The launch of the iPhone and its app store may have completely changed the market for mobile development – or as Lay says, “it made mobile development sexy” – but IronMonkey’s story began years earlier in 2003.
This, conveniently, was a good time to get into mobile development for Lay and founding partner Toby Charlton.
They were also successful days.
IronMonkey’s first mobile game, a side-scrolling adventure dubbed Samurai, was put together by the duo and sold almost immediately to the wireless publisher Jamdat. The demands for a higher quality version saw the company double its staff shortly afterwards, rocketing them into a leadership position in the mobile development space.
“We probably didn’t react fast enough. But we knew that we were already making 3D games and we knew that we could hit that level,” he says. “So we were preparing for it. But then we were called up [by Electronics Arts] to create Need For Speed: Undercover.”
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| "The market is open. There are fewer and fewer barriers to entry when it comes to being a developer" ... Tony Lay. |
The Melbourne studio quickly became one of EA’s leading contractors, being given responsibility for some of the company’s biggest brands, such as The Sims, Need for Speed and The Simpsons.
In 2009, it was logical that Electronic Arts, which was trying to rapidly expand their mobile offerings, acquired IronMonkey.
The acquisition opened the door for IronMonkey to really begin pushing the boundaries of mobile game development. In 2011, it released Dead Space for iOS and Android, a unique story based in the Dead Space universe that was widely regarded as one of the best games ever created for the platform.
This month the company is hoping to continue its success with the launch of Mass Effect Infiltrator, an iPad game that can directly influence the outcome of the highly anticipated console-based Mass Effect 3.
According to Lay, it’s the culture of the company that delivers success in a super-competitive market.
“I think it’s just the quality bar we set for ourselves. That set the culture early for us – we’re always about making the best titles. It’s never worth releasing anything that we’re not happy with, so we’ve held titles before in the past,” he says.
Lay also believes that the current climate offers a massive opportunity for passionate developers.
“The market is open. There are fewer and fewer barriers to entry when it comes to being a developer, so everyone should be trying to do it if they’re passionate about making games,” he says.
But in a world of hyper-competitive app stores, coming up with a successful product isn’t something you just leave to chance.
“Part of it is timing, and a lot of it is passion. Make a game that you think is fun and for wide success, it should be a game that is simple enough that people will understand as soon as they pick up and play,” Lay says before adding: “Then I think it’s part luck.”