MacStories Interviews: Ryan Rigney

MacStories Interviews was a series of interviews with well-known developers, bloggers, journalists and geeks that we published late last year. We’ve revived the format to interview Ryan Rigney, author of Buttonless, a new book about iOS games that is launching on December 13th. We’ll have a full review of the book when it is released, but in the meantime we thought it would be interesting to hear more from the author himself.

MacStories: Hey Ryan! Could you introduce yourself to the readers who haven’t heard about you or haven’t read any of your work before?

Sure! I’m a freelance writer who has written for a number of gaming outlets, most notably GamePro, PC Gamer, and Gamasutra. I’ve mostly written about iOS gaming, but I’m also a big console gamer so I’ve done a good bit of writing about those types of games as well. Just this week GamePro published my review of Minecraft!

MacStories: So tell us a bit more about your new book, Buttonless. What made you decide you wanted to write this book?

Over the past few years I’ve been so focused on iOS and written so much about iOS games that it’s become something of an obsession. I’ve reviewed hundreds of iPhone and iPad games, interviewed scores of developers, and purchased far too many apps. I pretty much came to the realization that I possessed enough experience and knowledge to write a book, and then began brainstorming ideas. It took a while for me to figure out that I wanted to put so much of the focus on “the stories behind the games,” though.

MacStories: Did you find it difficult finding a publisher willing to help you write this book given it is such a new industry that may appear very “niche”?

Actually, A K Peters/CRC Press was the first publisher I approached. In my pitch, I shared with them a bunch of numbers that I had stumbled across––how many hundreds of millions of iOS devices are out there, and how many people are buying these games. The truth is, it’s really not a niche. iOS gaming is now the most popular form of portable gaming, and it’s only getting bigger. Maybe if I had tried to write a book about 3DS games, the publisher would have needed more convincing haha!

MacStories: What surprised you the most when researching and interviewing all the developers?

The vast majority of the developers I spoke to were really open and honest. A couple of them sounded like PR people, but I had plenty of developers open up to me in ways I hadn’t expected. Doodle Jump’s Igor Pusenjack really opened up about his feelings about other games that use “Doodle” in the title, for example. Super Stickman Golf creator Jordan Schidlowsky was also honest about his motivations for getting into iOS development (Here’s a quote from him: “I wasn’t really big into video games,” he says. “We wanted to go into the best market for making money.”). There are dozens more examples like that.

MacStories: Are there any particular stories that you found particularly inspiring or fascinating?

I think that Rolf Fleischmann (the creator of No, Human) is one of the most fascinating people in the book. This is a guy who didn’t even know how to program, but he quit his job and made a game, learning as he went. He’s got raw determination, and I’m really inspired by that. Very few people have the guts to put themselves at risk like that by going out and doing something they’ve never done before.

MacStories: You must have played hundreds of iOS games (if not thousands!), what do you think are some of the most interesting or unique games that have been developed for the platform (don’t have to be your favorite games)?

I’ve absolutely played thousands, so it’s really hard to narrow down the ones I think are the most interesting. If we’re talking about games that wouldn’t work on another platform other than iOS, Shot Shot Shoot and Halcyon immediately come to mind. There are a bunch of really strange, unique games that I write about in the book, though. Dirt is a perfect example of that, as is Godville.

MacStories: Have you got any opinions of playing iOS games on the iPhone or iPad - do you have a preference for a particular type of game for a particular device or is it just whatever device you have in your hands at the time?

I’m very fond of the iPad’s bigger screen, so if I download a game and see that it’s universal, I’ll usually just play it on my iPad 2. Big games like Battle for Wesnoth are something I’d rather play on an iPad, while bite-sized games like Silverfish feel better on my iPhone.

MacStories: Looking back, do you think there are any overriding themes or lessons that can be learnt from those who succeeded in the iOS game industry?

I could write an entire article about this subject. I interviewed a wide swath of developers, and all of them had different pieces of advice for me. However, there were two things that stuck out to me:

You have to make something unique (or just something that isn’t already on the App Store)

Set a clearly-defined schedule for developing your game. You don’t want to flounder for months working on features that won’t even make it into the final version of your game.

MacStories: How do you view the iOS game industry going forward? Is AirPlay or a potential Apple TV going to be big for the industry?

I’m really unexcited by AirPlay, and like most people I’m still waiting to see what an Apple TV would even be. I think that the biggest trends we’ll start to see is that many more games will start releasing simultaneously on iOS and Android, and games are keep to keep getting higher budgets. Traditional developers and publishers are starting to figure out what a big-budget iOS game should be, and I think that it won’t be long before we start to hear about some really amazing stuff coming out. Unfortunately, I believe that the iOS platform will become even more difficult for indie developers as a result of that.

MacStories: Reading some of the stories included in your book, it is clear that in the past Apple has been lax in supporting game developers (taking days to approve critical bug fixes, not responding to copycat apps swiftly, etc). From your interactions with developers, do you think they have improved and are developers happy with their level of interaction?

Apple has certainly improved since the early days of the App Store, but it seems that sometimes they’re still really hard to work with. I follow a lot of these developers on Twitter and even now they still complain about the wait times and unnecessary restrictions that Apple piles onto them. As the iOS platform continues to grow, I can’t imagine that those issues will get any better, though.

MacStories: What’s next for you?

You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about doing writing for games. Like dialogue, story, that sort of thing. There’s nothing in the works just yet, but it’s something that I’d be really interested in pursuing. I also haven’t had a chance to do any humorous writing in a while, which is a shame, because in the past that’s all I ever wanted to do. But for now, I’m just glad to have completed this book!

MacStories: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions Ryan!