Over the past couple of years, there has been a point-and-click adventure revival. The iPhone is already blessed with the Secret of Monkey Island, but now Revolution Software is getting in on the act with a remastered version of Beneath a Steel Sky specially made for the Apple handset.

Revolution boss Charles Cecil is no stranger to handheld development – his classic adventure game, Broken Sword, has appeared on the GameBoy Advance and the Nintendo DS. But recently he announced a new division for his company, Revolution Pocket, creating games for iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, PSPgo, and DSi.

The games will have an emphasis on narrative and Charles has promised it won’t just be about dusting down old classics. A sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky is planned but it’s all dependent on how well the Remastered iPhone version fares in the App Store.

At £2.99, this remake of the 1994 PC original features a touch screen interface and animated movies produced by Dave Gibbons, co-creator of the Watchmen graphic novel. It was important, says Charles, to ensure the game was not just a straight port.

“We released the PC version of Beneath a Steel Sky into the public domain a while back,” he says. “Gamers can download the game for free on the PC so when we created the iPhone version it was important that we added value and created a desirable package.

“It’s not just about making the game portable, it’s about enhancing the experience. We’ve added a hint system and we believe we have created the perfect touch-screen control system. People were frustrated by Monkey Island’s control method on the iPhone and we feel we’ve bettered that.”

All of this comes just a few years after Charles was quoted as saying the point-and-click genre was dead. “That was me being slightly provocative,” he counters. “My point was that it’s the concept of the classic adventure game that is really static in terms of the game world, only reacting to the player’s input, which no longer appeals to a broad market.

“People want a more dynamic game experience. As a control system, point-and-click clearly works extremely well.”

Charles believes digital distribution is the future and he likes the Apple model in which the developer is able to keep 70 per cent of the game price.

“What it does,” he says, ” is allow us to be closer to our audience and it means we don’t end up having to sell hundreds of thousands of copies just to break even.

“With retail, everyone is taking a slice of the pie and there’s usually little left for developers and, with that in mind, we’ve been able to really put a lot of effort into making Beneath a Steel Sky on iPhone the very best experience possible for gamers.

“It’s about us experimenting. If the game sells well on the iPhone, we will produce more. I believe handhelds to be the future of the adventure game and we hope gamers see that too. The technology of the iPhone is opening up fresh possibilities.”

By David Crookes

Beneath a Steel Sky is available on October 9, priced £2.99
www.revolution.co.uk

While its great having such a seemingly unlimited supply of apps to review, its always nice to find out a little bit about the people behind the apps. So, in order to get the lowdown on one of the UK’s finest app development companies we managed to snare Dave Vout for a few minutes of his time, so he could talk apps with us. Dave is the Business Development Director for Big Head Games who have produced several excellent iPhone apps including International Snooker which we reviewed here. He’s been in the gaming industry for quite some time and having set up Software Invasion in the late 80′s and has since then worked for the likes of Virgin Interactive, Philips Media and Codemasters having varied roles that have included programmer, producer and studio manager. His game credits are extensive and include Predator 2, Tony Hawks, Sky Sports Football Manager and Batman Dark Tomorrow across a multitude of platforms. We sat him down on the Kung Fu couch and asked him about developing for iPhone.

IPKF: At what point did you decide you wanted to make apps for the iPhone. Was it as soon as it was announced or once you’d had a play with the device?

DV: It was gradual, we liked the idea of a new platform that allowed us to publish our own games but sat back and watched it a bit as we finished other projects (also watching Wiiware, PSN, etc.), then yes once we had a device and saw the app store go live that’s when we made a decision to commit to it, but as a bit of back history we have been to date (for five years as 8bit Games) a work for hire developer and working on projects for publishers, in 2007 we kicked off a PS3 PSN project called Elefunk that was entirely our own idea and design, this went live in 2008 after a very painful final development stage including the closure of 8bit and opening of Big Head and the loss of all rights to Elefunk. I guess that made the idea of truly publishing our own games on a simpler platform even more attractive and made the decision much easier.

IPKF: What were you doing before you started developing for the iPhone?

DV: The three directors are I guess what people call veterans of the games industry, we have all worked in it for a very long time and have had games published on all the key platforms since the BBC micro. We all met at a development studio where we were working on XBox, PS2, GBA titles, we left and formed 8bit Games to develop games for mobile with console quality and values..our experience of GBA and GBC being especially useful. On closing 8bit and opening Big Head we finished off a few projects including a plug and play joystick and then moved over fully to iPhone, so while we’ve been on iPhone for one year now we’ve not really produced as many titles as we are capable of as we’ve been on other platforms at the same time.

IPKF: What is it that excites you the most about about developing for the iPhone platform?

DV: Speed of results, it’s been a steadily more and more painful process making games with project times measured in years and teams in 100′s (how can that remain a creative environment?)…this feels like the 80′s again and yet with up to date hardware and development tools…the best of all worlds. This means we can have an idea and with minimal risk bring it to market, console is totally driven by the bottom line hence so many sequels and unoriginal racing games and first person shooters. Already on iPhone we’ve seen everything from the wacky/novelty app to the PSP contending title…a great range, that’s very exciting, we just love the fact we have a huge list of game ideas and it’s growing daily!

IPKF: As a developer you have intimate knowledge of the submission process for getting apps on the app store – how have you found it?

DV: It’s ok, very simple, remember we are used to having to go through console submissions which require a very strict list of requirements being adhered to and tested against (called the TRC’s) and while Apple have some if you don’t stray out of the SDK you hit them with no problems. You also suffer in console very tight slots, miss them and you have to wait, you can also be rejected for a host of difficult to understand reasons, not so on the iPhone (in our experience anyway!). We have heard horror stories about titles being held back, we had a slight delay on Terminator but only a few days, so far we’re very impressed.

IPKF: Do you speak with any other developers/development companies and share ideas or tips and tricks?

DV: All the time, I was at the Develop conference yesterday in Brighton and caught up with a few friendly developers, it’s quite a small industry and we do bump into each other all the time, we have a number of trade shows and events. Outside of that we do have friends where we can swap stories, techniques, issues, etc. I don’t think anyone is really an ‘open book’ but we do get on and do discuss things all the time. At the moment I feel the US is maybe a little more advanced in the development community for iPhone, probably because of Apple’s location and the key events being held there, but here in the UK most ‘professional’ developers are ex mobile or current console developers dipping their toes in the pool. I have to qualify that somewhat, by professional I mean companies in offices hiring staff, there are allot of ‘bedroom’ coders out there doing very well on the iPhone.

IPKF: Now that the App Store has been around for a while is it still the cash-cow it was when it was new?

DV: No not at all, I welcome the more realistic stories, it is very hard to have a hit, there is no system or rules to making a hit and only the hits are doing those crazy numbers, a key factor is Apple featuring your game and this seems to be purely at their discretion and decision, no amount of food hampers will sway them!

If you do not have a ‘hit’ then the money tails off very quickly, even just outside the top 100 the returns are small, too small to warrant big spending, there are now a good few developers (that’s the wrong term in my book it should be publisher) that have made a name for themselves and do tend to get results from their games however it’s very obvious to see that even they struggle at times and have to do the old 59p/99c trick to get their games up in the charts. That is the main problem as I see it with iPhone, it all started at launch with Sega and co launching at £5.99, where was the market going to go from there? Certainly not up, and mix into that that there are no rules to the pricing and very quickly it has been a market driven by price so now it’s very, very hard    to sell above the lowest price points. This on the surface seems great for the consumer, but it isn’t, even companies like Gameloft and EA have to draw the line somewhere, if this trend continues companies will not want to spend money on big licenses and big development budgets and so games like Terminator Salvation and Tiger Woods won’t happen. Licenses like that cost $50,000+ development $100,000 that’s well over 200,000 copies just to break even.

IPKF: Aside from hoping your apps do well in the charts, what are the best ways to market them? Have you ever paid to be profiled on iTunes?

DV: I’m not aware you can pay Apple for any promotion of any kind, that’s the public line anyway. Marketing is very limited, the impact of websites and magazines are a blip compared to being in the top 50 or featured by Apple, it’s that simple, not enough of the market actually read games websites, the vast majority of purchases are spur of the moment or word of mouth. That’s why most people put their titles on 72 hours sale on launch to try and get a top 100 or better still top 50 position as it will then become visible to everyone. What the development community now needs is help from Apple, we do now need a more structured and reliable way of presenting titles to the public via iTunes and via the device, better search and browse options are key as well as more visible charts that show more than top 100. I would really welcome a few marketing initiatives from Apple, this has to be done fairly so that it’s not a 3 company closed shop as the mobile market is.

IPKF: What developments/improvements would you like to see Apple make in the next version of the iPhone?

DV: Well I’m not a big fan of the radical changes to the platform we’ve seen with the new iPhone, the mobile market suffers from fragmentation and now we see the first stage of it on iPhone, the new device is so much more powerful we could all do some great stuff, I’d say as good as or better than PSP, however no one will because the market is so much smaller than all those ‘old’ devices that are out there and it’ll be years before everyone upgrades, so I’m all for extras to the firmware that can be shared across all devices. One feature I would love to see, and it exists but not usable at the moment, is TV output for gaming, to be able to play games on your TV as well as the device would be fantastic…it’s in the SDK but slows the device up and isn’t yet ‘allowed’ by Apple.

IPKF: Do you think any other mobile phone manufacturer will ever trump the iPhone for features or usability?

DV: Trump, no, there will be plenty who come a good second for a while, the iPhone/Touch is so far ahead how can anyone catch up? Everything is so well done, if anyone gets close Apple will produce the next update and jump ahead again…one key factor is the iPhone is a cool device, it’s not seen as a gamer’s device or a geek’s device, every sector wants one, every age, male, female, no mobile or gaming device to date can claim that and I see no reason for that to change.

IPKF: What’s the most satisfying thing about developing for the iPhone?

DV: Freedom, we can make what we want, how we want, when we want and when we get it right the public tells us and we make some money…the flipside is get it wrong and boy do the public tell you!

IPKF: Have you got anything you’d like to plug on iPhone KungFu?

DV: Well, all our games…The Terminator (not Salvation!), International Snooker and Retro Cave Flyer, but as importantly I would say keep an eye on www.bigheadgames.co.uk and our youtube channel as there is already some info about our next releases…oh and look out for MCM Mobile Club Manager from Sanco, we’re developing a football (soccer) management game for them like no other…due out for the start of the season.

In a regular series of short interviews, iPhone Kung Fu asks five questions to well-known iPhone users.

This week we’ve been chatting to Peter Bentley. He’s the author of The Undercover Scientist which is due for release in June. He’s an avid iPhone user and has even created his own very cool app called iStethoscope.

1. What is your all-time favourite iPhone application and why?

I have a habit of showing up 30 seconds before my train is due, so my favourite is an old app called Trains which is no longer available, but I think it’s still one of the best for UK rail times. I use it every day.

2. What feature would you add to the iPhone?

I would make the screen go from edge to edge, make it even slimmer, and enable better Bluetooth connectivity so we could sync without cables. I’d also remove all the Apple constraints on developers and allow users to vote whether they think an app should be removed from iTunes, rather than Apple making up its own rules and regulations to allow some apps and forbid others. But what do I know… I’m just a computer scientist!

3. What was the last played song on your iPhone?

Slip Away by David Bowie.

4. What image do you have as your iPhone background?

A weird abstract blue swirly thing.

5. What’s the strangest thing you’ve looked up on your iPhone?

When I was writing The Undercover Scientist on my MacBook out of Wi-Fi range, I sometimes needed to check some of the strange facts in the book. So I’ve looked up a million things – like the location of the Soap Woman, or the origins of the Pinocchio experiment. Most recently I looked up the origins of why we tend to have fish served in cafeterias on Fridays. I’m a curious person!

Here’s a little more information about Peter’s app:

iStethoscope is a free utility app in iTunes that allows users to listen to their heartbeats – medical doctors have shown that it works better than some existing digital stethoscopes on the market. Peter has begun working with researchers in the Medical School of the University of Minnesota on a professional version of the app that will help their research into heart conditions.

In a regular series of short interviews, iPhone Kung Fu asks five questions to well-known iPhone users.

Keen iPhone Kung Fu visitors will have seen our write up on UK rock band Fightstar’s new iPhone game, Spilt Milk (click here for the link). Not content with breaking the top 20 with our high score on the game, we got hold of Dan Haigh and Charlie Simpson from the band to answer our five questions.

Fightstar’s new album, be human, is available on iTunes for £7.99 by clicking here.

Check out Fightstar’s iPhone app Spilt Milk on the App Store by clicking this link.

1.What is your all-time favourite iPhone application and why?

Charlie: Flixster. The ultimate app for finding out what’s on at the movies. The fact that the app can note your location and direct you to the nearest theatre is genius! It also gives you a great insight into reviews and film info, which is also great to have.
Dan: Well Spilt Milk of course! I’m still trying to beat a million points and failing hard! It’s cool that I’m getting beat so sorely by the customers now… and I thought I had some gaming skills… damn. I also recommend Jaadu VNC which allows you to remotely connect to your home PC or Mac and take control. It even supports dual monitor setups! I like to log in remotely and freak my wife out by taking control of the mouse… opening a new text file and typing ‘I’m alive and going to eat you’ from the iPhone.

2.What feature would you add to the iPhone?
Dan: Probably some kind of death ray. I’d need a ‘stun’ setting on occasion I’d imagine, but only rarely.
Charlie: The only feature that the iPhone doesn’t have that I really want is the use of video on the camera function. Sometimes still pictures just don’t cut it when there is an alien invasion and you want to capture some awesome footage of the flying saucer.

3.What was the last played song on your iPhone?
Charlie: These Days - Jackson Brown
Dan: These Days – Nico… haha! The version battle rages on!

4.What image do you have as your iPhone background?
Charlie: I have a picture of my girlfriend that I took on Valentines day.
Dan: I have a still from a film which myself, members of Fightstar and two other rad dudes are making called In God We Trust. It’s a still of a mercenary sniper miliseconds after we detonated a large number of special effects squibs covered with LARGE blood packs that were attached to his chest. I think you can imagine the effect… forget about Die Hard!

5.What’s the strangest thing you’ve looked up on your iPhone?
Chaz and Dan: We once texted a question to AQA from Chaz’s iPhone which read ‘Will Steve Jobs be upset if we jailbreak our iPhones?’ They replied ‘Yes.’ It was worth every penny!

Check out Fightstar’s website at www.fightstarmusic.com

The second in our regular Five Questions For… series features Tekzilla’s Veronica Belmont. As well as co-hosting the technology-based show, Veronica presents quick iPhone tips on the site and regularly contributes to popular technology podcasts like This Week in Tech and The MacCast. Veronica also co-hosts Qore on the PLAYSTATION Network and has her own blog at veronicabelmont.com.

1. What is your all time favourite iPhone app and why?
I know this is so typical, but Shazam is still my favorite all-time app. I couldn’t even tell you the number of times I’ve used it, and it never fails to impress iPhone nonbelievers.

2. What feature would you add to the iPhone?
I’ve been pining for an application organizer for a long time, but that’s more on the computer side and not really an iPhone feature. Cut and paste is the big one, of course. Seriously. Add cut and paste.

3. What was the last played song on your iPhone?
The Well and the Lighthouse by Arcade Fire (I’m really glad that wasn’t something too embarrassing!)

4. What image do you have as your iPhone background?
I have the matching background for my GelaSkin cover on my iPhone, by We Kill You.

5. What’s the strangest thing you’ve looked up on your iPhone?
I had to find a Little Bo Peep costume on short notice once. I was successful!

In a regular series of short interviews, iPhone Kung Fu asks five questions to well known iPhone users. 

Today’s five questions are put to one of the most prominent iPhone users in entertainment today, Mr Stephen Fry.

Currently as well known for his online activity and iPhone use as his many years in television and film, Stephen has written several books and is an active blogger and Twitter fan. As the owner of several iPhones we thought it fitting that he kicked off this ongoing series of interviews. 

1. What is your all-time favourite iPhone application and why?

Tweetie. I think it’s the absolute king of Twitter apps. The fastest, cleanest and most reliable by a mile. The author is constantly updating it with imagination and flair.

Find out more information regarding Stephen on his brilliant website at www.stephenfry.com and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stephenfry