2010 In Review: Dave Castelnuovo, Bolt Creative
I'd love for Apple to support cloud-based save games
One of the standout iPhone, and especially iPod touch, games of 2009, Pocket God developer Bolt Creative has been focused on building out its vision more widely in 2010.
Being a two-man studio, it's pursued collaboration with other developers - notably ngmoco for Android and Windows Phone 7 porting - as well as comic book publisher Ape Entertainment.
The long awaited iPad version of the game Journey To Uranus also just made its release with the calendar year.
Dave Castelnuovo is Bolt Creative's co-founder.
PocketGamer: What was the most significant event of 2010?Dave Castelnuovo: Unreal Engine for iOS. Not only did large companies make the move to iOS in a big way, developers can now license one of the best 3D engines in the world at a reasonable price for their games.
What was the most significant event for Bolt Creative?Launching other Pocket God licensed products. We finally made the move to Facebook, iPad, Android, and comic books. And they are all doing really well.
What was your favourite mobile game of the year?DoDonPachi Resurrection. We need more Cave shooters! And while we're at it, someone should get Treasure to release Ikaruga for iOS.
What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2011?The continuing maturation of iOS as a platform. With Sony and Nintendo releasing new hardware, it will become more obvious that they will have trouble keeping up with their traditional 'New console every X years' cycle compared to Apple doing major updates every year.
I also think iPad will gain critical mass after this holiday season and take another huge leap once the second generation device is released.
If you could enforce one New Year's resolution, what would it be?I think the industry is doing pretty well. I like the fact there are many successful business models for games. Apps succeed all the way from paid 99c-$9.99 to freemium with in-app purchases to advertising-based. I would hate for the industry to focus on one model and leave the rest behind.
As a consumer however, I would like to see my save games be shared by all my devices. If I play a game on my iPhone and then later switch to my iPad, I hate that my iPad doesn't know my current progress. This forces me to stick to one device for each game.
It seems a shame because I would ideally like to play a game on my iPad when I'm home, but then continue on my iPhone when I'm out of the house.
There are solutions for this but not a lot of developers do it. I would love for Apple to build this into Game Center and make cloud-based save games a standard.
Thanks to Dave for his time.
You can keep up-to-date with Bolt Creative via its website.
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