HandCircus' Simon Oliver

The development and distribution side of things are fantastic. The SDK is a joy to use, and being able to use a normal retail device for development makes it a very accessible platform for a wide range of developers. That said, visibility remains a challenge for small developers - something I hope will be rectified as the App Store evolves.

Even if you don't have a solid game idea yet, just download the SDK and get playing and making - the experience of getting something up and running on the device to tinker with serves as great brain-food for development of your next project. There are some awesome open-source tools and frameworks out there that can help you get up and running quickly (like Box2D and Cocos2D). Don't try and plan the game too extensively before you start development, and allow it to evolve naturally. Prototype heavily!

Also, don't underestimate the importance of marketing - we've been very fortunate to have the talents and experience of our partner ngmoco. There is a lot of competition in the App Store so if you are planning on going it alone, make sure that you are able to dedicate the time to get your game out there. Kyle and Ron from 2DBoy (World of Goo) gave a great lecture at GDC on their success and experiences as an indie - the lecture notes are all available online.

The system that Apple has put in place has some advantages - there is no distribution fragmentation (all Apps are available in one place) which certainly makes things easier for users looking for software, or developers getting their content out there. There is also no question of trust when submitting credit card data, having to manage multiple accounts or of a company going out of business. While it may not have the level of flexibility of a totally open system, the open approach to development provides a great deal more flexibility than digital distribution models on other consoles.

It looks like a great device. I've not managed to get my hands on one yet (I'm still on a first-gen iPhone and first-gen iPod Touch!) but it's cool to be able to start playing with what will become the standard hardware over the next couple of years. Obviously it does put an additional responsibility on the developer to support both devices, but fortunately the core platform hasn't changed (screen size, connectivity and input scheme remain the same).

It definitely depends on the capabilities of the device - obviously the mechanics of Rolando don't naturally translate to a traditional controller, as it was designed around the touch-and-tilt capabilities of the iPhone. We would never create a quick port of Rolando for the sake of getting it on another platform - we'd only ever release something that felt right for the device.

Absolutely, we've got two other projects at the early stages of development, one for iPhone, one for another platform, but we're not ready to make any announcements just yet!