• Developer name: Ryan Mitchell
• Developing Since: 2008
• Location:Mansfield (Dallas) Texas
• Apps at the App Store:7
• Company Website :Ryan Mitchell

About Dev:

Tell us a little about you, and your current company.

I come from a pretty long history in professional game development. I am extremely excited about this new opportunity. A few years ago I came back to help build my father’s company’s technology level and pursue multiply career paths. The game industry had worn on me and my family with 120 hour weeks stretching on indefinitely. I also wanted my kids to have grandparents so I came back home where I currently work as both a graduate architect with my father’s company and also creating apps. I pretty much work all the time that I am not spending with my wife, kids, and family. It is kind of funny really. I have a corner in the living room with two computers that I sit at while we will watch movies and tv. I have even taken a notebook computer to a friend’s poker night so in between hands I could work (sad I know). I never really have been able to do one thing at a time. I do enjoy creating apps and look forward to what I am able to pull off in the future.

About your background: What did you do before taking up iPhone development?

I started programming text adventures in basic at the age of 7 or so with 64 whole kilobytes of ram on an Apple IIe. This was in the back of my mother’s friends clothing store. O the glory days of writing games like : “You find yourself in a deep, dark, and musty dungeon.

Do you wish to travel NORTH, EAST, WEST, or SOUTH?”>USE KEY_ “THERE IS NO DOOR!” >USE DOOR_ “THERE IS NO DOOR!” LOL well maybe I do not miss those so much or the floppy disks we had to boot the systems with. So I guess now I have come full circle back to an Apple product and I am loving it. Later on I then attended Texas A&M and attained both my bachelors and masters degree of Visualization Sciences there. I then went into making games. I worked as a professional graphics programmer at 3 different game companies over about 6 years making some on the side as fun projects. The last professional game I worked on was at 2015. The game was Men of Valor for the PC and XBOX.

About your Work:

What apps have you developed so far? Tell us about your apps in brief.

3D Power Fishing- COMING IN 2 WEEKS – This is by far my biggest endeavour and the first time I have spoken publicly about it. This game pushes the iphone to its limits. The are 4 full real lakes, 96 trophies(missions), 37 different fish, 32 lures, 10 fishing poles, Multi player (LAN), and 5 fishing boats to unlock. You pick out your gear, pick the target trophy (or free fish for XP), pick the lake if you have unlocked it, choose the time of day, and then head in. Drive your boat all over the lake in beautiful 3D. The whole time an eye pealed to the Fish-Dar to locate the fish or find a nice tree outcropping.

Share the best fishing spots with your friends as they are hard to find or save them for yourself for multi-player advantages. When you find a spot shut down the roaring engines and toss out the lure you brought with the pole you earned. Each type of lure has its own modes of fishing (unless you are playing on easy mode) frog,worm, crank bait, spinners, and poppers. After setting base camp go for that trophy. You earn XP the whole time to unlock newer and better items. If you wear a spot out pull anchor and motor over to another fishing spot. It is a HUGE game I have put a ton of time into. I am really excited about this one! I have included some screens of this UNFINISHED game below. I will be posting a promotional youtube video before release so keep your eyes pealed as you have to see it in motion to appreciate the freedom you have!

Cursed Slots- One of my most popular slot machines this was released for Halloween. It features a cursed slot machine that at times will spin wildly howling and screaming the whole time. If you make it to the up game you get to pick from the evil spirits for spins and credits, but be careful for the collect spirit.

Turkey Shoot – Released for the thanksgiving holidays. You compete on a world wide high score board shooting turkeys. It was the first app to feature my skeletal animation system and a high score board stored on an external database. Slot-O-Roma- My first app was a 3 slot 3D slot machine with 5 reels and upgames on each along with a world wide high score system. The last I checked a player by the name of Alaska had over 4 million credits pretty amazing!

Slamming Slots Baseball – This is a less expensive single slot machine with a wheel based bonus game. Released at the end of baseball season it helps keep away the no baseball blues.

Magic Skull- Remember the Magic 8 Ball. This is a floating 3D skull with all the answers. I still have fun with it and poking fun at friends. Ask it a question and it will answer. It also will tell your fortune. Magic skull features full voice and text for muted operation.

Call Santa-Not for sale currently as Christmas is over. This allowed kids to call Santa from Dec 1st through the 26th. Great fun as the kids got to hear Santa prepare for Christmas by packing presents, dealing with elves, and training his reindeer. Next year I will be sure to get his phone number again.

Which one of your own apps is your favorite, and why?

3D Power Fishing- This is my latest and greatest. Each app has been an evolution in my own technology. As I add new features to my engine supporting new technologies additional doors open as to what I can accomplish. As an example, I tuned the skeletal animation systems and added a method for quickly generating and displaying the huge datasets of entire lakes in the very memory limited and fill limited environment found on the iphone/ipod for 3D Power Fishing and that will carry to the next game.

How do you go from idea to app? What’s the process?

The previous methods I used were looking at what was popular and what I thought I could do better in 3D. I saw most apps were not taking advantage of the amazing hardware found on the iphone/ipod. However, now I am going to take a different strategy and create the games I have not seen and I would love to see. Gone fishing is the first and the next will be huge. My tech is finally there to do what I want to do with this little power house. As far as the process goes first a general idea is developed. Then a design doc is created. This is THE game. All the features must be in there. Feature creep has killed many a project. -All the assets required listed. -All the technology additions listed. -All the game states. -My Schedule of milestones. I then get to work.

First I layout the game’s states in code. Then go about populating them with assets. After all is completed I test the game and see if it is fun and what additional items I might need to add beyond the D.D.. After I think it is about ready to fly, I go for a round or ten of alpha testing with the friends and family I have with devices. I take their comments and incorporate what I can. At this point comes the beta testing. This is the hard part. Here you have worked for a very long time and very hard. You really want to be done and all your testers are tired of playing the same level over and over for you for free. But it must be done to nail out remaining bugs. The last step is wrapping it up and posting it hoping it does well. As they say wash, cycle, and repeat. With every new app I am increasing the power of the tools and technology at my disposal.

Any exciting stuff you are working on? Give our readers a hint of what to expect from you next.

Gone fishing is the next project I have poured far over 500 hours into its development alone discounting all the previous blood and sweet in the technology moved from my other apps. I will also help it evolve as users pour in what they would like to see in it and I updated along the way. After that I am planning something really big. A fantasy era game is all I can say right now. I will let you know more as it draws nearer. I am in the design doc phase and will be starting development after the successful launch of 3D Power Fishing.

Do you develop for other platforms? How do you compare the iPhone development platform with other platforms?

I have developed for the PC and XBOX and by far this is the easiest, cheapest, and most cost effective in both the monetary side and time invested side. The environment was incredibly easy to get up and running. I had a openglES based app on my phone of my own design in under an hour. The distribution method is a DREAM COME TRUE by any game developer. Publishers can be notoriously tough on developers and apple has created a true paradise to release works into.

Tell us something about how users are responding to your apps. What’s the most flattering comment you have received? Or the weirdest?

I love when my users write me. It really excites, motivates, and gives me another point of view. I have received lots of positives and surprisingly many understand that this is a whole new paradigm and my apps will only get better as I improve the technology I have at my fingertips. I am on the 7th major update on some of my apps and my users really do appreciate the attention I give the apps even after releasing. It is difficult to keep updating old products because sales really do not increase with updates and you need to keep food on the family table.

About the App Store:

Name two iPhone apps you consider are cool, excluding the apps you’ve developed. What makes these apps stand out?

Hmm tough to say. I am working so much I have not gotten to try the thousands of apps that are out there so I am sure I am missing some. My wife would say word warp she is hopelessly addicted to it. My pick would be Topple most probably as it is cute, simple, and a fast in and out play. I also like seeing escapees from EA giving it a go. Just kidding! I have friends there very happily employed. I would like to state that I am starting to like what I see in the top 25. Professionals are starting to create some pretty nice apps. The competition is fierce so I do hope all of them can survive the onslaught of so many poor quality apps and lower sales figures due to it. It really is amazing the prices people are getting great entertainment for. I come from a land where it cost 60 dollars plus to get a great game. Now on the app store you can sometimes get a real steal at 99 cents or $4.99. That is Really amazing value!

Any message to your fellow developers?

THE BIGGEST TIP I could ever give after years of making games, several boxes (shipped games) and several cans (Did not ship), is always follow one principle. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid! I have been a part of, and seen so many problems of over complication and feature creep damaging great games. A secondary tip is to create and STICK TO a design doc especially in multi level teams. That can be a make it or break it. Other than that it is a really tough market. I think a lot has to do with the gold rush after all the articles of how you can become a zillionaire “like this guy” if you just create apps. Now reality has set in and you must really make better apps to survive with smaller teams.

Along with the fact that if you do not somehow make that top 100/50 it is really difficult now. Those apps far outsell anything else as there is such an ocean of poor and low quality apps it really is a challenge to survive the numbers game. I do think in the long run things will level out. The app store really is a dream come true for all of us that have worked in the extremely intense games industry. Keep pushing forward guys we will make it! The competition really is no big deal in the end because this is the same as any market. Competition is a good thing where the good survive making better wares for the consumers. Developers I think are starting to invest the incredible man hours the game industry requires and we are seeing the results. I hope I did not ramble too much. I am in the final stages of testing 3D Power Fishing and might be a bit off at times with the lack of sleep….Have a great day!

Thanks Ryan for your time.