Why the iPhone?

Jeremy Throckmorton: We've always been very open about our interest in exploring multiple platforms.  The iPhone presented a unique opportunity with a low barrier to entry, so the question to us was, “Why not?”

The economic sim is all about striking a balance, what sort of changes did you make to strike a balance for mobile gaming?

JT: Surprisingly little change was required to adapt the game.

We added an auto save feature so you can put it down and pick it up at a moment's notice; a must for any mobile game.

We also tweaked a few of the missions so they don't run as long, or are slightly less complicated.  Some of the mission changes were to adapt to the hardware, but with all the changes we kept gameplay in mind.  The result is a more finely tuned version of Outpost Kaloki that plays great on the iPhone.

What prompted the decision to break the game into three stories?

JT: The decision came down to a few things:

One issue was the size of the download.  We needed to keep it under 10 MB so people could download the game using just their phone.  Each story is 7 to 8 MB, so you can see how that would have been a problem.

We also wanted to offer the game in small chunks so people didn't have to shell out the full price for the bigger game.  The games all stand well on their own, so why make people buy them all if they don't  want to?

We also hope a lower price will make someone more likely to buy one of the games, and they'll like it so much, they'll end up buying the other games.

What makes Kaloki Adventure unique?

JT: The depth players will find in this easy-to-play game is something we think will stand out on the iPhone.  There are a lot of shallow, clicky or twitchy games out there, and those are fun, but we think Kaloki Adventure really offers a full gameplay experience not present in most games on the platform.

What do you want mobile gamers that may have missed Outpost Kaloki to know about the title?

JT: That they can check out Kaloki Free to get a taste of what the full game is like.  It's a fun, unique experience that I think speaks best for itself.

For those that are familiar with Outpost Kaloki, what in Kaloki Adventure might surprise them?

JT: Kaloki veterans just may be surprised at how well the game plays on the iPhone, and how much fun it is to play again, even if they've mastered it on another platform.  The overall story and gameplay hasn't really changed, but the tweaks and adjustments we've made really work on the iPhone, giving existing fans a handy, on-the-go fix.

Kaloki Adventure features fourteen levels and scenarios, will the other two stories follow the same format?  About how many hours of gameplay in each of the three stories can players anticipate?

JT: The Adventure story should take most people around 8 hours, not including play in the sandbox scenarios.

The other stories are a bit shorter, but come bundled with some more robust scenarios.

The War story and its scenarios should provide around 8 hours of gameplay.

The Love story is shorter, but offers more replay with branching story elements.  Along with its scenarios, this game should offer 6-8 hours of gameplay, depending on how much you explore the story.

What was it like developing for a touch-controlled game?

Kevin Heap: It was kind of like developing for mouse control - except that compared to a mouse arrow, fingers are big and fat and it's a little harder to tell exactly what they're trying to point at.  We found that some of the UI was designed too small and had to be enlarged to work better for touch controls.

What were the most difficult challenges in the conversion process?

KH: As we ported our game engine over to the iPhone for Kaloki Adventure, we found that our engine likes to control everything - but so does the iPhone.  Gauntlets were thrown down and a duel ensued.  In the end, the iPhone won and we had to super glue the two together in a few places.  It actually worked out quite nicely in the end but it took more time than anticipated to get our engine to be okay with the iPhone running the game clock, user input and audio.

Kaloki has a really unique style, how did you preserve the aesthetic while converting the game?

KH: We knew we had to trim down assets, rework UI and even trim down a few levels design-wise but the core gameplay itself was able to be preserved along with the story.  Really those two things (the gameplay itself and the story) are the two basic elements that make the game so unique and interesting.