You may not know Jens Andersson, but you almost assuredly have played--or at least heard of--some of the games he worked on while he was the lead designer at Starbreeze Studios in Sweden: Enclave, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and The Darkness. This January, Jens' two year sabbatical will come to an end and he'll find himself as lead designer at LucasArts in San Francisco. His time off wasn't all about relaxing, though, as Jens managed to find the time to get retro and create his own independent gaming studio, Collecting Smiles, and release his project, Colors! -- a touchscreen-based digital painting program that first launched as a homebrew title on Nintendo's DS, but recently came out on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.
Even though his free time is quickly coming to an end--and even though he's currently enjoying the sunny beaches of Brazil--my old pal Jens took the time to answer some questions not only about the increasingly popular Colors!, but also about homebrew development, and what the iPhone/iPod Touch mean for the gaming industry.
Brendon Lindsey: Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions, Jens. I don't want to waste too much of your vacation, so we'll get right to it. What made you decide "Hey, I want to design a drawing tablet and painting simulator for the DS and iPhone!"? Was it something you've been toying with for a while, or did you just get inspired and decide to go for it one day?
Jens Andersson: While I nowadays work as a game designer, I started out as a programmer and I love playing with new hardware. Especially the handheld platforms have in the recent years offered some truly new ways to play games and there are so many things I want to explore with those. Colors! started out just like that. I wanted to play around with what you could do on the DS and a painting application seemed like a perfect fit as I have had some ideas on what could be done with that.
Was it more difficult creating a homebrew project on the DS than when you work in an official capacity with console producers? Did Nintendo offer any support (or instructions) in regards to Colors' development?
It wasn’t any more difficult than working with any other new hardware. Since I went the homebrew route with Colors!, as it was initially just playing around, I had to use the tools the that homebrew community had developed. Tools like devkitPro and the libnds SDK proved to be much more stable and robust than I had anticipated, so I could basically do whatever any other developer could with the DS.
The previous games you worked on when you were with Starbreeze—Enclave, Riddick, and Darkness—aren't exactly on the same level as Colors!. Was it a difficult jump going from big, action-oriented titles like those to a painting simulator? Or was it a welcome change that got you back to your roots?
The big drawback with working on big console titles is that you need to invest 2-3 years into just one project. While I love that this gives the opportunity to push the boundaries on both game-play and technology, there are still so many ideas you get that doesn’t fit into the scope of the game you are working on. Working on smaller more experimental projects like Colors! is in some ways more rewarding, since you can get from idea to first released version in just a few weeks. Also, something that was pretty new and exciting for me was working alongside a community. This is very hard to do with big console titles, because of all the secrecy as well as the long submission processes.
How did the creation of the Colors! Gallery change anything? Did you find that users got more into using the software when that came out, or that more people downloaded/purchased it?
The Colors! Gallery has become one of the most important features of Colors!. One of the unique features of Colors! is the playback functionality, allowing you to see the painting process stroke-by-stroke. This was originally a gimmick feature, but with the Colors! Gallery it became very appreciated as well as a useful tool to learn from other artists. With the release of the iPhone version, the Colors! Gallery was integrated into the application, and this provided an additional boost to the community. This will also happen with the upcoming release of the new version for the DS early 2009.
You just recently released Colors! on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Do you think we'll see the iPhone/iPod Touch turn into a viable competitor for the DS and PSP?
It was very interesting to see how quickly iPhone went from a just another phone into a viable competitor to the major handhelds. In my opinion there are some limitations enforced by the iPhone hardware, with the lack of buttons, as well as the iPhone developer software. Still, it shines brighter than all of the others with its digital distribution system.
Apple’s App Store is in my opinion the biggest thing that has happened to the games industry since Wii. Microsoft has slowly been going that route with XNA, but Apple got it out and made it simpler than anyone expected, even though it has its flaws. App Store makes it possible for developers to release their work without having to involve, or get approval from, anyone but themselves. This has opened up a floodgate of homebrew developers as this hasn’t been possible on any other platform, at least not if you wanted to charge for your applications.
While this gives iPhone a great edge compared to the other platforms, it also means that it doesn’t really compete head-to-head to the traditional handhelds. I expect the iPhone compares to the DS and PSP more like the Wii compares to the Xbox 360 and PS3, meaning different games and different target-groups. Also, the jury is still out on how financially viable it is to develop retail-quality games for the iPhone.
In your opinion, what could Apple do to improve the iPhone for purposes of gaming?
Today it is surprisingly inefficient to create 2D games and applications if you aren’t content with what the built-in 2D graphics library can do. For example, because of this Colors! has less latency and lower performance on the iPhone than on the technically inferior DS. The good thing is that a fix should only be a software update away, as soon as Apple realizes and fixes the problem. Apart from that I think the device is more or less complete it the current form. Some types of games will of course suffer because of the lack of buttons, but I very much doubt that that is something that Apple will ever change.
Has iPhone piracy affected sales of Colors! at all?
I don’t think that piracy is a major problem for any App Store game or application. I believe that Apple has chosen the only working path to combat piracy, by making it both simpler and providing more value to a legitimate user than to a pirate. They pioneered it for music with iTunes, and now they are doing it again with App Store. Kudos to them.
Why do you think Nintendo and other big companies are against allowing legitimate homebrew on their platforms? Or is that just a misconception those of us outside looking in have?
I think it’s a very complicated problem from the platform-holder’s perspective. Homebrew for DS, as well as most other platforms, have had to rely on the tools developed for piracy which makes it impossible for Nintendo to condone it. This has probably made it very hard for anyone to internally champion the idea that anyone should be able to develop for the platform and it has always made homebrew into an underground activity. But we are seeing the light in the end of the tunnel with things like App Store and XNA. And I’m sure this is just the beginning.
What was the most surprising thing about making and launching Colors!?
The most surprising thing was clearly how well it was received within the professional digital concept art community. It feels like I have a friend within each game-development studio across the globe. I’ve received thank-you mails from some of the greatest concepts-artists I know about and that is as you can understand something that makes me extremely proud.
Last question and then I'll let you get back to enjoying the beach. How often do you look at user-submitted creations, and go "Man, I wish I could do that!" If you're like me, probably at least once a day, huh? And, on that note, what's your personal overall favorite you've seen made with the app?
I started out developing Colors! after Mattias Snygg, one of Starbreeze’s great concept-artists, gave me a crash-course in digital painting. He showed me the techniques he used with a drawing-tablet and I was surprised how well they translated into the tiny DS touch-screen. Still, I’m far from an artist and my jaw has dropped so many times when opening up the Colors! Gallery.
Some of the paintings, like the Ice bear painting that tops the All Time Rankings, you can’t really believe were painted on the DS until you hit the playback button and watch it unfold. My favorites tend to be the really simple ones like the original Cat painting by Mattias Snygg that I’ve been using to promote the program. There isn’t a stroke in that painting that isn’t needed.
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