Mike Ouye: Our diversion is called Life Is Crime . It's a free-to-play, social, location-based crime-themed mobile diversion for Android and iOS. Players execute practical crimes at actual locations, on vacation their local bar, coffee emporium and bank to perform missions, sell prohibited and free-for-all with other players. The more active players are, the more territory they manage and the aloft their crook repute becomes.
How cruel is the crime-app contest on mobile devices, and how do you feel Red Robot Labs is faring?
Mike Ouye: We took a unique draw close by rising on Android first, then coming the iOS market, and so far it has paid off. Life Is Crime has over a million downloads on Android given its launch at PAX West in Aug 2011. This combined movement so that when it expelled on the iTunes App Store January 5th, it rose to the number two on the Free Apps list.
Pete Hawley: As for Red Robot Labs, our firm has stretched in to the UK, fasten forces with Supermono, and continues to blossom hurriedly here in the US. In fact, we're still hiring, so if mobile gaming is your thing you should advance work for us !
We're anticipating that location, high polish, and enhancement will help set us apart.
What are the leading differences between building for iOS and Android?
Mike Ouye: Both offer advantages and differences. We found that Android was harder to order on -- there are so many carriers, shade sizes, and handsets. iOS has 2-3 standards that you can stick and really simply casing the most of the player-base. However, Android gives you the chance to iterate exceedingly fast. There is no examination process, you can tell and pull new calm as frequently as you'd like, so in that apply oneself it's simpler to pierce quickly whilst building a new game.
Both have positives and negatives. Both are great platforms and we'll be using both is to foreseeable future.
What desirous you to make Life is Crime ?
Mike Ouye: We got really vehement about merging mobile gameplay with place for Life Is Crime . Smartphones are everywhere. People always have them in their pockets. Adding place was really engaging -- a dare that compulsory imaginative solutions because it's so new.
Pete Hawley: Life Is Crime takes the verbatim places you go and drops a diversion world on tip of the actual world, so that anyplace you are in actual life is applicable to your crook career. We moreover felt there is assembly of core gamers that has been underserved by the mobile gaming market. Life is Crime fills that void.
Mike Ouye: There are 3 cold aspects of Life Is Crime :
Landmark gameplay. We emanate law graphical landmarks for any geographic area -- Alcatraz for San Francisco, the Empire State building for New York and Big Ben in London. These landmarks uncover up on the diversion chart even when the player is a long stretch away, creating outrageous hot spots for gameplay. Each of these landmarks has over 1,000 players on any leaderboard vying, fighting and competing for position. It was really engaging to see how players were captivated to well-noted locations in the game, and how aggressive they got for any one.
The community. We built this diversion with the goal of creation it formed unconditionally on conspiring and contest with other players. To that end, you only implemented our "World Worker" crowdsourcing apparatus that empowers residents members to help erect out our gaming world. We wish the Life Is Crime residents to emanate a world together, not only fool around in one, so you are permitting enlisted players to experience in chart and venue creation, and to reasonable locations. We have seen extreme contest for territory amid our players, and you hope this new growth will commission our crime residents to spread in to the nooks, crannies and alleyways of every city.
Location! I noticed that many apps are location-based these days, but consider it this way: In most RPGs, you form an in-game identity by sitting in front of a Personal Computer or TV, and plan your aptitude onto a screen, so that you feel similar to you're a not similar person in a not similar world. With Life Is Crime , it's location-based, so we're bringing the world in to your stream reality. We think that it's way cooler to fight, treat contraband, or snatch Starbucks, rsther than than only checking in there.
Anything you'd do differently?
Pete Hawley: If you had to do it all over again, I think you would put reduction time in to the manage to buy of the diversion and more in to iteration. We outlayed so sufficient time perplexing to obtain the math at the back the diversion immaculately balanced. In the end, we've altered it so many times that it wasn't really value putting so sufficient time in to it pre-launch. A lot of this is listening to the residents and iterating, fixing, editing math and balancing on a diversion after it has an assembly at scale.
Mike Ouye: I'm from Playdom (now Disney), Pete and John have both outlayed a few time at EA (the greatest diversion firm in the world). We've outlayed time at large companies. We really longed for to take on the dare and the fun of building a college of music and a business from the belligerent up. As an eccentric studio, you can pierce really swift and iterate on product and games even faster.
Do you see yourself as segment of a incomparable indie movement?
Pete Hawley: We do. I think the stream indie movement is actual and growing. You do not need 3 years, 100 people and $20 million to produce a diversion anymore. With iOS and Android, you're able to emanate games quickly, well and obtain them to millions of people. It's an exciting time to be an indie mobile-game author correct now. Tons of opportunity, large audiences and the capability to erect a successful business around it.
Sell Life is Crime in one sentence:
Mike Ouye: Why examine in when you can fight, steal and deal?
What's next?
Mike Ouye: Pete and I were on the "Social, Mobile, Location-Based Games" row at SXSW Interactive and you were segment of the Mobile App Showcase at Macworld. In add-on to world domination, you are focusing our efforts on Life Is Crime diversion updates, expanding the R2 stage and seeking at new hires around the world.
If you'd similar to to have your own shot at converting our readers in to fans, email jess [at] joystiq [dawt] com, theme line "The Joystiq Indie Pitch." Still haven't had enough? Check out the Pitch repository .
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