Chillingo's Chris Byatte and Joe Wee talk EA, Crystal, iOS, and Android

Seated in an exclusive central London club, it feels odd to see posters for the next batch of hopeful multi-million selling iOS titles settled against the decor – cartoon squirrels and men in tecups nestled between oil paintings.

But it's a sign of just how far Chillingo, the iOS publisher from Macclesfield, England, has come since the early days of the iPhone.

Having been the publishers behind many break-out hits – from the original Angry Birds and Cut the Rope to Helsing’s Fire and MiniGore, Joe Wee (left) and Chris Byatte, the two co-founders and now general managers of the EA-owned company, have proved to be able to spot would-be classics in the making.

There’s no special ingredient or feature they look for in a game, though.

"We're all gamers," Byatte says. "We’re looking for a game we'll want to buy."

One thing that’s always striking about Chillingo’s releases is that there’s a certain level of polish applied to each title; no matter whether it's an unassuming 59p ultra-casual title or a more expensive title with an elaborate backstory.

The pair agree that polish is an important aspect of the company’s output, although they usually remain hands-off on a game’s development when it came to already-established developers like Reckless Software (Buzz!).

The smaller teams that come to them with a good title will sometimes be given ‘virtual producers’ to help them to maintain the same level of presentational and gameplay quality as other titles in the publisher’s library however.

This month marks the half-year anniversary of EA’s purchase of Chillingo, a move that has seemingly had little effect in terms of how the company operates or the freedom over what titles it chooses to bank on.

Byatte calls EA’s style a very much hands-off affair, stating that the company was "absolutely fine" to work with and that the two companies were doing well together.

Still, it's known EA has provided Chillingo with a warchest for game acquisitions, as well as marketing campaigns, to ensure it can publish higher quality titles, and make sure people know about them too.

"We‘re spearheading EA’s third party publishing... we take more creative risks than EA," he says.

The two have only good things to say about the most recent member of EA’s increasing number of iPhone acquisitions, Firemint, saying the developer was an ‘incredible studio’ and a "great addition – we wish them all the best."

EA hasn’t been the only big company buying up iPhone developers and publishers, though. Just last month Japanese firm GREE snapped up OpenFeint for a cool $104 million, highlighting the increasing importance the gaming networks within the world of iOS.

Chillingo’s own gaming network, Crystal, isn't as popular as OpenFeint or Apple’s own Game Center, but the team have a number of new additions on their way that should help close the gap.

"We’re working on Version two," enthusiastically explains Wee. "It should be creeping into the new games [spring and summer releases]."

This will contain a number of elements that sound a lot like the company is hoping to build an entire ecosystem (as the PocketGamer.biz folk like to say) around its published titles, with virtual currency, transactions and social hooks being key.

The pair were a little more cagey about the prospect of Crystal powering EA’s in-house titles, however, saying that there were still ongoing discussions surrounding the potential marriage between the two sides.

Another area that remained under-wraps was the company’s plans for Android.

While no exact dates or titles were revealed at our meeting, the firm is drawing up a roadmap for releases, which is positive news for Android readers desperate for Cut the Rope and others to finally make their way across to the platform.