Recently, Xbox Community Games has given small development studios and even, single developer team, a place to show off their skills. Community games has also brought many games that probably would never have been made to gamers throughout the world. I have recently spoken with one of those developers, Mobeen Fikree. The full text of the interview is posted below. Check out his game, DUOtrix, currently available on Xbox Live Community Games for 400 MS Points or a super cheap five dollars. Also, check back for a review soon.
Quck bio of you as a game developer and a quick bio of your company.
Hi, I’m Mobeen Fikree, but everyone calls me Mo. I’ve been a game developer ever since my parents bought me Klik & Play for my 10th birthday … that was 12 years ago! Caffeine Monster Software (http://www.caffeinemonstersoftware.com/) is my indie game studio. I’m focused on writing games for multiple platforms and taking advantage of their unique properties. I also push myself to write games that are intuitive to play and have interesting visual design. Founded in April 2008, I’ve already released 3 games on 4 platforms. It’s been a frantic, exhausting, but very rewarding first year!
How long was your project for XBCG and your other titles along with what roles did you play and have to contract out, if any?
We’ll start from the top.
My debut game, Smiley’s Shooty Adventure (http://www.caffeinemonstersoftware.com/smiley.php) was a shoot-em-up for Windows and Mac, released April 2008. It spent a whole year in development. I was responsible for verything except the music, which was written by the talented guys at Hybrid Two (http://www.hybridtwo.com/).
Following that, I went into prototyping mode, as I always do at the end of a project. After plenty of iteration, I had an awesome puzzle game on my hands but I wasn’t decided on the platform. A couple of days later, Apple e-mails me to let me know I was in the iPhone SDK beta. I put two and two together and wrote Geomex (http://www.caffeinemonstersoftware.com/geomex.php) for the iPhone. Amazingly, Geomex only took two months to develop. This is largely because I had a solid prototype working, but also because I put in plenty of 10-12 hour days.
Most recently, there was DUOtrix (http://www.caffeinemonstersoftware.com/duotrix.php). I knew I wanted to do something for the XBCG launch, and DUOtrix seemed like a great match. I created it in collaboration with Binary Zoo Studios (http://www.binaryzoo.com/). Hybrid Two once again took on the music duties. DUOtrix took somewhere between 4 to 6 months to develop.
First game you every played, explain the situation.
Hmmm … I’m not sure, actually. We had an Atari 2600 when I was too young to play it. This is only a vague memory, but I think my Mum was hooked onto Defender. My Dad tells me he sold our C64 just before I was born … I get sad if I think about that for too long. 
I do recall the first two games that had a huge impact on me though: Super Mario World (SNES) and Prince of Persia (PC). Mario was just this huge sprawling world free for you to explore. Sure you could just go from left to right, but you could also fly across levels, find secrets, discover the star world, etc. It was just unbelievably huge in content and scope. Similarly, Prince of Persia displayed a great level of continuity within the world. When you’d go from one screen to another, you could see parts of the world you’d already been to. Or you’d see later parts of the level, foreshadowing their existence. The game wasn’t just a series of individual screens, it was an interconnected world. It seems trivial now but it was mind-blowing at the time.
Favorite game platform and game.
That’s a tough one. I’m gonna cheat and pick two platforms: the PC and DS. The PC is the ultimate open platform, so you get all sorts of bonkers games on it, which is a blast. It’s also home to the mouse, my favourite input device to develop games around. I love the DS because it’s such a fun platform. Similar to the PC, you can get all sorts of bonkers games on it (Elite Beat Agents, Brain Age, Electroplankon, Phoenix Wright, etc). Compared to home console games, DS games are easier to get into and are just as fun and challenging. I think console game developers could learn a thing or two from their DS counterparts. My favourite game is an easy one: Grim Fandango. It does everything right: story, dialogue, music, art style. Which reminds me, I’ve got to play it again soon! Other games on the Top 10 list include: Worms Armageddon, Rez, Half Life 2, Bioshock and Quake 3 Arena.
How did you get started with XBCG?
I’m always looking for opportunities to develop for consoles, so when XBCG was announced I jumped right on it. The codebase for DUOtrix is based off the cellphone version I wrote for Binary Zoo Studios two years ago. I ported the code over quite quickly, and then spent lots of time getting DUOtrix up to console standard. After that, I spent forever tweaking the HD graphics and psychedelic special FX.
As a single developer, does it pay the bills?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It makes reasonable money, but nowhere near
the amount I’d need to support myself. I wish it did though.
Do you think the iPhone or Ipod Touch will become a viable platform for you in the future?
It’s difficult to call, as the AppStore is still quite young. On the one hand Apple has created a robust and simple to use storefront from both a customer and developer point of view. I spent two months working on the registration code and backend for Smiley, so having Apple do all the dull work makes my life much easier.
On the other hand, there’s the whole “99c or no sale” thing. The issue for those who don’t know, is that most games on the AppStore only end up selling if they are priced at a meager 99c. If this trend continues, we’re going to see higher end indie developers drop out of the iPhone market entirely, which would be shame. Personally, I have big ideas for the iPhone, but can’t justify working on them if they won’t sell for more than $2 tops. I’m certainly not abandoning the iPhone, but I am scaling down he scope of my iPhone projects.
I realize this is just the free market at work, and it’s not like I want Apple controlling the prices, but there are solutions. The most effective would be a demo system for the AppStore. The casual games market on the PC has the right idea with the 1 hour time-limited demos. Unfortunately, Apple seem completely against the idea of demos. I tried to submit “Geomex Demo” to the AppStore but it was rejected for using the word “demo” and for referencing “features that are not implemented”. I ended up creating “Geomex lite”, but it wasn’t a very effective demo in comparison to the original app I submitted. With a demo system, we’d be able to charge more for our games without the players fearing that their money will be wasted. Personally, I don’t buy anything on the AppStore unless I can get a demo first, so I can understand the sentiment.
Have you been playing any games and if so, on what platforms.
I’m currently playing bits of Fable 2, but most of my time is spent playing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix and Bangai-O Spirits for DS. Bangai-O is awesome … it’s very frustrating at first, but once you get it, it’s absolute shmup bliss.
How has the economy affected you as a developer or as a company?
It hasn’t. Since Caffeine Monster Software isn’t my primary source of income, I don’t have to worry about it. Also, I’m a one man team, so I don’t have employees to pay or anything.
Would you ever consider taking a job with a bigger publisher or developer?
No. I don’t like the idea of working on “epic” titles. As a videogame designer, I spend lots of time focusing on mechanics and the feel of a game. I’m not sure my weeks of tinkering around with prototypes would fit in well with the industry. I love software development though, and will definitely have a job in the software industry when I graduate from university. I’ll continue to develop my games on the side. It’s a setup that has worked well for me so far.
What are your future plans, is there anything you are working on, if so for what platform?
I’m spending a lot of time prototyping. I’m also working on upgrading Geomex a bit, but I don’t have a schedule on that. The prototypes I’m working on are mainly for XBCG and the iPhone. I hope to get back into PC/Mac development at some point, but these new platforms are too exciting to pass on right now!
I use Twitter to keep a mini developer blog, so you can follow along
if you’d like to know what I’m doing: http://www.twitter.com/caffeinemonster
Do you feel the process of XBCG is good and how would you improve it.
Overall, I’m quite positive about XBCG. The fact that it allows indie developers to write console games on a shoe-string budget is amazing. At the moment, XBCG isn’t getting enough exposure. I’m hoping Microsoft PR talk the service up a bit more in the coming months. Also, as the list of games grows, it’s going to get incredibly difficult to filter through all of them. A basic rating system would help things greatly. Actually, I could say the same about the NXE in general. The filtering/searching/browsing experience was crap before, and it’s actually worse with NXE.
What exactly is the peer review process?
The peer review process is Microsoft’s certification process for XBCG. Remarkably, they’ve taken a completely hands-off approach, with the whole process handled by us, the community developers. Compared to Apple’s opaque submission process, this is pretty cool. We rate our games (for Violence, Sex and Mature Content) and have other developers play our game to ensure that (a) our game matches the rating, and (b) that our games have no crashing bugs in them. After a certain number of reviews, the game is approved and on the marketplace.
Please stay tuned of DUOtrix review. Please, at least, support single developers like Mo and download the demo of their games on both XBCG and the App Store. Links are above. I hope for continued success for Mo and his company in the future. Thanks again!
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