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IDESIGN THE IDESIGN INTERVIEW
David Papazian
CEO
IPAD 2 BUYERS’ GUIDE
After nearly three years in the App Store, David
Papazian’s Mobigame has become known as one of
Apple’s most daring third-party game developers -
willing to radically switch graphic styles, game genres,
and play mechanics from title to title, and survivor
of a brutal, well-publicized legal fight over the name
of its first game. Here, Papazian discusses some of
Mobigame’s landmark design choices.
On Making Universal Games
Mobigame’s titles generally offer universal iPad/iPhone/
iPod support - ideal for iOS users. “In most cases, we
believe it is really absurd to sell different versions of
the same app for iPhone and iPad,” says Papazian.
“On a Mac or a PC, you can change the resolution
of any game inside the game, and that’s exactly the
same here, it’s just a question of resolution. Especially
with the Retina Display, which is almost the same
[resolution] as the iPad. We respect our customers a lot
and it’s only fair to make a universal app when you can.”
On Perfect Cell’s Gritty Look
Perfect Cell was the company’s fourth
game, and broke with tradition with a
more realistic look. What inspired the
change, which demands extra art labor?
“After Edge and Cross Fingers, we did
not want to be the guys who make
games with cubes, triangles, and other
geometric shapes only,” Papazian explains.
“We wanted to make a game for gamers,
something serious, not a clone of a Xbox
game with a virtual d-pad, but instead
something dedicated to the iPhone
and its touchscreen. I must say that my
associate Matthieu, game designer on all
our games, is a big fan of Kojima’s Metal
Gear series. When he had the idea of
slicing humans with the ‘draw and dash’
feature, it was obvious that the game
had to be realistic, with a lot of blood and
physics, a la Tarantino. We also wanted
to work on the light and the atmosphere
to give it an unique look and feel that
anyone would recognize immediately.”
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