Interviews

Imangi Studios and Critical Thought talk about geoSpark collaboration

How hardcore gaming meshed with casual appeal

Imangi Studios and Critical Thought talk about geoSpark collaboration
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There haven't been many accounts of collaboration between iPhone developers so the news that Washington D.C. outfit Imangi Studios and St. Louis-based Critical Thought Games had worked together to make particle effect-based action game geoSpark, seemed worthy of further investigation.

We caught up with Imangi's husband and wife team Natalia Luckyanova and Keith Shepherd, and Critical Thought's David Whatley to find out more about the project.

Pocket Gamer: How did the idea for the collaboration come about and how did you break down the tasks?

Natalia Luckyanova: Keith and I had an early concept for what would eventually become geoSpark in September 2009. We were at the 360|iDev conference in Denver, and that's where we met David. We were talking about various game concepts we were kicking around, and David spent about 15 minutes with this one.

David Whatley: I played it, and it clicked with me immediately. I was like, "This hits every one of my marks for 'awesome iPhone game'." On the flight back from the conference, I overhauled the look and feel, made a few gameplay tweaks I thought would make it even more awesome, and basically injected 100 percent more particle effects.

Keith Shepherd: When we saw how it looked with David's effects, we just knew we had to collaborate. It was perfect. From there, we took it basically 50/50, reaching consensus on any gameplay decisions, and working together on different aspects of the code.

David published it under the Critical Thought Games banner because the look and feel is so in line with its geo- brand. We're all continuing to collaborate on updates though - version 1.1 was just submitted to Apple, with a bunch of improvements that players were asking for.

How do you think the collaboration made the game better?

David: If you've played geoDefense, you know the direction I usually take with gameplay - in a word, it's hardcore. Casual, endless gameplay like geoSpark is something I haven't really done before. On the other hand, Keith and Natalia live and breathe it. Harbor Master, Hippo High Dive, Little Red Sled - all their games exude addictive, easy-to-pick-up casual gaming.

Keith: But the geoDefense style is perfect for geoSpark. It just wouldn't be feel the same without the neon particle effects and iconic, angular art style. David's gameplay additions, such as the gravity well, also helped to heighten the feeling of urgency the game imparts.

How did your geographical separation affect things?

David: The beauty of being an indie iPhone developer is it's totally not location-specific. So many successful developers are nowhere near Silicon Valley.

Natalia: We pretty much did the whole thing over instant messaging. It was funny. We met David for the first time in Denver at the end of September, and by the time we saw each other for the second time in New York on December 1 for Apple's iPhone Tech Talk, we had shipped a game together.

Were there any particular tools that made things easier?

David: This was the first time I've used Cocos2D. I'm actually planning to use it for future games in the geoDefense series as well.

Keith: Aside from the standard development tools involved, we didn't use any complicated project management system. For the scale of this project, we found that emails and constant communication over IM were enough to keep on track and deliver a great game.

How does it pan out in terms of the money split?

David: We believe we're each bringing the same amount of effort, experience and enthusiasm to the table for geoSpark, so both teams are taking an equal cut of the revenue.

Do you think you'll try this sort of collaboration again and do you think the practice could be more widely used?

Natalia: While we don't have any specific plans yet, it's something we're open to. In the case of geoSpark, it wasn't really an issue of scale - more that we felt we had great chemistry, and believed we could produce a game that would be far better with all of our unique perspectives and sensibilities.

David: We're living in a golden age of indie development. Right now, one- and two-person operations can compete with the likes of Electronic Arts, and that's a beautiful thing. But it's hard to say how long this will last.

Budgets on high-profile iPhone games are creeping up, and more big players are jumping into the pool. So I wouldn't be surprised to see more like-minded developers getting together to stay competitive in terms of scale, technical capacity and overall quality. Whether that means more one-off collaborations like geoSpark, or the creation of brand new, multi-person shops, is something we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks to Natalia, Keith and David for their time.

You can keep up-to-date with Critical Thoughts Games via web and Twitter, and Imangi Studios via web and Twitter.

geoSpark is available now, priced 99c, €0.79 or 59p [App Store link].
Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.