Bendroid, the team behind the Mystique games, answer a few of our questions
Bendroid are currently one of the leading Android games developers. With their own 3D engine, a number of popular games under their belt and more to come, the team look like consolidating their strong reputation. The guys at Bendroid kindly took time out from their busy schedule to answer a few of our questions. Here’s the interview in full-
Can you tell us a little bit about your development background and any other projects you have been involved in?
“Our background is primarily in web development. Collectively, we have over 20 years experience and have developed all kinds of different projects across many industries, to include PC games. Mobile gaming was something we had always been interested in, and a natural progression for us.”
The games in the spooky Mystique series are 
among the best loved games in the Android Market. What was the inspiration for Mystique?
“We wanted to make something outstanding and rather thrilling to play. As our lead developer is a big fan of horror films (from “A Nightmare on Elm Street” to the popular horror movies of today), we decided to develop something in that genre.”
How long did it take you to put together each chapter of Mystique, and were there any major headaches or stumbling blocks along the way?
“Once the story was developed and storyboarded, Chapter 1: Foetus was developed in about a week. Chapter 2: The Child, which was more complex and contained more content, took about a month to develop after story development. The main headache in both efforts was to create a professional looking game on a device with certain software and hardware limits (not to mention having to account for the many different Android phones and versions on the market). Also, Chapter 1: Foetus was done on the emulator event without having a real phone.”
Which Android devices do you use yourself?
“We currently have the HTC G1, HTC Tattoo, Motorola Droid, and Motorola Cliq.”
Which is your favourite Android app (other than your own of course)?
“Taskiller, Astro, MapDroyd, Quick Settings.”
How much potential do you personally feel the Google Android platform has?
“We believe that one day it will be the leading platform. We have done some development for the iPhone, but ultimately have decided to focus primarily on the Android OS.”
What’s on your personal wish-list regarding Android apps or features? Is there something you feel the platform is sorely missing?
“Hmmm, it’s difficult to say. We have found all the necessary features for our development thus far, and really have no complaints.”
What drew you to developing in Android, and do you feel it is a powerful enough platform for developers?
“We started developing in Android for fun. Having a collective Java development background, we decided to give a try and see what would happen. After developing some test games and then Mystique Ch1: Foetus, we were very happy with (and a bit surprised by) the power of the Android platform. More importantly, we see great potential that Android will continue to grow in sophistication over time.”
The Android Market receives a lot of criticism from users and developers alike, how has your personal experience of publishing apps on the market been?
“We have two main feedback points: (1) the Android market needs an easier purchasing process, and (2) the market should be made available via computer (like iTunes). This may make the users’/developers’ experience less complicated.”
Piracy is a major concern for developers of Android apps, have you been affected by piracy of your apps? Do you feel that more could or should be done to combat it?
“Yeah, we have found our games on file sharing websites and torrents. We understand that piracy cannot be avoided, but it still disappoints us, as we are spending a lot of time and resources making games that people can enjoy. It is the revenue gained from the market sales that enables us to continue forward with development of new games and chapters.”
Has the much-maligned fragmentation of the Android OS affected you in any way? If so, how have you been working around this?
“Having lots of devices and OS versions makes the user experience richer, but at the same time introduces a couple of challenges for the developers:
- we are not able to quickly integrate features that take advantage of new OS functionality without first considering an alternative for legacy OS devices, and
- as new devices are introduced, we must ensure that our legacy games are compatible with new interfaces, displays, etc.”
You have a couple of other apps on the market, a Tangram app and an app called Straight Scoop, which generates random answers to user created questions. What do you plan on working on next – further chapters of Mystique, updates to your other titles, or something entirely new?
“Right now we are working on the third chapter of Mystique: Obitus, which should be available on Android market in February. You can see the latest game trailer on our website at http://www.bendroid.com. After this, we will focus on other 3D games that take advantage of our proprietary 3D engine.”
Any advice for aspiring Android devs?
“Be creative, focus on quality and pay attention to detail. The mobile gaming community is very viral, and positive user ratings and comments really help an app or game get noticed.”
Bendroid games have a number of apps live on the Android market at the moment, with more to come, including, as mentioned in the interview, part 3 of the excellent and hugely popular Mystique series (see video teaser below). Check out their website at http://www.bendroid.com/ for more news.
[...] I’ll be taking Chapter 3: Obitus for a spin today, so expect a full review over the next day or so. If you like Bendroid’s work, we had the chance to interview some of the development team from Bendroid a few weeks back. If you missed it, the interview can be found here. [...]
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