"Have you checked your updates?"
"No, not yet."
"Is Red Ball on there?"
"You mean, Bounce On?"
"Red Ball. Desert Level!"
This is a typical exchange between me and my five-year old. He's addicted to what he calls "Red Ball", which is in fact Team Phobic's clearly-addictive Bounce On. The Desert Level my son is talking about is the teaser for the next episode of Bounce On and since I hear about it so much I thought I'd contact the folks at Team Phobic for an interview.
Brian Powers fielded my questions and I'm very grateful because it got me about 20 minutes of peace and quiet. Of course, the questions have started up again... Nothing lasts forever for a five-year old except maybe the wait for something they want dearly. 
The Team Phobic iPhonespaz Interview
[JG] Thanks for agreeing to the interview, Brian. First thing's first... How many apps do you have on your personal iPhone and what got you hooked on the platform?
Team Phobic: Between all of our iPhones and iPod touches we have around 60 apps. What hooked us on the platform is that it is such a versatile device - from games to music to web browsing. It's nice to carry one device to do everything we need. Especially considering how connected we all are with the internet, it's great to have good mobile web access. Our first game, iTD (iPhone Tower Defense) was our first project and game on the appstore. It did well at the time but has since faded into the depths of the tower defense genre. That was ok because iTD was our warm up round; we knew what we needed know to make Bounce On. It has been a joy to work on a game that so many people enjoy and we can't wait for everyone to try out what's coming in World 4!
[JG] I gotta ask this one for my kids: Desert level... WHEN!? 
Actually, what else is in store for Bounce On?
Team Phobic: We have all of our development efforts focused on World 4 since we finished our newest game Micro Mahem. World 4 introduces several new features, including a speed powerup, doors with switches, several new enemies, and many other things we can't say yet. Beyond World 4 we'll be working on bringing the story to an exciting and fun conclusion.
After a few weeks of downtime, we've finally finished moving and setting up our new office. It's good to have development back in full swing!
[JG] Sweet!!!! What is your favorite iPhone app and why do you love it?
Team Phobic: Besides our own apps, we love iDracula. It brought good controls and a high level of polish that really impressed us. Another app we really love is GPS by MotionX. It lets us view maps of mountian biking trails and keeps track of speed and distance. We use it all the time since Boulder has beautiful mountains on its doorstep.
[JG] I love MotionX's GPS too. We don't have the mountains but it's fun and easy. The 3.0 OS is pretty much set in stone now, but if you could add one feature what would it be?
Team Phobic: One thing that would be great for games is if they added the ability for third party apps to make use of your iTunes account to store data (like XBOX Live). You could have achievements and settings stored in conjuction with your iTunes account, and it could auto- load your progress from any given game onto another iPod by signing in. You could have a centralized friends lists and see who else is online in multiplayer games.
[JG] Wouldn't that be nice! I'm in the process of building my own server app to house game data. Ok, time for our patented question: Because we're iPhonespaz, we've got to ask this... What's the geekiest thing you've done with your iPhone? The thing that made people go, "Uh... right. Note to self: Restraining order."
Team Phobic: Installed an ssh client on the iPhone and wrote some code in it, just because we could.
[JG] I did the same thing!!! LOL! Thanks again for doing the interview, Brian. Best of luck!
A special thanks to the crew at Team Phobic for answering my questions. They just moved offices when I contacted them and they were totally swamped!
Team Phobic's Website: teamphobic.com
Micro Mayhem (iTunes)
Red Ball, ahem Bounce On (iTunes)
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