Conor O’Kane是澳大利亚墨尔本皇家理工大学的教授，他在游戏开发领域有10年的经验，三年前进入进入大学专授游戏开发的相关课程。

RMIT

目前该校有一个相关的课程计划，专门面向iphone应用开发者的12天短期培训。课程时间从6月21日开始，将涉及iphone、ipad和ipod touch三个方向的2D游戏设计。该游戏面向所有人开放，唯一的报名条件是需要有一定的编程经验。

去年Conor O’Kane曾经举办过类似的活动，有40余人参与了整个课程，现场实况录像目前还能在youtube进行播放。

对于iphone应用来讲，苹果公司已经自己制定了很多的标准和用户界面特征，你只要依照他们的这些要求就不会犯很大的错误，你可以依托它去设计一些其他平台完全没有的游戏。

记者还问到一个全球通行（该全球范围也可以特指中国）的严肃问题，澳大利亚教育出来的游戏开发者学生经常性地找不到工作。

iphone-game

Demand for Australian programmers who can create applications for the iPhone is far exceeding supply, making it difficult and expensive for many companies who want to turn a great idea into a popular app.

The good news is that the barriers for entry into the world of iPhone development are far lower than for other platforms. Development tools are relatively easy to learn and use, and developers can access a huge market via the democratic App Store.

Melbourne-based university RMIT is hoping to help address the developer shortage by offering a 12-day short course in game development for the iPhone.

The course is being run by Conor O’Kane, a teacher and independent games developer who garnered headlines for creating a “serious game” protesting at government censorship of digital media in Australia.

Conor is originally from Ireland, but has been living in Melbourne for the past eight years. He worked as an artist in the games industry for 10 years, but three years ago began developing his own indie games for PC, Macintosh and iPhone, as well as teaching game development at RMIT.

Screen Play recently chatted with Conor about the iPhone course and the state of iPhone development in Australia. The interview can be found below.

Thanks for your time, Conor. Can you start by telling me about the iPhone design course you are running?

We’re running a 12 day course, starting on the 21st of June. It will cover game development for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad platforms using the Torque 2D game engine. The course is open to the public, not just RMIT students. The only requirement to attending is that you have some programming or scripting experience.

Did last year’s course get some good results?

We had 40 participants last year. Examples of the games they created can be seen on YouTube. Scott Cameron continued work on the prototype he developed during the course, and this went on to become Creepy Caverns, which is available on the App Store now. This is a great example of how a short course like this can lead to a real commercial outcome.

What are some of the best pieces of advice you can give people who are interested in dabbling in iPhone development?

iPhone development is a lot easier if you start with an established game engine like Torque or Unity. This way you don’t need to know objective C or OpenGL to get started. It also means you can prototype your game in Windows or MacOS before deploying it onto the hardware. If you’re already a skilled programmer then you might consider the cocos2d platform, or even developing directly in Apple’s Xcode. Once you’re ready to run your game on the actual hardware you’ll need an intel based Mac running the latest Mac OS, and you’ll need to sign up as an iPhone developer, which costs US$100 per year. You can find out how to sign up and download all the tools required to develop iPhone apps at developer.apple.comIt really is very easy compared to developing for other platforms like Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo DS, for example, as the cost of entry and the skill requirements are relatively low.

What are some of the unique design challenges of the iPhone that you have to be mindful of?

Apple has defined a set of standard gestures and UI features which work well on these devices. So long as you stick to a similar design for your game’s interaction and presentation you can’t go too far wrong. Obviously the tilt and multi-touch input methods are key to iPhone games and they allow for totally new genres of game which don’t exist on other platforms.

And what are the biggest traps that people often fall for?

One of the worst things you can do when making an iPhone or iPad game is to simply port the control scheme from another device and expect it to work. I find that first-person shooter games which require you to keep two thumbs on the screen are not very satisfying on iPhone, as you’re covering a lot of the screen while you play, and you don’t have the tactile feedback from the joystick.

Similarly games that require precise button pressing are harder to play on a touch screen since you can’t feel the buttons. If your game uses this kind of control scheme then it would probably be better suited to another platform.

I understand some developers are charging huge amounts to develop iPhone apps for clients. Is there currently a lot more demand for expertise than supply?

Indeed there is huge demand for iPhone apps at the moment. Many developers I’m in contact with don’t have enough time or staff to keep up with the job offers they’re receiving.

There have been a lot of layoffs in the Australian development community recently and some might consider that the industry is in something of a slump at the moment, but I don’t see it that way.

There is still a lot of money to be made in game development, but that money has moved away from the major consoles and into mobile devices and online distribution. The large companies that are struggling at the moment simply haven’t evolved quickly enough to keep pace with this change. Australian developers can no longer compete on price, as development costs in Canada and Asia are far lower than here and they cannot compete with the major IP holders since consolidation of the industry has led to only three or four huge publishers owning all of the blockbuster titles. So while there will still be console development in Australia in the future, it will probably all be owned by EA and THQ and other large publishers. The mid-sized development studios will be bought out by these large publishers, or move into the online and mobile spaces, or close down.

Smaller companies are quicker to respond to these changes in the industry and there are plenty of these developers in Australia. Companies like Firemint, Halfbrick Studios, The Voxel Agents, IronMonkey and KlickTock are all making chart-topping iPhone games at the moment.

Do most students graduating from game development degrees still want to be making blockbusters on the cutting-edge platforms, or do you think there’s a lot more interest now on the indie scene?

We’re starting to see a much greater variety in the types of games that students want to make while they’re at college. While it used to be common to see students focusing mainly on Unreal mods, these days there are more original and even experimental works being made in college. Courses like RMIT’s iPhone games course give students the ability to pursue their own goals after college, and not be dependent upon a large development studio hiring them.

For many years the games industry has been critical of academic circles, that graduates were not job-ready. Do you think that educational institutions have improved their game in Australia in recent years?

No student can ever be totally “job-ready” after college, particularly when studios use their own proprietary internal tools which require additional training. I teach a course in 3D Character design with Maya at RMIT, but the focus of this course is not on the specific Maya toolset, rather it is on the principles of 3D Character design – what makes a good character, how should a model be prepared for animation, where should optimization be the priority as opposed to visual quality. These are questions which apply no matter what software you’re using.

Similarly, skills acquired on our iPhone games development course could equally well be applied to other platforms. What this course is really about is giving people the skills and the confidence to develop small games entirely on their own, which is key to being an indie developer.

In game development, the ability to use many different programs isn’t as important as the ability to learn new tools quickly and thoroughly since the technology is constantly changing. I feel that if educational institutions focus on giving students the skills to solve problems and acquire new knowledge on their own they will be well equipped to enter game development.

Screen Play also asked Conor O’Kane about iPhone marketing, a question that he deferred to someone who he felt was more knowledgeable and experienced on the topic – Matthew Hall, director of KlickTock and creator of number one App Store game Doodle Find.

What are some of the best ways you can make sure your content stands out on the crowded App Store?

Matthew Hall – I’ve found cross-promotion to be the most effective form of promotion on the app store. I’ve put advertisements in my game cross promoting Fruit Ninja and Creepy Caverns. Both adverts earned way more clicks than they would from traditional advertising on websites. Players on their iPhones are keen to see new games, and when it’s one click away – why not!

Building a community is also extremely important. KlickTock has a home on Facebook with 2500 fans at the moment, but there are other options for building a community such as PlayHaven. They offer a free cross promotional and community building SDK (Software Development Kit) which I urge anyone to check out.

Before the launch of Doodle Find, I put in adverts in Super Search 60 advertising the imminent launch of the game. I got Doodle Find approved well before the launch then used Promo Codes to give review copies to iPhone reviewers. On launch day I got great traffic simply for keeping my existing user base informed.

For those starting from scratch, I would recommend developing a game that’s initially paid with in-app purchases extending the game. Then, drop the price of the game to free later and keep it that way. There are a lot of websites tracking games that drop from paid to free. You’ll see a huge jump in sales, earn a place in the chart and – if your game is good – it should stay there.