FingerGaming

Churning out viral Flash content since 2001 (see: Lily Allen In Escape The Fear), design firm Matmi recently made the jump to iPhone development. Their first title, Monster Pinball, released late last week – a few days after this interview was conducted – sees the the marriage of the firm’s trademark character-based contemporary art with something surprisingly substantive: a pinball game with a genuine, mechanical heft.

Interested in their first foray into iPhone development, FingerGaming contacted Matmi’s Jeff Coghlan to talk about the device, Monster Pinball and the potential for future DLC.

What spurred you to start work on a standalone iPhone game?

We have always wanted to make mobile games but the mobiles had terrible interfaces and porting the games to work on all different handsets was a nightmare. When the iPhone released, it was a breath of fresh air and we knew that this was the future of mobile gaming.

Your firm has a lot of experience with advergames. Do you think the iPhone is a viable platform for that type of content versus traditional Flash-based delivery?

I personally believe that in a few years more people will access the internet via a mobile device than on a computer. Flash is a great tool to make games and it was the only tool available that we could use to get maximum awareness. Times have now changed. The iPhone has become a massive gaming platform and advergames will become a big part of the iPhone App Store. Why pay for a game when you can get it for free? Obviously over-branded games will annoy the users, so it’s all about finding the correct balance.

What was the inspiration for the aesthetic? It’s redolent of late 1950s sci-fi kitsch and a very welcome change of pace.

We love digital design and games. The characters are taken from Monster Mafia which we have made many online games for in the past. Our chief artist Hamish is an amazing designer and 3D artist. We wanted to inject some fresh looking design into the iPhone pinball market.

Are there any specific examples of pinball machines that influenced your work on the game?

We have played lots of pinball games. The Addams Family, Revenge from Mars, Checkpoint, Lethal Weapon and more recently Family Guy. We have also played all the other pinball games available on the App Store. I guess we must have been influenced by many of the games we have played.  Most pinball games are an example of either what not to do or hint towards what can be done. We wanted to take the best parts of traditional pinball and inject some digital magic.

You’ve said that the tables are all interconnected. Is it one persistent play space?

Yes, the tables are all interconnected but some tables are harder to reach and stay on than others, this makes the game challenging and loads of fun.

Are you going to continue on with iPhone development after Monster Pinball releases? It seems like a lot of work went into the engine. Perhaps we can expect some DLC for the game once OS 3.0 arrives?

We are already working on a few new iPhone projects. We are looking into some DLC for many of our new games but have not thought about using it in Monster Pinball. We have tested Monster Pinball on OS 3.0 and it works a treat.

Tags: advergames, arcade, interview, matmi, monster pinball, pinball