The first game I ever purchased for my Android phone was Abduction! 2. Why–the graphics were good, had many in game options, and looked to be a game I would not finish in a day. Well, the game is still on my phone and still not finished with it. Today I am happy to introduce Psym Mobile, as our Featured Site and also as a sponsor of our first survey/contest coming up later today or tomorrow.
Thanks Phil for taking time out of your schedule to spend some time with us.
Q. Tell us a little about yourself?
A. My name is Phil Symonds and I’m originally from the UK, but I now live in Sydney, Australia. I’m a software developer in my day job, and I’ve been creating Android apps in my free time for the last 2 1/2 years. I’ve been gaming since I can remember and programming almost as long, but only recently did the two interests come together.
Q. When did Psym Mobile come about?
A. I never planned to make games and certainly didn’t expect to earn money from doing so. Before Android I had made a few apps on Java enabled phones, GBA and PC, but nothing that was publicly released. I had been keeping an eye on Android throughout 2008 and bought the G1 (dream) as soon as it was released over here, back in Jan 2009. I’ve been programming in Java for 15 years, so an open Java powered phone was immediately appealing.
I wrote the first release of Abduction! in about a week as a learning exercise, and when I found myself playing it more than writing it I placed it on the market in a half finished state to get some feedback. After 1 week I had a few thousand downloads and with the quick feedback loop possible in the Android market I was adding features and incorporating user requests every couple of days. Before I knew it I had an app in the top 10 of the market.
I started the company later in 2009 once the paid apps became popular and it became clear this was turning into more than a hobby. The major event was the release of the Droid. Downloads doubled overnight and suddenly making apps for Android made sense commercially.
Q. Which games or apps have you developed?
A. Abduction! was my first Android game and the free version is still the most popular with over 7 million downloads. Following that was the paid version “Abduction! World Attack”, and a simple puzzle game, “Milky Milky”.
A few years back I made a PC game based around helicopters putting out forest fires. I started converting it to Android but never really finished it due to other commitments. The great thing about the Android market is that I could still release in it’s unfinished state, because there isn’t a quality control test to pass. I figured it’s better to release an unfinished app and label it as such rather than just let it rot on the shelf.
Next came Gem Miner which has become the most popular of my paid apps. The game mechanics came together quite quickly, but it took a long time to tweak the various prices and scarcity of items to make it play well.
Late in 2009 I started work on Abduction! 2 and that went on from about 9 months. This was the first game that I used beta testers on and it has a much higher level of polish than the previous apps. The jury is split on this one though – some like the cleaner look, others miss the rough-round-the-edges feel of the original.
Q. Can you tell use what is coming down the road from Psym Mobile?
A. All development effort for the last 9 months has been on Gem Miner 2. It’s gone through several iterations trying to keep a balance between adding new game play features and not straying too far from the original formula.
This is the first app I’ve made where I’ve had help from others with the graphics. I’ve still created 90% of the sprites, but I’ve had help with character design and animation. I’m really excited by the result compared to the original which was very basic in that respect.
I’ve been saying that it’s 2-3 months from being finished for the last 6 months, but now I think that really is the case. The main work left is creating the adventure levels and menus, the core game is just about complete.
Other than that I have 3 prototypes and loads of ideas for new games, just no time to develop them! Gem Miner 2 is the priority right now, after that I’ll be starting on completely new game.
Q. What do you see in the future of Android? Mobile gaming?
A. Android is going to keep growing in the short to medium term because it’ll always capture the lower end of the market due to licensing costs, and the techie’s among us due to the customization. I think that whether it continues to cut into the high end share will depend entirely on what Apple turns out with the iPhone 5. I found the iPhone 4 very disappointing for an Apple release.
Casual mobile gaming is here to stay, it’s just a case of how it affects the rest of the gaming market. Nintendo already seem to be suffering and whilst the Sony Vita is an impressive piece of hardware, I can’t see it fairing much better than the PSP. The average person is not going to pay an additional $200 for the privilege of spending $40 per game when they can get hours of entertainment for $1 on a device you already carry in your pocket. You see games on the 3DS market costing 4-5 times as much as their identical phone version, that can’t be sustainable.
In terms of gaming on Android, it’s improved by an order of magnitude in the last year. In part this is due to better hardware, but mostly it’s just because it’s being recognized by the major software houses as a viable platform. It’s making it more difficult for small outfits like myself to compete, but Android is still the most accessible mass market for indy developers.
