Innovation Part I: Phil Hassey
by Jeff Effendi on Tuesday 12th May 2009

If there are two things that Phil Hassey is famous for, it’s that he’s an award-winning developer who created the addictive-Risk-in-space game Galcon, and that he gives one hell of a short answer. Last year, AppCraver had a chat with the man himself and a snappy chat it was. I was afraid that Phil would give us the same amount of words to the questions posed when I was compiling my questions.

Fortunately, Phil Hassey promised me that he would try to be more verbose in his responses this time around. Although these responses aren’t as conversational as Shay Casey’s, I think we’ve achieved a feat greater than that at AppGamer today. It’s not easy getting the award-winning developer to speak up, but I think we’ve managed to spark a little conversation regarding a big topic such as Innovation in iPhone gaming. We try and explore the importance of innovation and what it actually means to one of the industry’s leading innovationist, Phil Hassey. Read on, because he even mentions the possibility of making a linear game.

First and foremost I’d just like to say thank you for speaking with us Phil, I’ll try to make this more interesting than the typically straight forward interviews we usually find elsewhere. We’ve got another guest interviewee lined up for the second part of the Innovation Interview, so you’re first up. Compared to the likes of other developers such as Secret Exit or Illusion Labs, you’re practically a “one man team”. Would you consider the limitation in manpower a disadvantage or an advantage in terms of creative freedom? How do you think this helps with the way you produce games?

I think it has its pros and cons.  

Working on your own the pros are:

- I get to do what I want.

- I don't have to attend numerous tedious meetings.

- I don't have to manage employees.

- I get full control of everything.

The cons are:

- I have to do everything!

- Some things are "too big" for one guy to do in a short amount of time.

The truth is I don't totally work on my own.  My wife Nan and brother-in-law Tim both help quite a bit.  Nan manages the community forums and does quite a bit of testing and helps with talking over ideas and about a million other things (so she gets to attend numerous tedious meetings with me!)  Tim does the music for my games (and sometimes the sound effects), he also does some testing and puts in his ideas on game design.  I'm also part of the ludumdare.com game developer community and they also provide a lot in terms of support and feedback on my games and ideas.

Before we proceed with the other questions, how would you describe innovation in respect to games on the iDevice? How important is innovation when creating titles for the system?

I think "innovation" is somewhat important to the iPhone since it doesn't have the same interface as previous devices.  The touch screen (and accelerometer) provide totally different opportunities for the user.  Galcon was a conversion from a mouse-based game, which you'd think "oh yeah, just the same game" but it actually took me several weeks to convert over just the interface part, since I found that finger based input is radically different than mouse based input.

It’s not really a Phil Hassey interview with talking about Galcon, Cosmic Nitro and your interesting choice of fashion. Do you think it’s important for developers to live a little and dress up as Rambo? Would you say your games reflect your personality?

I'm not sure I'm the best judge of if my games reflect my personality or not.  But I do like to dress up!  

                                           

                                      Phil Hassey's guns are bigger than Rambo's.

From Beast, Galcon, to Cosmic Nitro; one way or another your games have shown a lot of colourful, retro neon inspired artwork. Would you say that this approach to visuals on the iDevice is more effective in producing innovative titles?

It's a style I really enjoy.  It's also budget conscious!  I don't know about "innovation" on this one ... though I do think that limitations frequently inspire innovation, so in that way, maybe.

                            

You’ve got a few pick-up-and-play titles released; one is a strategic Risk-like Galcon and the other a simple yet chaotically fun Cosmic Nitro. Has Phil Hassey thought of the possibility of creating any linear, lengthy type of title for the iDevice? Do you think it’s possible to maintain consistency in innovation for an extensive game?

I really make games for me, and right now I'm not interested in linear lengthy games.  I'm lucky if I'll play a game for more than a few minutes!  That's why my games are so fast paced, because if they were any slower, I wouldn't be able to enjoy testing them out myself!

But, yeah, I do think it is possible to create a long, innovative game... To contradict myself, I'm actually thinking about doing a more linear game later this year.  But we'll see what time permits!

                            

Which five games on the App Store right now would you say are the most innovative? Do you feel games like these deserve more attention than the big name titles such as Assassin’s Creed?

I, unfortunately haven't played loads of iPhone games .. but I gotta say "Flight Control" is both innovative and a very [fine] game!  I think the iPhone and App Store are giving quite a few indie titles some attention.  More would be even better!  But it actually helps indies if the big titles get attention, because their "higher" prices help set us up to be able to sell our games for more than 0.99 as well.

Last question Phil, and I don’t want those short and snappy answers you gave AppCraver. To you, what is the key to innovation? And for the other developers out there, would you say being innovative and more “out there” means sacrificing sales?  

I'd say the key is "limitations"... I've learned how to make games doing 48 hour game development contests. Galcon was originally prototyped in 48 hours. I don't think being innovative means you sacrifice sale. Galcon is probably my most innovative title, and it's gotten me the most sales!   

Thank you for your time Phil. I wanted to ask more about Galcon and Cosmic Nitro updates but those questions would be inappropriate for the interview’s theme, just like your Syndrome costume. We wish you all the best and look forward to playing more of your distinctive games in the future.

Thank you to you too!

[Editor: If you haven't purchased Galcon yet, it is a must-buy for the iDevice. Yes, AppGamer has not reviewed the game but that doesn't mean we're not playing it. This comes in full recommendation from AppGamer editor, Jeff Effendi.]

Phil Hassey is the first of two guest speakers that will be discussing the primary topic of Innovation in iPhone Gaming. The second interview will be published in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more on innovation.

 

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