Astraware's Tomlinson on finding the balance between iPhone, Android, bada and webOS

Four months on from its new found independence and veteran UK mobile game studio Astraware seems to be enjoying its freedom.

It's been quick to support new platforms such as iPad and Samsung's bada, as well as heading back to the source with its first game for Palm's webOS. Astraware made its early reputation with games for Palm's PDA range.

A good opportunity then to catch up with CEO and founder Howard Tomlinson.

Howard Tomlinson: It's great. Sometimes it's fun chasing rabbits! You have a different outlook being independent, in that you can jump where it looks interesting at a moment's notice, because you don't have to worry about whether it's in the right strategic direction.

Of course, you have to live with the results of the grand successes and epic failures of all of these random endeavours.

We've been cross-platform for many years now, so each new device or resolution doesn't usually pose us any huge technical or design problems. Nowadays most of the work is adjusting from our large size graphics down to the right size for each device, and shuffling the screen layouts to be appropriate.

The interesting thing is learning about the different audiences on devices. To some extent, the device manufacturers give you clues by telling you the kinds of audience they're working towards.

For instance, Apple has a worldwide reach, but the audiences for iPhone and iPad aren't exactly the same in terms of the kind of content they prefer and what they're willing to pay for it.

Also, with bada, Samsung seem to be aiming towards much more location appropriate content (or even location aware), so that means development not just for particular languages, but appropriate to regions.

We'll have to see where the platform goes after the acquisition by HP. I can't see it overtaking other platforms in the short term, but Astraware has always been successful supporting relatively small platforms well over the long term. And should webOS move towards larger devices, then we'll be able to bring our large screen games across neatly.

I was impressed to see so many high profile large publisher titles available. It will be interesting to see how well these do and whether they're followed up with more titles.

We committed most of our development at the beginning of the year towards bada, with conversions of some of our existing big titles, and development of an all-new title which is (for now) exclusive to bada.

As with any new platform, there were teething troubles. It is usual to be working on early ROMs which aren't always stable or reflective of the final ROM or hardware, but with lots of hard work here (and I'm sure in Korea) everything came together for release time.

We haven't heard much about sales yet, other than that there have been some. I'm hopeful to see it adding to our platform portfolio neatly over time.

For us it makes a lot of difference being able to develop games and sell them across lots of platforms. That way we don't risk quite so much on one basket. Plus, you can never tell when one is going to take off, or vanish.

We've developed versions of a number of our games for Android, and sales are beginning to pick up. There's a long way to go before I think we can call it a commercially successful platform for us, but there's always time.

I think the launch of the platform and market with free apps didn't help to set it up well for developers, since the expectation has been set that the majority of content can be had for free, and it's hard to make a business out of free.

On one hand it's great to see a new version of the Windows platform that should be a lot more capable. After many years of divergent capabilities, it's become difficult to successfully release anything that hasn't been lowest common denominator, which can make it feel like the platform has developed slowly and fallen by the wayside.

Yet as a smaller independent developer, Windows Phone 7 is an unknown because the platform is moving a lot closer to consoles, and that typically favours larger teams and studios, who can see this as an opportunity to move their console games to mobile.

I'm confident there'll be a place for us with some of the traditional games we've made, but less certain about the puzzle, arcade and action genres.

It's simple - make as many ways for the customer to find you and your products as you possibly can. Our web store allows us to provide more details and information about the games than working through other portals, which have to be limited because they cover such a wide range of apps.

Our own web store also makes it easier to cross promote our games, and to work directly with customers as much as possible - even if it's just through newsletters or the My Astraware feature so that people can manage their own preferences and subscriptions.

I would say that pretty much every size of device is now available in one form or another. Display technology, computing power, and even battery life don't seem to be much of a problem any more.

From now on I think progress will be made in terms of making more usable devices in the sizes people want, and connecting up people with services (be that one-off purchases, subscriptions, or any other content) in a way that works well for users, manufacturers, and developers the world over.

It seems to me that the hurdles are just dropping away, and that makes opportunities for lots of fast moving developers and entrepreneurs.

You can check out Astraware's wares on its website.