Chimpact dev talks inspiration, piracy, and advice from publisher Chillingo

Our lovely sister website PocketGamer.biz recently sat down and interviewed Yippee Entertainment - the development team behind Pocket Gamer Bronze Award-winning iOS title Chimpact.

During the interview, PG's chiselled interrogator Keith Andrew mentioned that Chimpact reminded him of Sega's Sonic Spinball in a few respects.

"We did look at a lot of pinball tables and mini golf games and stuff like that, because it's about taking a shot and seeing the results," Kevin Green, Yippee Entertainment's lead artist, revealed.

I think Kev's first words were 'let's make pinball with monkeys'," Lorraine Starr, the company's commercial director, added. While chuckling away.

Chimpact is currently available to download from Apple's App Store for just 69p / 99c - a price that was influenced by prolific mobile publisher Chillingo.

"We actually would have liked to have gone in slightly higher than 69p, but we took Chillingo's advice and their experience," Starr said.

Green also thinks that the game's 69p / 99c price tag is a little lower than it perhaps should be: "It's where the market is for Chimpact. It does make me wince when it goes out at that price, though - the love that has gone into it.

"We'd always hoped for more, but the market forces dictate its place. There is always the option of making it free down the line. We've left the door open to that in the future."

In spite of its cheap price, Chimpact has been subject to piracy, which is an issue Yippee Entertainment fears will expand as it prepares to release it onto Google Play.

"[Piracy] is a great worry," Mike Delves, Yippee Entertainment's CEO, said. "It's disturbing that, even at that price, people will still go through the 20 minute process of cracking it just so they don't have to pay 69p."