With the GDC China event producing a number of insights and information about the current state of play, Red Rocket Games CEO Jung Suh spoke about mobile games, specifically the iPhone, and why even the Asian market should be seriously looking at it’s potential.

Red Rocket CEO Jung Suh

We’ve profiled Red Rocket last year, and covered the release of their music/rhythm platform Mevo and The Grooveriders. The company was co-founded by Suh, a co-founder of GameFly together with Scott Yu, a former EA technical art director, and have founded a Bellevue, WA/Shanghai based company focusing on making casual games for PC and mobile markets.

Speaking to an Asian market in Asia, Suh addressed the gaming potential of Apple’s iPhone, with “PS2 quality gaming in a little handheld device,” and pressing upon developers the short development cycles of one to six months, which is short enough to keep employees motivated, but also noted that with 546 Apps recently released in one day on Apple’s App store, it’s “a lot of Apps to compete with.”

While Suh did preach the benefits of developing for the iPhone, he did point out the stringent application process that all developers must submit to Apple before approval. Specifically, he spoke to the challenges that Red Rocket themselves have faced. The rejections can come from a wide variety of angles, including icons not matching color specifications exactly, as well as using commercial keywords in the app description, in this case specifically ‘James Bond’ – a no no under Apple’s TOS.

Suh also noted that Red Rocket’s own experience with iPhone game advertising has been “lukewarm”, however, advertising the game does up the chance of your app being discussed on app review sites, appropriately generating buzz. He also noted that early reviews of your App are extremely important. Suh did admit that “our friends and families and employees help with early reviews.” He also stated that 100 + ratings of any app are the crucial point needed for an applications legitimacy as a contender in the seemingly endless list of available applications for the iPhone. Red Rocket itself currently has four titles in the App Store, with a number in development. Suh noted that cross promotion of iPhone apps is essential. Even if you’ve got a great game available, it “may not be enough,” with external reviews and/or ‘staff recommendations’ from Apple may be the make or break moment for any application.

In addition to the 1-6 weeks that an iPhone app should take to develop, Suh also added that developers shouldn’t “spend lots of time” on development work unless they’re 100% certain that they’re working on a major title. “If you’re spending more than $30,000 on a game you’re probably not going to make your money back.”

Red Rocket currently has an international staff, and is now expanding from just developer to a developer/publisher roll. In exchange for publishing rights, Red Rocket provides marketing, iPhone developers metrics, and Apple contacts as part of a revenue sharing offer.