Robert Murray goes right back to making games on his VZ200 and then Commodore 64 He tried to start a games company when he was 17 but “I was too immature and it failed.” He then spent 4 years with Torus Games to learn the ropes of the industry. In 2001 Robert got an independent game development gig, working on the Nicktoons Racing for Game Boy Advance. As he was getting serious about the new games studio, a more marketable trading name was adopted – Firemint.

So Firemint grew, and are being called “worlds-best” in the mobile domain right now. They currently have 28 people and will grow to 42 by 2008. Firemint has had 18 titles published so far on mobile, Game Boy Advance, and soon Nintendo DS. I recently heard Robert speak at Mobile Monday Melbourne and thought it would be good to have a chat here.

The games industry has taken over Hollywood in terms of market size, with serious game budgets now measured in the tens or hundreds of millions - what tools does such a large budget give a game that they didn’t have as a $500,000 game?

First, it’s true that the games industry has grown phenomenally, but I think that statistic also reflects that box office takings are down while DVD purchases and rentals are up. The games industry is only bigger when compared to Hollywood box office takings, excluding DVDs. And then of course there’s Bollywood as well.

Some console games budgets are certainly becoming enormous, mobile and handheld budgets are also growing but aren’t in the same order of magnitude yet. We do see flow-on effects - for example, we were supplied with a large amount of motion capture data for EA Sports Madden NFL 07 3D, which we did for mobile. We incorporated a lot of that into our animations.

Like newspapers, magazines, TV and all the other big media, advertising is now everywhere in games - from the loading screen to the logos on the soccer field to the commentators narrative. Going forward are we likely to see more advertising-supported games, more pay-per-download games or a mixture of both?

Advertising-supported games aren’t really a focus for us, so I’m afraid I can’t comment on this area.

Does Apple and their iPhone matter to mobile gaming? Will their phone adoption be like the Mac vs PC debate where they have a tiny percentage of market share, or the iPod vs Everyone Else debate wherethey pulled off a massive win?

iPhone definitely matters. Handset manufacturers used to be reluctant to develop higher-cost handsets, but the iPhone has demonstrated that there is a market out there that is hungry for sexy phones, and is less price sensitive than many people expected. I am really looking forward to seeing what Nokia and others bring out in response - there is an awful lot of talk of “iPhone killers”. It’s exciting to see the industry as a whole shifting focus from basic, cheap handsets so something much more powerful and appealing. I wouldn’t expect the iPhone to dominate the market, but its importance as a catalyst is huge.

The newer phones on the market are coming out with accelerometers and GPSs and dedicated graphic acceleration chips - as a game developer what does that mean you can deliver to consumers of your new games?

Basically, awesome graphics and some very interesting new game control systems. The power of these new systems, combined with UI innovations like accelerometers means that users will not have to compromise to play a game on mobile. They will enjoy games closer to the sort of quality that they have become used to on consoles, and there may be some new innovations in play mechanics that cannot be matched on console or PC.

If a genie gave you one wish to change the Australian game industry, what would you ask for?

My first and most outlandish wish would be for tax relief. But seriously, I would wish for lots more highly skilled and trained potential employees.

Thanks Robert. You can find out more at Firemint.

Next interview Steve Sammartino from Rentoid »
Prev interview James Greig from Bloomtools »
Take a look at the archive »
Spin the wheel and try something random »

Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Ross