Courtesy of Flickr's undergroundbastard

Ayogo got some more press recently, this time from Canada’s largest urban weekly, Vancouver’s very own The Georgia Straight. Christopher Poon contacted us after hearing about some of the innovative games we have been working on for the iPad. He thought it’d be valuable to interview Michael Fergusson about how Vancouver mobile game developers are preparing for the arrival of Apple’s newest IT-device. Thanks for the interview Christopher! I’ve cross-posted the interview below. As always, we’d love to hear from you, so make sure to leave a comment or contact us if you have any questions.

For Hong-Yee Wong, the scenario is all too familiar. Apple unveils an innovative mobile device, and critics are quick to point out its flaws before even seeing what effect it has on the mobile-entertainment market.

The CEO of IUGO Mobile Entertainment, the Vancouver-based game developer behind such iPhone titles as Toy Bot Diaries and Zombie Attack, is optimistic that the highly anticipated iPad will create a new market in interactive entertainment, much as the iPhone did after its release in 2007.

“We are definitely very excited to see the new platform,” Wong told the Georgia Straight by phone. “I think it’s a revolutionary device, and I think it provides a new paradigm for the interactive digital lifestyle.”

Unveiled back in January by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the iPad is a touchscreen tablet computer that resembles a large iPod Touch. One line of iPads will be Wi-Fi–enabled, while the other will have both Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities. The former will be released in the U.S. on April 3, with both becoming available in Canada, the U.S., and other countries by late April.

While skeptics have dismissed the iPad as uninspiring, Wong sees nothing but potential. Wong noted that the iPhone received similar criticism prior to the launch of the App Store, and we all know how that turned out.

Michael Fergusson, CEO of Ayogo, another Vancouver-based mobile-game developer, echoes Wong’s sentiments.

“There are those who say it’s nothing more than a big iPod Touch—it has a bigger screen, there’s no multitasking—but there were also those who said that about the iPhone: that it wasn’t going to be a game changer,” Fergusson said by phone.

Both IUGO and Ayogo are in the midst of developing games for the iPad. Wong and Fergusson agree that the only way to successfully carve out a place in the mobile-game market is to design products geared to the specifications of each device.

“We looked at the iPhone as a unique device, and we designed an original game for the device that made you solve things by using the tilt functionality or the touchscreen,” Wong said. “We’re definitely looking at the uniqueness for the iPad. We’re not blindly extending what we have on the iPhone or the iPod Touch onto it because we do spend a lot of attention and focus on the user experience and a lot of the user interface, and it’s critical to us.”

Fergusson said the iPad’s key feature is its larger, 9.7-inch touchscreen, which will allow developers to create a multiplayer experience that is impossible on the iPhone or the iPod Touch.

“When you think about games that you play on your phone and then you think about games that you play with other people, like board games—I mean, Monopoly is hard to play on an iPhone,” Fergusson said. “It’s hard to play on a board that’s four inches by two inches, but it’s a lot easier to play on one that’s 10 inches.”

Screen size is one of the reasons Andres Wanner, a lecturer at Simon Fraser University’s school of interactive arts and technology in Surrey, believes the iPad will be a success. According to Wanner, the screen will also allow innovative features to be developed for applications for use in everyday life.

“Map applications have been quite a successful thing on the iPhone itself, but when you think of a map, you don’t want to have tiny little details but, rather, a large overview,” Wanner explained by phone. “The big screen will help with that, and that’s one way that the iPad will have an advantage over the iPhone.”

Wanner predicts that, at first, only tech-savvy individuals will pick up the device. However, he said he wouldn’t be surprised to see older generations embrace the device later, as its simplicity could appeal to those who thought the iPhone and iPod Touch were too small.

Fergusson is hopeful that developers will take heed of how consumers use the iPad, so that they can create better products for the device.

“Right now, we’ll only have early-stage games, but as we get better over time, I’m sure we’ll see more and more innovative games on the device, and really see what the iPad is capable of,” Fergusson said.

Courtesy of Flickr's Graphic Spirit

As you may know, we have two blogs. This blog is geared towards the business side of casual social games, while our tech blog explores more of the technical guts of game development. Our VP of Engineering, Dave Orchard, wrote a post about his thoughts on the iPad for the tech blog, and I thought it’d be valuable to share with you here as well.  It seems the iPad is shaping up to be an interesting challenge for game designers and the game development industry.

“There’s been a lot of discussion lately about the iPad and interestingly much of it negative. Despite this, I think the iPad will do amazingly well.  The nay-sayers are focusing on the wrong areas.  Yes, it’s just a big iPod Touch.  Yes, it extends Apple’s DRM.  Yes, it’s missing multi-tasking.  But the flip-side is immense.

We’ve been building Facebook games and iPhone games for over a year now.  We’ve learned an awful lot about how to make interesting and viral games for the platforms.  The iPad gives us a chance to combine the best of both platforms.  We can have rich interactive games that have enough screen space.  One of the best parts of the iPhone/iPod touch ecosystem is the DRM.  Because the platform strictly isolates applications from each other, and applications require approval, the application installation and maintenance is extremely robust and easy.  The difference between maintaining an iPhone versus a Mac or PC is huge.  The iPad promises to make a much more consumer friendly and mobile device than a home PC.

There are many obvious possibilities for the iPad.  It will clearly be a strong contender for electronic books.  The demo of Need for Speed shows that it can be a game console.  Safari has done an incredible job of delivering advanced web support, making use of gmail and other cloud utilities seamless and easy.  Shipping productivity tools like a word processor and spreadsheet mean that it may be enough to be the family “computer”. But there are some other applications that haven’t been talked about much.  My 4 year old twins love to play Princess Monopoly with us, so one of my first thoughts is that the iPad will revolutionize family and social games like board games. Imagine Risk, Scrabble, Monopology, Axis & Allies, etc.  This could really bring families together for some quality time around the device.

Probably an even bigger market will be the embedded markets, such as retail, shop floor, and medical.  If I were selling a custom solution for retail sales, like Squirrel, I’d be really worried and I’d be porting my software as fast as I could.  An iPad makes incredible sense for the medical system.  All the patient records available on an incredible easy to use device.  The iPad literally could save hundreds or thousands of lives if the health care community can roll out a device that has higher availability of information, less chance of errors especially for written prescriptions/treatments/notes.

In our market, the iPad gives the possibility for some amazing social games.  A large touch screen makes social map-based games, like all the farming and building games, even more compelling and available. We are very excited about the opportunities for our games in the new platform.”