This week on the cast, I had a chance to speak with Anthony Hall from the studio ArcTouch; talking about being one of the first developers to create a video game specifically for a smart TV in the form of Echo.
We started with Anthony’s background and how he’s always been a part of new media for games; from Flash to mobile and now with smart TVs. I asked Anthony about how the transition has been for him from a professional point of view. Speaking of mobile, we talked about some of the trends in recent years and I asked Anthony about where does gamification stand currently as someone who has experience in the mobile space.
A very big topic we talked about was examining mobile’s place in game development; the platform has been hit with criticism from gamers and people seeing it as “lesser” to console and PC games, and we talked about what does mobile mean for the future. The mobile market has been critical for making video games more accessible to a wider audience and that degree of accessibility is a big deal for the industry as a whole.
We then talked about Echo and why Anthony is excited about being a part of one of the first games specifically designed for smart TVs. Echo was developed exclusively for the Apple TV and we talked about the details of the project and developing it. We also spoke briefly about what is next from Arctouch in terms of developing for the smart TV.
For our final topic, we talked more the differences and challenges of creating games for different platforms, and now with smart TVs. I asked Anthony about what he has ran into with developing games on different platforms with different control interfaces. He talked a bit about the Apple TV’s remote control and what it offers developers from a technological standpoint.
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- To learn more about Echo, here is the page on ArcTouch’s site about it
- To follow ArcTouch, here is their Facebook page, Twitter feed and company site
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