It's the kind of question that, in my near three years at PocketGamer.biz, comes up again and again: Just how does smartphone development compare to the console scene?

Given the number of mobile devs that have their routes in console, we're not exactly short of people to ask, either.

BigBit studio head and CEO Nick Baynes is a prime contender, however, with his experience covering all bases.

Not only has he worked extensively on console releases – Black Rock Studio's Split/Second one of his most recent feathers in his cap – he's also just launched an iOS version of console racer Re-Volt 13 years after its original release.

So, how does mobile development stack up in 2012? And what kind of challenges does a developer face when updating a game from an entirely different era, intended for entirely different hardware? Baynes revealed all.

Pocket Gamer: The Re-Volt IP seems to have changed hands a number of times. How did BigBit land the rights?

Nick Baynes: The rights to Re-Volt are actually held by a company in South Korea, We Go Interactive.

It acquired publishing rights from a Canadian company a couple of years ago who in turn had acquired them when the original publisher, Acclaim, was shut down.

WeGo approached us some time ago regarding helping out with various Re-Volt shaped opportunities, and in the process of those discussions we negotiated the Western publishing rights.

It's 13 years since Re-Volt launched on consoles. How do you think the gameplay has held up in that time?

I've made a lot of games over the years, and there are only a handful that I can go back to and have as much fun playing now as I did back in the day. Re-Volt is one of those games.

In some regards it was ahead of it's time with the underlying handling model and some of the rendering techniques so, generally, I think it's held up really well, yeah.

The championship-based structure of the game is possibly the thing which dates it the most - compared to the more open path through most racing games these days - but other than that I think it still provides a lot of fun and satisfying races.

What changes did you have to consider when working on the smartphone version?

The control method was the big one – the original Re–Volt has very twitchy controls, and we wanted to make sure that people new to the game could still pick it up and start racing straight away without frustration.

While we've kept virtual joypads as an option, the simple tap left and right to steer with auto-acceleration seems to have provided a user friendly entry to the game - although we didn't make it clear enough that it only works tapping the bottom half of the screen, so if you think the controls aren't working try that. Oops.

Obviously, menus and the user interface needed to be made controlled by touch, and rather than rebuild it from the ground up we've tried to keep it as faithful to the original interface but with direct touch input.



We've had a lot of great feedback from players on other changes they'd like to see to make the game more fun on mobile devices, and we're looking into a number of things for future updates.

What expectations do you have for ReVolt: Classic? Do you have any download targets?

We didn't really set ourselves targets - bringing the game to iOS has been a labour of love and also a healthy experiment for the studio in self publishing and the process behind it.

I'd say that to date we're reasonably happy with how sales have gone, but the beauty of iOS is that I know with some of the changes we have planned for future updates we'll become attractive to a load more players who maybe haven't heard the game's out, or chose to wait until certain features were added… so it will be like a whole new re-release again.

I'm sure we'll look at sales in six months time and be very happy with what we see.

A lot of people suggest that the indie scene on iOS has much in common with that during the 80s and early 90s. How do you think it compares?

I think it's definitely comparable, although I think it's harder to get noticed on the App Store than it was on the spinning rack of cassette tapes in WH Smiths back then!

There's no doubt that the ability to develop games and get them to a wide audience has never been stronger, and the creativity you see out there reflects this.

Just like in the early days of the industry, games can be small and focused enough that you can have an idea and just do it – so overall it's been a definite shot in the arm for indies.

And how would you say it compares to life working on games for HD consoles today?

It's funny - day to day it's not as different as you might think.

On big games on console you tend to split the teams up into smaller area-focused sub teams, so the dynamics aren't completely different, and also - at least certainly in my recent experience - we used Unity to quickly prototype ideas in grey box before producing them for the final HD game.

So in terms of speed of turning designs from ideas to playables it's not that far removed.



Of course, the biggest difference is working on multiple projects in a single year as opposed to working on developments that can take three years or more - Split/Second was around five years from first concept to release!

So, the planning and direction is very different, which gives you much tighter focus on the short term.

What are the biggest challenges facing devs working on smartphones?

Without a doubt, visibility, visibility, visibility. That is the single biggest issue that everyone has.

I've seen some great games that just don't make any money at all because no-one knows they exist, and the upside of getting featured on the App Store is immediate and huge. It completely offsets the benefits of developing for smartphones – like low cost of entry - as if you're unlucky no-one will hear about your game.

People are getting more savvy when it comes to how to market and raise awareness, but the amount of teams I know who've signed off hefty chunks of their revenue to get promoted by major publishers and still drop off the App Store focus within days is depressing.

I fear all the good that comes from the platform will become irrelevant if only a handle of teams can actually make any money from their games.

Do you plan to resurrect any other IP for future BigBit releases, or will you work on something original?

We're working on a few exciting things right now – nothing I can really talk about, but I can promise you'll get a diverse collection of releases from us over the coming months and year.

Bringing old IP to market and back in the hands of the original fans, as well as a whole new audience, is really satisfying, but not our sole studio focus. Watch this space I suppose is the only answer I can give!
Thanks to Nick for his time.