Episode 13 - Noel Llopis - Indie iPhone Game Development
Noel Llopis became an indie after spending 10 years building large scale console and PC games. In this interview, Noel talks about what it’s like going from a team of 200 on a three year release cycle to being a lone gunman developing his no-gunman Flower Garden iPhone game in six months. Flower Garden is remarkably detailed, with some intricate tech behind the scenes, including flowers generated procedurally from a DNA-like structure. The interview also features insights into the differences between building for consoles/PCs and the phone: Console/PC games are often termed “appointment games,” games on the phone are played more frequently, but for smaller intervals. The iPhone is hardware-equivalent to the 10 year old Dreamcast; learn what it’s missing vs. a modern console, and some of the methods — including assembly language optimization — to make up the difference.