Interview: Makers of Canabalt Talk About Bringing Their Hit Flash Game to iPhone and iPod touch
9:52 am, October 12th, 2009, Craig Grannell
Canabalt's detailed pixellated graphics (zoomed here) draw you into the game.
With its simple tap-to-jump gameplay, high-speed scrolling and gritty dystopian atmospherics, Canabalt proved a hit Flash-based sensation when recently unleashed online. The game has now been released for iPhone and iPod touch—one of the first truly successful Flash-based games on the platform. We spoke to Adam Saltsman and Eric Johnson of Semi Secret Software about how the game came to be.
Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, annoying pigeons.
Cult of Mac: How would you describe Canabalt to people who’ve not heard of it?
Adam Saltsman: Canabalt is a one-button ‘daring escape’ platformer. You play as a little dude attempting to escape from a city under siege by forces unknown!
What were the origins of the game? Why did you decide to create it, and what were your influences?
Adam: Canabalt was created for the Experimental Gameplay Project, a cool monthly activity organized by some of the greatest minds in indie games. The idea is you have seven days to create a game around a specific theme; the month that I made Canabalt, the theme was ‘bare minimum’, which had a big impact on the game.
I love minimalism in games anyway, but this was a good excuse to push it further. Canabalt uses six shades of gray and one button and is still pretty exciting. A shotgun list of influences would include Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, District 9, District B13, Mirror’s Edge, Half-Life 2, and Flashback.
Was the iPod version an afterthought or always part of your plans?
Eric Johnson: The iPhone/iPod version of Canabalt was always in the back of Adam’s mind as he created the Flash version—hence the one button/one tap interface. When the Flash version became an overnight hit, it seemed a no-brainer to begin work on porting to the iPhone.
About to go splat from a great height.
How did you find developing for iPod and the App Store process?
Eric: Developing for the iPhone/iPod was a pretty quick experience, largely due to the fact that we have been working on iPhone games for the last year. We’ve got a few other games in the pipeline right now. When we started working on Canabalt, we put those others temporarily on hold, and were able to leverage a lot of the source code that we had already written in Canabalt.
How has having the Flash version available online affected word-of-mouth and sales regarding the iPod release?
Eric: This seems to been huge in generated anticipation for the iPhone/iPod release. For example, Canabalt has already managed to crack the top 100 paid apps, whereas with our first title, Wurdle, this took several weeks. This may also be due to the fact that Canabalt is simply awesome.
What was the thinking behind the price-point? Similar games for iPod are often a buck, so why the more premium point for Canabalt?
Eric: This is something that we were a little nervous about. The app store unfortunately has the trend of games selling for just a buck. We feel that Canabalt is a good game, and that $2.99 is a good price regardless of the platform. We really hope that people will support us as independent developers so that we can continue to make awesome games.
What’s in store for Canabalt’s future?
Eric: We’re planning on at least one major update to add our user profile and high score system, as well as some other things I can’t mention yet. Beyond that, we will just listen to feedback and figure out what makes the most sense!
Canabalt is available for $2.99 on the App Store, and you can play the original online at canabalt.com.
Posted by Craig Grannell in Gaming, Interviews, News, iPhone Apps | Comment on this article
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Make a week or weekend sale for .99 cents AND SEE HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF BUYERS YOU GET IN ONE WEEK-I’m waiting for a sale so i can buy this game.
Core, on October 12th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Let’s say you wait two weeks for it to go on sale at 99 cents. That’s a saving of $1 a week. Which is about 14 cents a day. You couldn’t pay me 14 cents a day NOT to play Canabalt. Just pay the $2.99, support the developer, and play the best game on the iphone sooner rather than later.
knighty, on November 19th, 2009 at 6:37 am