Team17, the legendary British developers behind the Worms and Alien Breed games to name but a few, have recently joined the ranks of the App Store with Worms for iPhone. Based in West Yorkshire, this independent games developer has been one of the mainstays of British games talent (and one of my personal favourite studios) since 1987, starting with the Amiga (remember that thing? Awesome!). Martyn Brown, Studio Director of Team17 and Kelvin Aston, the Producer on Worms for iPhone, took some time out to answer some of our questions. Topics of discussion included their most recent port of Worms to the iPhone (which we were pretty impressed with) and their plans for future iPhone software , independent developers, piracy and the state of British games development.

Sam Gibbs: Firstly thanks a lot for taking the time to answer some questions.  I think you’ve managed an excellent port of worms to the iPhone and really made the best possible Worms experience with what’s available on the iPhone. Recent games such as Worms and Real Racing have proved that the iPhone is a legitimate portable gaming platform. Do you have any more plans for Apple’s device of choice in the near future?

Martyn Brown:Yes, we’re obviously taking the platform very seriously, we treated Worms iPhone as we would any console version and I think that shows in the implementation. We will look at games we are developing and also new IP for the platform.

SG: In your opinion will the dichotomy of the hardware platform between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS split the App Store market?

MB: I don’t believe so. You may see some 3GS only titles, but we are looking to support both through the same app, you may get additional features and or video performance/effects with 3GS.

SG: Has the iPhone and Apple’s App Store brought about the age of independent developers with a distribution platform that is relatively independent of publishing costs?

MB: I certainly believe that App Store has contributed greatly to the opportunities for independent digital publishing (along with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade, Sony PSN, WiiWare and Steam/PC). Of all those platforms, Appstore is the easiest to get involved with from a start up perspective but it also has its own challenges simply due to the massive amount of titles on there.

SG: After the success of Worms on the iPhone (No.1 paid app in the UK app store), do you have any plans for any other mobile platforms such as Android, Windows mobile, symbian or even Blackberry?

MB: Worms will be coming to other mobile platforms, but through EA Mobile, whom we licensed the title to. We were only interested in supporting iPhone directly in our studio as it made more sense to do so.

SG: Do you think piracy, which hits most platforms in one way or another, will play a large part in the new mobile space? Would it for instance impact on your budget available for any future iPhone projects?

MB: I can’t really answer that until we see how the title performs and we can gather information on any piracy impact there is. Obviously if there is a ton of piracy, it will certainly put at risk new projects & budgets will be lower.

SG: And finally, what do you think about the state of British game development with development studios and developers closing up shop and moving to places like Canada and France? Would tax breaks be able to make Britain a fertile place for game development again and fight the ‘Brain Drain’?

MB: With the digital opportunities, location of development has become secondary. However, being a Yorkshireman and a Brit (in that order!) I don’t feel like we should have to move continents to get the most out of our industry and I think it’s time for our government to finally act and support what is a market leader. I know there are movements to do this, I just hope it’s not too little, too late.

Two more questions briefly answered by Kelvin Aston the producer on Worms iPhone.

SG: To Kelvin, do you have any iPhone 3GS specific plans and increased horsepower, especially in the graphics department?

Kelvin Aston: We plan to offer extra visual effects for 3GS users in the first update (not the patch). We released a patch that hopefully fixed a lot of problems that people have reported to us. The update will come later.

SG: With regard to Worms on the iPhone, do you have any updates, additions or DLC planned for Worms for iPhone such as online or bluetooth linked multiplayer?

KA: BlueTooth multiplayer will be available in our first update (later this year), online multiplayer will be due this Winter.

So you heard it here, both BT and online multiplayer will be coming to Worms on an iPhone near you later this year (if you’re interested in what we thought of the  game check out our review). I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to seeing what Team17 have in the works for the iPhone and the increased visuals available on the iPhone 3GS. Will this be the start of a trend of divergent games split between the hardware platforms of the iPhone 3G and 3GS? Either way many thanks to Martyn and Kelvin for taking time out from the perpetual grind to talk to us.