With mobile gaming on the rise it seems about the time to look at a company who has been doing it for years. Since 2004 Orange Pixel has been in the mobile phone market. Now I am not sure about you, but for me six years is a long time. Getting a chance to talk with Pascal Bestebroer who is the CEO for Orange Pixel.
Toby Davis: Please, tell me who you are and about your job here?
Pascal : I'm one of two persons working at OrangePixel, and I'm basically everything from CEO to developer to graphics guy. The other person is Aline, who takes care of most of the day to day office tasks and helping out with the concepts and testing of the games.
TD: What would you say is the drive behind your games and how they are perceived by gamers in the mobile platform area?
Pascal: I grew up in the 80's and 90's, and I am still into those type of games. So when the mobile platform started to evolve (Java on phones, and now Android and iPhone smartphones) it was a perfect environment to bring those type of games back to live. The drive is to really make those fun retro games that can mostly be played by anyone with a little time on their hands. I think in general they are perceived pretty good, and as I can still see many new high scores on a daily basis for even our oldest games (the first DynamoKid games on mobile phones) then I know people are enjoying the things we make.
TD: With advancement in technology how has this helped you to grow making games and in what ways?
Pascal: I still think that limits in hardware are very good for creativity, so in that respect I really hope phone's don't get to advanced or we end up with only console style and big-budget type games: a lot at stake so less creativity. On the other hand I am very pleased with the fact that we get these fast devices, slightly larger screens, and touch and tilt input methods. They allow for new and interesting games.
TD: Being a mobile gaming company are you limited in the length of music in your games? I ask only because some games have a continuous loop that plays.
Pascal: Probably two reasons for that, first I think it is mostly due to music not being the most important part of a mobile game. When ever I talk to people who play games on their mobile, they usually turn the music off due to being in a public place and not carrying a headset with them. The second reason is that music is hard to compress and keep small, so there certainly are limits in that area: memory but also download-size.
TD: Noticing the list of game genre’s you have made on your website. The RPG genre has not made that list. Is this by choice or what are your thoughts about this?
Pascal: Not a real reason behind this, although I do believe a good RPG takes a lot of time and work and usually from a bigger team. As I mentioned we are a two person company, with me taking care of all the technical stuff, from a business point of view a good RPG is a risky thing to create.
TD: Even though you are a mobile gaming company. Do you ever see the company moving to the down load side of gaming on a console?
Pascal: For now I enjoy working for mobile and the fact that everyone has a phone and can carry our games with them.. no console beats that ! But who knows, perhaps in the future, although with the licensing costs of Nintendo and Sony .. I doubt we will ever start moving in their direction.