OrangePixel on developing Xperia Play-exclusive platformer INC, difficulty levels, and ads in games

This week, veteran mobile developer OrangePixel released hardcore retro platformer INC for Xperia Play.

Having been firmly schooled by the studio's previous outings Meganoid and Stardash, we had a chat with founder and CEO Pascal Bestebroer about free games, difficulty levels, and what he thinks of touchscreen versus physical controls.

Pocket Gamer: INC is the third platformer you've brought out on Xperia Play. How are you keeping things fresh? Pascal: First of all, from the screenshots, you can see there's a clear new style used for the graphics, giving it a comic book look. But, besides that, we also created this game more as a story. Meganoid was really about giving you an extreme challenge in a single level, where every step could basically be a wrong one, and Stardash was all about that old skool kick of running and jumping as fast as you can.

In INC, the challenge is somewhat easier. But, running as a crazy guy won’t really get you far - you need some some stealth and thinking here and there to complete this game.

OrangePixel tends to follow a 'firm-but-fair' philosophy of game design. Do you think this is something that more people want on Android and iOS, after years of less challenging casual titles?

It’s something we want ourselves. Meganoid was our first attempt at this, and it really was created for our own pleasure. We figured people would complain about the difficulty, so we actually warned people before downloading. To our surprise, many different type of gamers loved the challenge!

We do try to add layers of gameplay to the games. There are those 'stars' you can achieve in every level, but it’s not a requirement to enjoy the full game.

You also have a penchant for retro visuals and chiptune music. What's behind this?

It’s definitely our nostalgia. We grew up with these games and we love them, but we are also a small team, and doing graphics in this way is simply easier for a small team to manage and have your game look pretty cool on any device from large screens to small screens.

The music just fits the graphic style and seems to be an obvious thing to add. On the other hand, we have seen many awesome-looking 3D games, but they play terribly either because of the controls or just silly dumbed-down gameplay.

Apart from the obvious classics like Megaman and Super Mario Land for Game Boy, what other games do you take inspiration from? Are there any newer games that give you ideas?

We usually dive into various Flash games and retro game sites for inspiration.

You previously expressed some concerns about virtual buttons on touchscreens. The Xperia Play negates this problem, but do you see any way that a solid platformer could be redesigned with a refined touchscreen control scheme?

We tried various tilt controls, but not many people enjoy playing games like that. Another option is auto-running, but that seems to limit the gameplay in various ways. So, for now, we are stuck with virtual buttons, in the hope that more devices get Xperia Play-style controls. Having said that, we do get a lot of praise for our touch controls and how great they work.

You offer a lot of your games for free, supported by ads. Do you think this is the future for games on the Android Market?

Having both free and paid titles is probably a good thing. It seems that Android users are slowly shifting to wanting to pay for their apps. Many people mailed us asking for a paid version of Meganoid: not just because they dislike the ads, but also because they wanted a way to support us.

We actually have plans to release a paid version when we add the final levels to Meganoid. With Stardash, we released both a paid and free version, and many people actually bought the ad-free version. So, giving the gamers an option won’t harm in any way. Many thanks to Pascal for his time. INC is out now exclusively on Xperia Play, and will be coming to Android and iPhone in November.