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 As part of GamesOnDeck's regular Mobile Q&A column, we spoke with Floodgate General Manager Matthew Bellows about the company's relationship with Sony BMG, its plans for Mo-Pets' community, and more.
GamesOnDeck: First off, can you give me a little background on Floodgate, and the genesis of Mo-Pets? Why make a mobile pet sim?
Matthew Bellows: Originally we wanted to make a game where the in-game action would mirror the player's life, and so to us at least, a pet was the most natural thing to follow the player around during the day. Maybe we thought that way because several of us at Floodgate are... shall we say... close to our pets? One producer grows organic catnip and hand-dries it for other cats in the office. One engineer uses a photo of a recently deceased pet as a texture for all his 3D experiments. So there was a good emotional foundation for the team to make a mobile pet game. We see the mobile phone as a kind of a pet itself, too.
GOD: What does the co-Publishing agreement with Sony BMG bring to the table?
MB: Well, Sony BMG is one of the largest publishers and distributors of mobile content in the world. They have great relationships with all the carriers because they've been partnering for ringtones and screensavers for years. The games team at Sony BMG is amazing, too. Very passionate about bringing great original titles to mobile. They've been excellent to work with and have come up with some great ideas. So they've done a great deal to make Mo-Pets what it is.
GOD: Can you elaborate on Mo-Pets' competitive networked elements? How do the regional competitions function? GPS, or cell tower locations?
MB: One of the areas you can visit with your pet is the Talent Show. At the Talent Show, you try to get your pet to do her four best tricks, while another person's Mo-Pet does theirs. Depending on how rested, happy and skilled your pet is, they'll either pull off a beauty or mess the trick up. We had fond memories of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets Show, so we added two judges (Casey and Andy) to make wisecracks throughout the competition. Anyway, the first thing that you do when you start the Talent Show is choose which region you want to compete in -- locally, regionally or nationally. We do the opponent matching by asking for zip codes, not through any LBS technology. Although this and other aspects of the game were originally designed for LBS functionality, there just isn't a big enough install base of handsets out there yet. Hopefully we can do a sequel to Mo-Pets that will use LBS for some of the fun stuff we had to cut out.
GOD: Judging by your recent work, it would seem that Floodgate loves multiplayer. Is this a coincidence, or is it a reflection of Floodgate's mobile design ideals?
MB: It's not a coincidence. The phone as a games platform is hampered in so many ways, but it has a couple of features that put it leagues ahead of other portable video game systems. One of those features is its connectivity to a data network. We've worked really hard over the last 18 months to understand what connectivity can do for gameplay. We're trying different design and technology approaches for different game genres. And we haven't found the magic solution, but we've learned a lot and we've built a great basis to work from. Just like in the PC or console worlds, multiplayer game design is a real challenge, but when you get it right, the play experience is amazing. We're going to keep trying to get it right.
Next: Network And Community Elements
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