Interview with Galcon developer
Today in my series of interviews with iPhone developers, I have with me Phil Hassey of the acclaimed Galcon for iPhone. At first I was skeptical when I read that Galcon is “an awesome high-paced multi-player galactic … arcade action Risk with planets!” When I read that it now has a colorblind mode, that was enough to push me over the edge to purchase it. But actually, it does live up to the hype! In fact, it’s the only game I’ve ever got for my iPhone which I actually can’t stop playing. It’s that addicting. Oh, and my girlfriend is addicted too, even though she told me yesterday “it’s not my type of game”. So, it’s a pleasure to have you for an interview.
I see on your homepage you mention that your inspiration comes from Risk. Did any other games inspire you?
Well, actually, I’ve never played Risk. Many folks have compared it to Risk 
Galcon is a remake of the game “Galactic Conquest” which was a MS-DOS based game put out in 1987.
I see that you also have desktop versions out for Linux, Windows and Mac. I must say that I was surprised to find the interface and gameplay better on the iPhone! But, now I’m curious, did you write the game for each OS independently? Did you already have Galcon written in Objective-C? How difficult was it to port to the iPhone? What were the specific challenges in developing for the iPhone in contrast with desktop game development?
The desktop versions of Galcon are written mostly in python and partly in C. The iPhone edition is a C port of the desktop version of Galcon. I only used Objective-C for a few of the iPhone related things (such as reading the accelerometer data). I suppose the largest challenge in porting it to the iPhone is that the developer documentation doesn’t have a “Search” box as far as I can tell. So sometimes it took me a while to find what I was looking for.
What has been the general reaction from people who already have the desktop version of Galcon to the iPhone version?
They like it Now they have one more way to play Galcon all the time!
I noticed that there’s always people online for multiplayer play. To my knowledge that’s not true for any other iPhone game that I know. Most new games have the problem that people aren’t patient enough to wait for others to come online. How were you able to get enough people to play online to keep it going?
I think people play on-line because the game works so well as a multi-player game. The MP experience gives you so much more than just the single player. I haven’t really done anything but make the game, to be honest.
I would guess the average iPhone gamer has heard of Galcon, but not the average iPhone owner. What have you done to promote Galcon and what response have you received?
Yeah, uh, nothing. But the response has been great I posted a couple youtube videos. I’m going to try to do some more marketing type activities over time. I probably need to ask my marketing friends for some tips.
What are your future plans for improving Galcon on the iPhone?
My primary goal is to increase the MP user base so that around 100+ people are playing all the time. At that size, I can add better user match-up features so players can compete against folks with similar skill levels.
I see that you have another game called Watermelons which is, according to the description, “the ultimate fruit rescue mission game.” Could you tell us how you came up with that idea? Also, do you have more games in the works?
I was chatting with some friends and we thought it would just be a funny idea. It’s actually available as a flash game as well … I just ported it to the iPhone for fun.
I haven’t started on any new games yet, but I’m thinking about it. I’ll probably start later this week or next week on my next game.
Thanks for the interesting interview. I wish you the best with Galcon and hopefully my girlfriend and I can stop playing it and get back to work sometime soon!
Thanks!
iPhone Galcon reviews: