The story of former console developers making a move on mobile is one that's been told many hundred times over since the App Store's launch, but that doesn't make it any less interesting.

Nice Touch Games, for instance, was formed by programmer David Green and designer Richard Bunn, with both having worked most recently on Sony's ill-fated Eight Days for PlayStation 3.

Switching to smartphones – launching Crazy Horses first on Windows Phone, and now iOS – allowed both parties to create something that, rather than being cancelled after years of work, actually made it to market under their own terms.

But while launching on the App Store is comparatively easy, garnering some attention in amongst the Angry Birds of this world is anything but. We caught up with Green and Bunn to find out if their decision to make the leap to smartphones was, with hindsight, a smart one.

Pocket Gamer: What can you tell us about Crazy Horses?

David Green: Best leave this one to Richard, as it was his nutty idea in the first place to start the whole thing up.

Richard Bunn: Crazy Horses is about drawing lassos around cute little horses as they gallop around the screen. You have to catch them before they run into one of the many dangers we naughtily put in their paths.

The main gameplay concept behind the game came from the idea of tracing around objects on-screen to group them. The idea of lassoing horses came naturally from that. Then we added all the other cool, stuff like drawing paths to safely guide the herd home and whipping them for a speed boost.



You both have a history in console development. What brought you over to mobile?

RB: That's true - we both previously worked at Sony in London. I also worked at Criterion where I was a designer on Black and Burnout Paradise.

After a project that we were working on at Sony got cancelled, Dave and myself decided to do something on our own. 

DG: Timing was the main factor for me, Richard had come up with the idea of producing some mobile titles and as he says we had just finished on a title for the PS3 so we agreed to put something together.

In the end, I produced an engine from scratch that we could use to make several titles across various mobile platforms. That’s not to say I wouldn’t play with the idea of doing some console development again.

Did you consider it a business risk working on smartphones?

DG: Yes. It’s a tough area with the amount of games and apps being developed - some brilliant and some truly awful - it can be hard to get recognised. I shudder to think how many small developers like us have gotten swallowed up in the app market black hole.

You pick the wrong time - say a week before the launch of the next Angry Birds or a week after the release of Apple's new product - and you get lost in the mist. You have to constantly evolve and learn from past releases, get as much information from what went right and what will go wrong.

RB: Starting any business is always risky - investing your time and money in making a game doubly so. A producer friend of mine once said that if he had money to invest he'd never put it into games - it's just too risky.

I can't really say yet if the smartphone business is riskier than any other business venture. I expect because we're experienced developers we'll always bring a level of quality to our games that not everyone is capable of and that will help lower the risk a little.

There's still a belief that console publishers are wary about the mobile market. Is there some truth in this, or could you see more of them making a big move onto smartphone?

DG: I believe some of that is true. If you look in the marketplace, there are already some big name companies who have established themselves through mobile alone.

I think it was always perceived by the console industry as a phase, but low and behold the mobiles got faster and have started to show some really unique interfaces for games and apps that have caught the imagination of perhaps what is a wider base than the consoles could have reached.

RB: My opinion is many publishers were shocked at how quickly smartphone gaming became mainstream. Big publishers are not agile businesses, so responding to this new opportunity wasn't easy for them.

You only have to look at the games that are coming from the traditional console publishers to realize they got past that wariness, fear, shock, whatever you want to call it, a long time ago.



Are you sticking with iOS, or will you move across to other platforms?

RB: We developed Crazy Horses initially on Windows Phone and then moved it over to iOS.

We're always talking about game ideas - we seem to come up with a new game idea almost every day. Sometimes a particular idea seems perfect for touch-screen, other times we just say "great idea, but needs to be on a console".

Maybe sometime soon we'll make something for PS3 or Xbox.

DG: Once I have regained some sleep I might start looking at an Android port and I wouldn't say no to Richard designing something for console also.

What's the thinking behind your other app, Crazy Horses Matchmaker?

RB: I'll tell you the origin of Match Maker - haven't told anyone this before.
Crazy Horses was originally planned to have an extra puzzle mode where you had to use the lasso to group matching pairs of horses. There were some pretty major flaws with the original idea though, so it got scrapped.

After we finished Crazy Horses I went back and solved the design problems. It felt like a totally different game though, so we released it as a new title. It's a really fun and challenging game in it's own right.

DG: I love puzzle games and I was excited to knock up Match Maker. It certainly won’t be the last puzzler we make.

Finally, what's your take on Apple's revised iPad?

DG: Excited … the display looks really sharp 

RB: Some friends of mine were moaning about the new iPad - complaining that it's not much of an upgrade and that the retina display would make it harder for indie developers as, in their opinion, hi-res graphics cost way more to produce.

I just think if you're complaining about technology improving at it's normal incremental pace then you just don't get how this business works and you're probably just a whiner. I'm always excited about new technology and can't wait to release our first iPad retina display game.
Thanks to David and Richard for their time.



You can find out more about Nice Touch Games on the studio's website.