Bouncetrap review and interview with Playscreen

Right before Macworld I had a chance to try out Bouncetrap from Playscreen, and talk to the team behind it. Bouncetrap [App Store link] costs $.99US, and fans of simple, fast games will probably love it. I'll go into the mechanics of Bouncetrap first, then get into what the Playscreen team had to say.

The graphics are retro in way, calling to mind the sprite-based animation found on the GameBoy Color. But the animation, effects and (most importantly) mechanics are tightly integrated to provide a fun game. Your goal is to drop or bounce balls into available holes on the screen. The placement of those holes appears random, but that's where the hidden beauty of this app becomes clear: there's strategy involved in playing Bouncetrap. Balls roll across the top, and you tap to release them onto the board. Either they fall in a hole, or they bounce on a resting ball or "spinner" (like an old pinball table). There are bonuses, and there is definitely a method to the madness. If you spent hours playing Bubble Bobble, Puyo Pop or Bust-a-Move then you will love Bouncetrap.

There's nothing in Bouncetrap that makes it a spectacular iPhone or iPod touch game, however. It only takes advantage of tapping on the screen, and I could easily see playing this on any other handheld. That doesn't detract from the fun, it's just an observation. But Playscreen, the people behind Bouncetrap, do have a lot of experience beyond the iPhone. More on that in the second half of this post.

%Gallery-42362%

I had a phone interview with Sherri Cuono, designer of Bouncetrap and CTO of Playscreen and William Volk, the CEO. They stressed the point that Playscreen wasn't funded by VC money. The shop is self-funded by their previous efforts, essentially, which run the gamut from web-based to J2ME (which they described as "horrific").

Given their previous mobile experience, it's worth noting that they jumped into iPhone development very early on. Their first games were web-based, back when Apple acted as though AJAX was as robust as Objective-C (OK, that's a gross misstatement of what Apple intended, of course, but ask any developer at the 2007 WWDC if they were "thrilled" to not have access to a proper SDK). Once the SDK became available, Playscreen jumped into that as well. Now they have web games and downloadable games, seven games released in very short order and now on the App Store. How did they do it?

For Playscreen, the limited development environment the SDK provides, plus the clear Webkit target for web apps, has enabled them to rapidly turn ideas into products. By "limited" I'm referring to the fact that creating apps for the iPhone versus, say, J2ME means only coding for one set of input types (touch events, etc.) and one set of hardware (basically). Otherwise, creating a game that takes into account lots of hardware differences, input variations, etc. gets to be a chore. This isn't saying Playscreen has been perfect, of course. An early iteration of Bouncetrap was marred by low-memory warnings. That's since been fixed, but I don't envy their task as a small, bootstrapped firm: once you create some great apps, you must maintain momentum.

To that end, Playscreen is focusing efforts on casual gamers. Games like Pigs A Pop'n and Mystic Jewels [App Store links] are good examples of casual games. They are also behind the Kenny Rogers card games on the store, which I thought was an interesting tactic: using a celebrity to attract an audience. The Kenny Rogers games were available on the web first, but the native apps look quite superior in terms of user experience.

It's clear the iPhone and touch appeal to casual gaming, but they also appeal to a nascent audience of gamers who want to access network-enabled games. Sherri and William indicated they have acquired a network game engine that will allow a sort of MMO gaming on the iPhone. They also said they were partnering with a social network (no indication which one) that'll allow you to play one game with up to ten people at the same time. Considering the issues around MMO gaming on portable network devices, I can't wait to see what they're doing.

It's obvious that Playscreen is passionate about mobile gaming, and it's encouraging to hear them speak so glowingly of the tools Apple has provided to bring games to the iPhone/iPod touch. I think it's indicative of Apple's efforts that have yielded not only great games, but yes, fart apps-aplenty. All the same, companies that have the experience and footing to build on what Apple has created will, in the end, stand out. Look for Playscreen to keep making solid games for the platform, provided they don't run out of their own money.