By Severn shore we learn

Continued:

"But recently, the explosive growth of free downloads financed by in-app purchases has been eating the soul out of the market, turning what could have been great games into little more than extortion machines.

All the design time is going into figuring out the best places to squeeze more cash out of the player, rather than developing better gameplay."

"Crash Dive is my first mobile game," says Scott, "and I'm hoping there are other players out there who are interested in the same kind of games that I grew up on; games where you had to solve problems, develop tactics, and grow your skills (without a shiny "achievement unlocked" every 30 seconds)."

Scott has a pedigree that ranks with the best subsimmer. "One of my favorite games when growing up was Sid Meier's Silent Service. I've played many other subsims since then, but I've always felt that that game best boiled down tactical sub combat to its core essence: Stalk a convoy, sneak in, find the best angle of attack, sow terror and destruction, then bug out before the escorts can find you."

"Last summer, I had an itch for that gameplay, and figured that the tablet was a perfect vehicle for it: Any time, any place, be able to jump in for a quick battle. So I searched all the App stores for such a game, and was shocked that it didn't exist. I saw that as an opportunity to make a game for myself that others might enjoy, so I started development on it."

"Over the next nine months, I made the bulk of the game on my own, but enlisted the help of some very smart friends for things like A.I. and path-finding. I still have a “day job” working for a big game studio, but spend my nights and weekends developing passion projects like Crash Dive."