#matt rix

Matt Rix is the man behind Trainyard, the popular puzzle solving game for iOS.

After reading some of his inspirational blog posts about the challenges and success he's faced as an indie game developer, I decided to get in touch with him.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What are your interests? What kind of music do you listen to? Where've you traveled to? Favourite TV show? 

My name is Matt Rix, I live in Brampton, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto). I’m married and I have a 2 year old son. My main interest is definitely games. I love lots of indie games, but if I had infinite time, I’d spend it playing Starcraft, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield 3.  

I’ve travelled all around Canada and to a few major US cities. I’ve also been to a bunch of different Caribbean countries and Brazil, but I’ve never been outside of the Americas.   

My favourite TV show is probably Arrested Development, but I enjoy watching all kinds of tv shows and movies, I’m not very picky.

What was your first job growing up? Do you ever find yourself relating back to it when making decisions at Magicule?

My first job growing up was a paper route. I don’t think I have to relate back to it very often these days. I think the main lesson it taught me – even though it sounds cheesy – is the importance of hard work. 

How'd you get into design and development work?

I’ve always been into “multimedia” in various forms. I took a college course in “multimedia production” and was offered a job as a Flash developer because of my college portfolio. I worked as a Flash dev for about 5 years, which is where I learned most of what I know now. 

Where'd the idea for Trainyard come from?

I was actually sitting on a train while commuting to work when I came up with the idea for Trainyard. I really wanted to do something involving paint colours mixing together, and I thought the idea of model trains carrying cars of paint had lots of possibilities. The game mechanics eventually evolved out of that. 

How'd you decide on making it a Universal app, rather than separate iPhone and iPad versions?

The iPad version of Trainyard is literally just the iPhone retina version with a border (which by the way, nobody has complained about).  If I had put more effort into it and created some extra iPad-only modes and puzzles, I probably would have created a separate “HD” version. 

Any plans for a Mac version of Trainyard?

Not sure. I think that’ll come when I make Trainyard 2 (eventually). Right now I’m thinking Trainyard 2 will be cross-platform and developed in Unity, but I don’t have any plans to start working on it anytime soon. 

You mentioned that being featured in the App Store is like winning the lottery – can you elaborate on this a bit? Were the effects of the featuring short-lived, or did you see a longterm benefit from it?

The effects of featuring were relatively short lived, but because I was able to use the feature to catapult up to #2 in the App Store, the effects lasted a little bit longer. By far the most sales I’ve ever had were during those couple weeks in October though. 

So the idea that the App Store is like a lottery has some truth, but there’s a lot more to it. You really must have a fantastic app to even get a chance of succeeding on the store, so making something fantastic is what I consider “buying your lottery ticket”. There are tons of apps on the App Store, but there are relatively few fantastic apps. 

Something else I like to bring up is that it’s not really about luck. There are no random draws or dice being rolled. There are real people at Apple who actively decide which apps to feature every week. There are real App Store users who decide they like a game enough to buy it and make it climb up the charts. 

Can you share any more details about your experiences doing sales? You mentioned that your Christmas sale wasn't as successful as you had hoped, but that it still worked pretty well. Have you done any other sales since?

Sales are kind of weird. So here’s the thing: the vast majority of users will have never heard of your app before. That means they won’t actually know that your app used to be $2.99 or whatever. The only way sales are even slightly effective is when a site like Touch Arcade posts about your sale. 

Unless you’re really high up the sales charts, pricing on the App Store is quite elastic, meaning that the higher your price is, the less downloads you’re gonna get, and vice versa. For me, I’d rather have more users than less users, so I usually prefer to keep the price at $0.99, even though I think the game is worth more than that. 

Do you have anything exciting coming up that you'd like to talk about?

Nothing to announce quite yet. I think I’ve finally decided my next project, which is kind of like a cross between Canabalt, Trials, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater… or something like that. It doesn’t have a final name or release date though.  

What finally pushed you over the edge to leave your full-time job to focus all your efforts on your game development career?

Really all that happened is that Trainyard made enough money where I realized “whoa, I can finally just make games all the time”, and so that’s what I did. I honestly think that if you’ve got a great game idea, you should *keep your day job* and finish the game in your spare time. There’s no reason to take a huge risk, especially on a platform as volatile as the App Store. 

How has your life changed since leaving Indusblue? What sort of things do you miss, and what are you glad to have left behind?

I definitely miss the social side of things, going out for lunch, discussing ideas and all that. I’m glad to leave behind all the mess of dealing with clients and their ridiculous demands. 

When struggling with a design challenge, what do you do? Is there someone you turn to for advice? Sleep on it? Move on and get back to it later?

Prototype, prototype, prototype. If I’m ever unsure of something, I prototype it, play it, and then if I’m still unsure, I get my wife to play it. By that point, I always have a pretty good idea of whether it’ll work or not. 

What blogs/books/magazines do you read?

I mostly just use Twitter as an aggregator of things that are interesting, I don’t follow any specific blogs or magazines anymore. I also read r/gamedev on Reddit, which also acts as an aggregator. 

What have you failed at in life, and how have you learned from the experience?

I fail all the time at actually staying focused and getting work done. It’s still something I struggle with all the time. I’ve learned that I need to have extremely strict rules, schedules, and deadlines or else I end up getting nothing done. 

If you could offer one piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs – what would it be?

Have a goal. Not a fluffy goal like “be successful”, but a real, tangible, practical goal. Write it down somewhere you will see it every day. Do something *every single day* to work towards that goal, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. If you do that, you’ll eventually reach it. 

What's your hardware/software setup look like?

It’s kind of weird. I’m actually a big fan of Windows 7, so I do a lot of my main work (design, prototyping, etc.) on my PC. I use Synergy to share my mouse+keyboard with OSX on my Macbook Pro, which is where I do all of my actual iOS coding (but not much else). 

Describe a typical day in the life of Matt Rix.

Wake up. Shower/eat/etc. Take my son to day care. Work for a few hours. Eat lunch. I have a rule that I have to eat lunch outside and without any screens (no iPhone, etc.). Work for a few more hours. Check email and Twitter. Pick up my son, and hang out with my wife and son for the rest of the night. 

Any funny stories encountering a stranger playing your game, or perhaps a situation where someone you've known for a long time just realized you're the man behind their favourite game?

Hmm, not really. I’ve heard of other people seeing strangers playing Trainyard, but I’ve never had it happen to me. Apparently my banker’s cousin is a big Trainyard fan, maybe that counts for something? ;)

What's your favourite iOS game, (outside of Trainyard of course)? Favourite console game? Mac?

Favourite iOS game is probably Monsters Ate My Condo. Favourite console game, it’s a four way tie between Skate, BioShock, Fallout 3, and Braid. Favourite PC game: another four way tie between Minecraft, Starcraft 2, Battlefield 3, and Team Fortress 2. 

If you could spend a few hours over dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

Hmm, I’m not really concerned with celebrities or whatever, so maybe Notch, because I think what he’s doing with Mojang is fantastic, and I think he’d be a big fan of Trainyard if he played it. 

Lastly, if you won the lottery (say $20 million), what would you do with the money (besides the typical stuff)?

I’d probably want to start a real gaming studio, instead of just being solo. Not a lot of people, probably 10 at most. I’ve got some ideas for slightly more ambitious games that would never come to fruition without having a larger team and studio.

Wow. This is one of the best user interfaces I’ve seen in some time. It’s smart, intuitive, and far more robust than the simple interface leads you to believe. And it’s simply a fun score-keeping app for games with friends/family.