As published an article about “5 Essential Steps to Become an iPhone Developer“, I know some of you have taken action and kick start to develop your own iPhone apps. Since then, I got various questions such as the time involved to build an app, how to promote an app, etc. This inspires me to start out a series of interviews with iPhone developers and ask them those questions. You’ll get more insights on how other developers build their apps and iPhone business. Hope you’ll enjoy the series!
This is the first installment of our on-going series of iPhone Developer interview. Our first developer interview is with Viacheslav Iushchenko, CEO of Ostin Games and creator behind Zepi for iPhone.
[SB]: Could you please tell us a little bit about Zepi, your company and how you started as an iPhone developer?
[OG]: OstinGames started as a company about four months ago. As our first game, we decided to choose a mix of puzzle and casual genre and created Zepi. It’s very simple game, the goal of which is to build the longest chain of bubbles and score more points. So why we’ve chosen that path? Probably, because we were sure that the game will attract attention of users because it’s simple, bright and really exciting and we also wanted to explore the promotion methods, although we’ve been realizing that there are a lot of casual games in Apple Store, but still we decided to take a risk. And there actually was an effect, the game appeared in “New and Noteworthy” section in Apple Store and we had a great amount of sales. We’ve really made a bet on simplicity of gameplay and bright designs and it worked. So we decided to continue working on Zepi and released 3 more versions of this game with new themes and skins.
[SB]: What attracted you to the iPhone platform and focus on building iPhone games?
[OG]: I think that the main reason was the desire to create something new and interesting for iPhone users. We have a lot of ideas of games to implement in future, we just need a little bit more time 
The thing is that there is a great variety of opportunities in this field and despite of widespread belief I think that it’s possible to create something new and surprise users.
[SB]: How long did it take to build the game and how do you determine the price of the app?
[OG]:Since this was our first project, the work took about three months. During the project development we’ve been doing a lot of modifications and we’ve changed game concept a few times, because we tried to make the gameplay unobtrusive and easy for our users.
I think that the price above the minimum may reduce user’s attention to our game, and make it unattractive for a certain number of potential players.
[SB]: What do you like or dislike about the iPhone SDK? Anything you hope Apple to improve in future version of SDK?
[OG]: Plusses – iPhone SDK is simple in use and the documentation is rather detailed. And there are a lot of tools for the developer.
Minuses – occasionally errors in the work of XCode and debugger.
Hopes and expectations – more stable work of all tools.
[SB]: What’s the best way to learn iPhone programming? Any advice you can give to those who just kick start the iPhone development adventure?
[OG]: All members of our team were reading books, blogs, studying some video tutorials, web-sites and of course Apple tutorial – http://developer.apple.com/iphone/. And then we’ve practiced a lot 
[SB]: With over 150,000 apps in App store, how do you promote your app and make it stand out from the crowd?
[OG]: I think that there are three essentials of promotion of iPhone games. First of all, the game itself must be well done, the designs, the sounds, the graphics of the game and what is most important, the idea must be fresh and new. The second point to mention is promotion of the game. Sometimes the power of promotion is underestimated, developers doesn’t pay attention to that point, considering that good game will make a self promotion, but they are wrong, it can be noticed only after some time, but it must be done. And the third point is a support of Apple Store, developers should try to attract as more attention to their game as possible, usually they do it by creating GOOD games.
[SB]: Lastly, I’ve heard from some developers that they would like to quit the day jobs and build iPhone apps to make a living. Any advice for those would-be-full-time developers?
[OG]: I think that the main advice is to know exactly what to do, to clearly imagine the idea of the game and future promotion. And of course future developer should realize that the failure is possible and be ready for that. But I encourage not to give up, but build long-term plans and stick to them. And all the efforts will be justified.
Good luck!
If you are an iPhone developer and would like to be featured in our developer series, please contact us. We are glad to share your iPhone development experience with our readers.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thats really appreciable of being into development of Iphone Apps, as a full time employee.