Starting any form of business enterprise can be a daunting prospect. Despite the games industry being as wide open now as it's ever been, getting your first game out there is always going to be difficult.

The fresh-faced crew at Birmingham-based developer Distorted Poetry has managed to get its first iOS game, Petri-Dash, out onto the App Store and is already looking towards a 3DS and PS Vita-shaped future.

We caught up with company co-founder James Booth for his take on starting up, why Android is a no-go if you're looking to make money, and getting your product out there on a shoestring.

PocketGamer: Can you tell us a bit about Distorted Poetry?

James Booth: In October of last year myself and Steve Parkes (Technical Director), started meeting quite regularly to discuss some ideas we had for games.

I had recently lost my job at Other Ocean Interactive in Canada and was back in England and really disappointed to not see any game design jobs anywhere.

So it was from there we started spending more and more time discussing our own ideas. It got to a point where we realised we would be more productive having our own office so we set up the business.

We then spent the next two months thinking of a name for the company. That's no exaggeration either!

We went through notebook upon notebook trying to get the perfect name. If we were a progressive jazz, funk or stoner rock band we would have had the best name ever, like, in the first week. Then Distorted Poetry was suggested.

We thought it was a perfect way to describe our games and video games in general. So after a week of thinking about it, we decided that was the name for us. We actually registered the domain on 25 December, so that day is considered the birth of Distorted Poetry.

Since moving into an office we developed a handful of prototypes and grew the team from just me and Steve to ten of us.

We just released our first game Petri-Dash on the App Store and have another two games in development for iOS devices.

Oh and we also have the best t-shirt in the whole of the video games industry.

Why did you choose iOS for your first title? Why not another format?

With no cash in the bank you really are limited as to what platforms you can target for your first release.

At the time we were pretty sure we wanted to be a handheld video game developer, so our only choices were iOS or Android and seeing as we actually wanted to make money, we decided to go with iOS.

Things are very slowly changing, but as a small company it doesn't make much sense to launch a game on Android where, despite the massive user base, a majority of the users don't really care about buying games.

Releasing free games with adverts is fine. We are experimenting with that right now with Petri-Dash. But on Android, from what we have seen, you won't make that much money doing paid games.

What's been the biggest help/hindrance to you as a new independent developer?

One of the cool things we soon realised after starting Distorted Poetry is how many other small development studios are being started up and what you will find is everyone is willing to give advice and contacts to help each other.

The video games industry is ridiculously small and tight-knit. Everyone you meet is somehow connected to someone else you know. So that is always a great help, knowing you aren't alone.

The biggest hindrance I would say is getting truly talented people to come work for a brand new studio. When you are at a big company people are literally throwing themselves through the door just for an opportunity. As a new company no one knows of you and you have to go out there and find the talent.

Fortunately, we gained some great contacts at Staffordshire University, Birmingham City University, and the Gamer Camp course. They helped us out greatly in finding the right people for Distorted Poetry.

Where do you stand on the freemium versus premium debate?

As a gamer I am not a big fan of freemium games, and while obviously some are doing ridiculously well at the moment I do think in the future this will not be the case.

So many companies are jumping on this at the moment it's crazy. But with the number of freemium games on the market, how many titles can one gamer financially afford to play at any one time?

I'm particularly talking about games with lots of content for purchases as well as games that charge really high prices for the content.

With a premium game you know what you're getting for the price - maybe I'm a bit old fashioned growing up in the 8-bit era, but I would hate to invest time into a game to then find out I have to constantly purchase more and more things to fully experience it.

What does the future hold for Distorted Poetry?

In the immediate future you are going to see a few more iOS games from us. We are also looking into doing some Android ports as well.

Beyond that we would like to develop some games for the Nintendo 3DS and Sony Vita.

We're already registered Nintendo developers and are planning to register with Sony soon as well.

The one thing we definitely do not have a shortage on is great ideas. But the first conversation we have regarding an idea is the control scheme. I really detest onscreen analogue sticks and buttons on mobile phone games, so if one of our ideas needs it we have to put it aside for the time being.

But with the 3DS and Vita we will have those physical inputs and touch inputs as well so I believe we can create some great games without limiting our ideas.

Is there any advice you would give to other studios just starting or thinking of starting out?

For someone thinking of starting out, the first thing they need to ask themselves is 'what are our long term plans?'

Running a business is hard, it's really not for everyone. So if you haven't got someone whose dedicated role is to handle the business side of things, it can be a bit daunting.

I enjoy doing the business side of things, but sometimes I have to spend too much time doing that, when I really just want to concentrate on designing the games.

If someone is only interested in making a game then there are plenty of outlets for indie games at the moment so I would just go through one of those.

For anyone that is just starting out, you really need to get into social media, get yourself on Facebook and Twitter and actually interact with people that follow you.

I see a lot of small companies using Twitter as nothing more than a place to release press releases, which is fine. But no one likes the hard-sell all of the time!

Make someone care about you as a person and your company first and then they will be more inclined to check out your work.
Thanks to James for his time.