Interview with Lucas Pope of Ratloop, Developers of Helsings Fire

After hibernating for over 8 years to pursue various advanced degrees, a small 4 manned company by the name of Ratloop is back into the gaming sphere with the launch of a new underground title, Helsings Fire.

I sat down with Lucas Pope, Programmer/Designer/Musician of Ratloop to discuss Helsings Fire, their small company’s history, their influence in the mobile application atmosphere and Apple’s iOS platform.

Company Name: Ratloop
Name: Lucas Pope
Title: Programmer, Designer, Musician
URL: www.ratloop.com

Q: How do you think the iPhone and iPad has revolutionized the mobile phone industry?

For me personally, the iPhone put the world in my pocket. Having telephony, games, internet, and apps within easy reach at all times has changed the way I live, work, and play. Love it.

Q: How do you think the iPhone or iPad have revolutionized the portable gaming industry with contenders such as Sony and Nintendo?

The phone is something that’s always by your side whereas a game console is a carry-if-you-can machine. There are games that work better on the DS or PSP, but in general I think it will be harder and harder for dedicated portable game machines to compete against smartphones. The biggest problem right now with smartphone gaming is ironically the interface. I still haven’t seen a touchscreen interface that feels as good for traditional games as a physical d-pad and snappy buttons.

Q: What separates your company from your competitors with mobile phone applications?

Walls and some air mostly. Probably water in many cases as well.

Q: What is your company background, size (employees, developers, etc), and company inspirations?

Ratloop has always been really small. We started back in 1998 with 4 people and haven’t really changed much. Between 2001 and 2008 the company was in a sort of hibernation while we all worked industry jobs or studied for law degrees. Two years ago felt like the right time to get back into it and we’ve been trying to create innovative independent games again.

Q: Do you outsource any projects or development, if so, how much?

Because we’re all primarily engineers, we usually try to figure out a way to solve all our resource problems in-house. We haven’t outsourced anything yet and I doubt we’d have the people or management skills to pull it off right.

Q: Advancements in graphics and animations in the mobile phone industry have astronomically grown within the past couple of years. How much time does your company devote to graphical, animation, and sound production for mobile applications?

As a small developer, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to finish a game without spending thousands of man hours on huge 3d models, motion-captured animation, or the latest shader effects. I think this is a really fun challenge actually, so I like trying to find the most efficient way to achieve good graphics, sound, or gameplay.

Q: How many applications has your company planned, developed, or created at any given time?

One of the other founders has a studio in Singapore (Ratloop Asia) that created Rocketbirds Revolution, so it’s feasible we could have up to 2 projects at any one time. So far though, we’ve only had one project going at a time. We’re always planning new projects though.

Q: What do you think of the iPhone or iPad Operating System in comparison to other mobile platforms? Are Apple’s competitors finally producing a comparable product or has the iPhone or iPad already monopolized the niche market?

I don’t have any experience with other mobile operating systems, but I do know a few embedded operating systems, which can be similar. In my opinion, Apple’s iOS is a fantastic OS and their development environment is one of the best. The ease that you can get up and running, testing, and debugging on the device or in the simulator is really stunning.

Q: Is your company currently developing for other mobile platforms, if so, which ones and why?

Right now we’re just targeting Apple’s devices.

Q: Marketing an application can be a very difficult task. With so many applications being developed and released on a daily basis, capturing user attention in an App Store is challenging. What have you found to be an effective way to market your products to users?

Well, this is where being a Clickgamer game can help. We’re not exactly marketing ninjas and the App Store is pretty close to the most terrifying beast you can imagine. We partnered with Chillingo because of their strong brands and honed marketing skills. They’re doing a great job of getting the word out and reaching users.

Q: Following the response above, what do you think of the store review process? Is it helping or hurting your business? What are some recommendations in order to speed up this process?

We have experience with console QA, which honestly is much more tedious and takes a lot longer than Apple’s review process. Helsing’s Fire took a week to go from submission to approval, which is a bit on the long side from what I’ve heard. Even with this, we’re generally happy with their process and I don’t think it’s hurting us at all.

Q: What are your thoughts on the App Store user reviews and the ability to monitor them?

Because this is our first game, we’re just now getting a feel for how the user reviews work. I’ve heard other developers complain about rogue votes that make no sense and mess up their ratings, but so far we’re avoiding that. Probably just jinxed it.

Q: What is your favorite application?

My favorite app right now is m48, an HP48 calculator emulator for the iPhone. As part of my nerd qualifications, I’m required to love old HP calcs and m48 is the best emulator out there.

Thank you very much Lucas Pope and Ratloop for your time.

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