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Epic Interactive in early August officially announced that they had signed up to produce additional Amiga DE content. The additional content being worked on is not intended for the desktop market but in fact specifically aimed at the PDA market.
In this interview with the Managing Director of Epic Interactive, Thomas Steiding reveals the reasons behind their interest in the PDA market and the projects they are working on.
1. What attracts you to developing games for Personal Digital Assistants such as the Zaurus?
The risk in developing your own games is much lower as development times are so short when compared to desktop games these days, where you easily spent 18-24 months on a new title, whereas a PDA game should not take more than 2-3 months time.
2. What are the limitations of developing games for Personal Digital Assistants rather than Desktops?
Obviously its a totally different world. Games that work fine on the PDA games market today (or the handheld market in general) will definitely not work on todays desktop market as desktop players expect a certain level in GFX etc. I think with current specs 3D games are simply not possible on the handheld side. Also, now considered old-fashioned games like card, puzzle or simple shoot em ups will celebrate a renaissance on these devices.
3. Bill McEwen has in one of his latest press releases stated, "we look forward to some revolutionary games for the PDA market". Do you think that Amiga developers can push the boundaries as they have done in the Amiga classic market, producing games no one thought possible on a classic Amiga?
I think Amiga programmers are a perfect fit for the PDA devices which are a bit underspeced at the moment. I think Amiga developers have a clear edge here, because they are used to deal with low spec machines more than windows programmers for example.
4. What type of games are you currently developing for Personal Digital Assistants and when do expect them to be released?
Boxicon, a fascinating puzzle game is already finished and should by now be available for download on Sharps Spacetown. Our next game is a Solitaire/Majong crossover called Piles O Tiles, a remake of one of Paul Burkeys first ever games on the Amiga, but with more effects and improved GFX, which should be finished within the next couple of days. Next inline is Peg It, another puzzle style game, which should be finished in September. We have quite a few other game ideas like a Westbank clone and some other games, but these will come later. We will also have to see, what the returns from this market are, before we can spend too many resources in it.
5. Where are these PDA games going to be available from?
Basically wherever Amiga is able to sell them to. First in line is Sharp who will sell it through their Spacetown website. But there should be plenty more download possibilities and more devices coming in the near future.
Thomas Steiding
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Epic Interactive in early August officially announced that they had signed up to produce additional Amiga DE content. The additional content being worked on is not intended for the desktop market but in fact specifically aimed at the PDA market.
In this interview with the Managing Director of Epic Interactive, Thomas Steiding reveals the reasons behind their interest in the PDA market and the projects they are working on.
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