Interview with the developer of The Little Tank That Could game about iPhone apps piracy and more

Posted by dennis on August 10th, 2009 at 04:28pm Comments

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Interview with: Bram Stolk
Developer of: The Little Tank That Could iPhone game
Interview by Robb Lewis and Dennis Sloutsky

Late last month we’ve learned about the plight of The Little Tank That Could, a very interesting game for the iPhone coming from an indie Dutch / Canadian developer Bram Stolk. The game suffered a 96% piracy rate which is probably the highest we’ve ever heard of.

At the same time iPhoneWorld.ca reviewed the game and found it to be worthy of our Gold award.

We’ve recently caught up with Bram who agreed to answer some of our questions about his game, the apps piracy issue, and more.

iW: Hi Bram, it’s nice of you to have taken some time off your busy schedule to answer our questions.

Dennis @ iW: Can you tell our readers a little about yourself?

I started programming a Sinclair ZX Spectrum in ‘82, using Basic and Machine Language (as I did not even have an assembler, let alone a compiler). In ‘93 I got my MSc in Computer Science from the University of Amsterdam. Most of my career I worked as a Virtual Reality engineer. Two years ago, I came to Vancouver Canada, to work in the games industry. My day time job is creating PS/3 games.

Robb @ iW: How did you come up with the idea for The Little Tank That Could?

Well… I guess I have to refer to my Magnum Opus, the game ‘Stormbaan Coureur’.
I was a pretty active Open Source author, and the mentioned game is the one I’m most proud of.
Stormbaan coureur has some similar concept of an obstacle course, but it is 3D (it even does stereographics) and features a car instead of a tank.

Stormbaan Coureur

When writing this game, I became involved in the ‘Open Dynamics Engine’ or ODE project, which I maintained for a while. However, after moving to Canada I had no time to devote to it anymore. That’s the beauty of Open Source, that authors, engineers, maintainers, come and go, but the project keeps living.

Robb @ iW: What made you decide on the simpler graphic style, as opposed to complex animation?

Well… you have to be careful with the term ‘animation’.
There is no ‘animation’ in the game, only ’simulation’.
The first is authored by an artist, the 2nd is computed by the machine.
I think the 2nd is more interesting, and allows for emergent behaviour.

The choice of graphics was because
1) It’s simple enough I can do myself
2) A time saver
3) Less burden on the iPhone hardware
4) Has a nice retro look

I think a lot of people buy iPhone games on looks.
My game’s selling point is the physics though.
However… a small percentage of players absolutely loves vector graphics.
I blame that on youth sentiment.

Robb @ iW: The physics in TLTTC are amazing. How difficult was it to implement?

Like I mentioned, I did some coding for ODE, so I know a thing or two about physics engines.
ODE is really about 3D simulations.
It has a special constraint for 2D simulations, but that’s inellegant: using a 3D engine constrained to two dimensions. You end up doing more computations than required.

I ended up using Scott Lembcke’s Chipmunk engine, which was already ported to the iPhone.
It is a 2D physics engine which runs pretty fast on the iPhone.

So as the application programmer, you need to set up and tune a simulation.
This takes some experience in what works well and what does not.

Robb @ iW: What are you looking to add to TLTTC in the near and not so near future?

For the first update (still under Apple’s review), I put in two new levels.
They contain community ideas.
Players would give feedback and ideas for new puzzles, and I put some of those in.
This meant I had to change the leaderboard to support per-level statistics.

I also added the pinch zoom in and zoom out, plus some minor fixes.

Someone suggested user generated content with a level editor, so gamers can swap levels, or upload levels.
It is an interesting idea.

Robb @ iW: You already have a few different apps in the app store. Will you be producing any more physics-based games?

I think I will expand on ‘the little tank that could’. First try to make that one better before moving on.

Dennis @ iW: We’ve heard that v2.0 of The Little Tank That could was already submitted to the AppStore. Which changes does it include?

- Added two new levels
- Leaderboard is now per level
- Double tap fire disabled in drive bar of ui
- Fixed gondolas of ferriswheel getting stuck
- Two finger pinch for zoom in zoom / zoom out

Dennis @ iW: Tell us a little about the piracy situation… How did you deduct that 96% of your users 5 days after the game’s launch were pirate users?

My leaderboard is contacted when the game starts.
The iPhone sends the name of the device, the leaderboard sends back the list of top players and times.

Dennis @ iW: Did you actually get UUID’s of the pirate users’ machines, and hence you can say that it’s not just the same users using multiple nicknames in the leaderboard (question coming from an iPhoneWorld.ca reader)?

I use the device name.
It is the name you give to the iPhone.
Users are highly unlikely to change the iPhone device name between playing.

When I did my first measurement, the hack was just released, and a flood of pirates tried it.
The payment rate is now roughly 10 percent paying, 90 percent pirate.

My measurements are pretty solid.
There are no skewed results.

Dennis @ iW: What was the psychological and monetary impact of this whole affair on yourself and your dream as an indie games developer?

At first: disbelief. Then disappointment because I really hoped the game would sell well.
However, currently I shrug it off.
I don’t think the sales would be much better without piracy.

Dennis @ iW: But why did you not use any additional apps protection measures or ready made schemes like RipDev’s Kali Anti-Piracy — in addition to Apple’s FairPlay DRM?

This is the first time I hear of that. I have to google it.
So, I did not know cracked phones were that common.
Second, I had no idea there were additional securities available.
I thought Apple’s was pretty solid.

Dennis @ iW: You’ve been writing that what happened to your brilliant game The Little Tank That Could might drive you to not release any more updates for it. So is that your final decision?

Well, version 2 is under review.
Based on the feedback I may do another.
However, maintaining a huge sales success is so much easier than maintaining a fledging game.
I know the game has potential, I know it is fun, and I know the physics are state of the art.
So I will probably keep at it.

Dennis @ iW: Will you apply an additional protection scheme once and if you release a new app for the iPhone?

Probably yes.
Someone sent me some code lines, and it is super easy to add to your app.
It will at least add a little hurdle.

As I understand it: without extra checks, your app is cracked automatically.
With extra checks, a cracker would at least have to examine your code.

Dennis @ iW: Do you have any advices to other iPhone apps developers following this whole affair?

Eh… don’t assume Apple has it watertight

Also, some pirates claim they only hack games that do not have lite versions.
So maybe that would help.

My first game, ’snake versus snake’ has LITE and FULL.
But here you see the large discrepancy between paying and not paying.

Snake vs Snake LITE had in 2376 downloads in june.
Snake vs Snake FULL had 11 downloads in june.

Admittedly, there is not a lot of difference in functionality between LITE and FULL.
Also, there is no up sell, no link in the LITE version pointing to FULL.

But that tells you how much people love free stuff

I would have to check, but I do not think that ’snake vs snake’ full version ever got pirated.

Dennis @ iW: And how about those that pirated your game, have you got anything to say to them?

Nah.. I accepted the situation.
If they like the game, maybe they can read the feedback on version 2, when it comes out, and re-consider buying.

iW: We wish you and all your current and upcoming projects the best of luck. Thank you again for finding the time to answer our questions.

Thanks a lot.
I appreciate the interest from the community and journalists.
They are encouraging.

Bram

Related posts:

1. Interview with the developer of Blocks2 iPhone game about piracy, ways to prevent it, and more
2. iPhone Game Giveaway: The Little Tank That Could (Win 10 copies!)
3. “Little Tank That Could” iPhone game v3.0 submitted to AppStore
4. The Little Tank That Could: iPhone App Review
5. The Little Tank That Could: iPhone game

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