone 7 emulator, which simulates the device environment quite well. This allowed us to get a head start. The emulator also helped make up for the limited number of devices we were allowed for development.

One of our main challenges was to change our control scheme to suit the touch-based interface. Initially, due to time constraint, we had decided to implement a virtual D-pad to map the Xbox controls directly to the touchscreen.

However, after much playtesting, we realised that the D-pad was not only insufficiently sensitive but the resulting graphical interface also cluttered the screen. We therefore decided to implement a control scheme that makes full use of the accelerometer as well as the touch-based interface of the platform.

Another challenge that we faced was to make sure that our game ran smoothly. We reduced our features and scope to enable the game to be supported well on the phone, both in terms of performance and game size.

The in-game music was yet another area of challenge. Since the music essentially shared the same player as Windows Phone 7's Zune application, only it or our game may play music at any one time. There were numerous scenarios that the game had to support in terms of making sure the right music was playing in-game, whichever was appropriate. 

Another player related feature that was challenging to cater for was 'tombstoning'. This feature allows the player to suddenly interrupt the game with a phone call or the use of another application while the game is running. We needed to make sure the game resumed where the players were when they eventually return to the game to continue playing.

Lastly, since we were developing for a new platform, the team frequently had to update the development tools and supporting documents in order to proceed. Despite the challenges, however, the great deal of support Microsoft had provided us with was invaluable in easing us through the development process.

Do you think Windows Phone 7's emphasis on games is an advantage?

We believe that with such an emphasis, Windows Phone 7 should be able to provide consumers with more variety of games that are both fun and innovative. However, if the marketplace gets saturated with games too quickly, developers might get discouraged from working on the platform. 

 

Is there a danger that cheaper games that lack Xbox Live features from smaller studios will get overlooked?If the gameplay is fun and appealing, we believe that it will not get overlooked.

Games with Xbox Live features may be more attractive to core players who enjoy high scores and achievement tracking but games without such features can still attract the players who are indifferent to them.

Do you think the number of smartphone is a help or a hindrance?We think that it is helpful to developers as they have more platforms to choose from to develop their games on. The market would actually be overcrowded for developers if there was only one smartphone platform. Games would quickly be buried by newer titles and would become lost amongst the crowd.

What improvements do you think Microsoft should make?

It would be great if Microsoft allows developers to distribute redemption codes for reviewers so that new titles can be more readily reviewed for publicity after they are published.

Are more plans for the platform?There are currently no further plans for the platform.
Thanks to Yeo for her time.

You can check out what Team Gambit get up to in future via its website.