Flight Control Conquers Apple's iPhone

It seems Firemint simply can do no wrong. Their latest release, Flight Control, has snapped up the *top* spot for paid applications in 15 countries on the iPhone. Yes, more people bought Flight Control than any other application on the iPhone for, I'm assuming, this week. If some of the stories on the past top iPhone paid applications are true, it hopefully means a lot of moola for the Melbourne developers.

I remember chatting to Firemint CEO, Rob Murray, at Game Connect 2007 about the iPhone, and he seemed curious but cautious about the success of the platform. But this was the early days for the iPhone, and who knew then that the app store would bring such an amazing opportunity for everyone. I'm sure Rob's enthusiasm for the iPhone has grown somewhat since ;)

The press releases below are very much worth a read as they describe the word-of-mouth effect that Flight Control received, and some backstory on how Flight Control came about.

(Press release below)

Australian game development studio Firemint is celebrating the success of its hit iPhone game, Flight Control. The game is currently storming the charts in Apple's App Store, which sells games and other applications for the popular iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Flight Control has reached the number 1 paid application spot in 15 countries including Australia, USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France and Russia and is in the top 10 and moving up the charts in 16 others including Japan and Italy. Flight Control holds the coveted number 1 position in all the regions that account for the majority of the App Store's global sales, including USA and UK.

Flight Control delights players with its broad appeal and quirky humour, and its art style and music evoke the golden era of aviation. The game is easy to learn - just touch and drag planes to their runways - but difficult to master as more and more aircraft appear. The unique control method allows players to draw flight paths directly on the screen with a finger. Flight Control is ideal for two minutes or two hours, with extremely fast "two-taps-to-play" startup and "just one more go" gameplay.

Flight Control has been critically acclaimed by specialist reviewers:

"I dare you to play it just once… a fun, quick fix game that has me coming back for more" - Mark Bozon, IGN
"Flight Control is one of those essential games that you'll continually return to and will remain on your iPhone forever" - Spanner Spencer, Pocket Gamer
"Incredibly fun... the winning balance of easy pick-up gameplay, ramping difficulty and tickling the need to try "just one more time"... we're big fans of the game" - Arnold Kim, Touch Arcade

Apple's iTunes software, which provides an interface for purchasing and reviewing applications, shows that the overwhelming number of players are rating the game 5 out of 5 stars and leaving rave feedback:

"A masterpiece of simplicity and genius gameplay, with character to boot. A must buy, no question!" – koorby
"If you're going to buy 1 game for your iphone, make sure this is it!" – Sea Eagle '08
"Simply awesome!!! Simple, intuitive, fantastically addictive game" – rdog2310

Twitter

Flight Control has also caused something of a "twitterstorm", with many players writing about their obsession and proudly announcing new achievements on Twitter, the popular microblogging service. "It's been incredible," said Firemint's Alexandra Peters. "It sounds like a cliché, but we could literally see the game spreading virally on Twitter, with one person telling their friends to get it, and then those friends passing the Flight Control virus on to their own circle of friends. Before we knew it, a bunch of people were sharing tips and high scores."

Firemint is well known in the mobile game development industry for its award winning, high profile titles including the Fast and the Furious series of racing games and Madden, Electronic Art's flagship North American football series. Flight Control is one of the developer's first iPhone games and its first self-published title. Firemint is an independent studio, 100% privately owned by founder and CEO Robert Murray and Flight Control began as a side project for Murray. "These days I'm usually busy with the management of our 40 person studio, but I'm a game developer at heart and I've been itching to get back to designing and coding a game. I originally started Flight Control to explore some of my game design theories, but as it developed I could see its potential so I decided it deserved some Firemint polish, despite being a much smaller scale project than our usual titles."

Jesse West, Firemint's Art Director, said ""When I first saw Flight Control I thought the idea was great but Rob's "programmer art" could do with some improvement! The art style in Flight Control is partly pin-up vintage, and partly purely fun and accessible."

The success of Flight Control has further boosted Murray's confidence in Firemint's original iPhone title due for release at the end of April 2009, the highly anticipated pro circuit racing game Firemint Real Racing™. "The App Store has really changed the mobile game playing field. Smaller development studios aren't totally dependent on overseas publishers and telcos anymore. Flight Control has proven to us that if you have a good game and are prepared to put in the effort to market it, you can get to the top of the world."

Flight Control is available now, worldwide, exclusively for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The game is currently available at the opening sale price of AU$1.19.