There’s a lot of frustration on various forums about the length of time it takes to get reviewed, and the fact that a developer could spend a lot of time on something only for it to be rejected because it doesn’t match some unknown criteria. This isn’t a good way of getting developers to invest time and develop for your platform.” A lot of the developers we spoke to echoed these sentiments. Others, however, have had markedly different experiences, being quickly flagged as selected vendors and having in-house representatives assigned to shepherd them through the submissions procedure.

But that simply serves to support the idea that there’s something that – from the outside – appears arbitrary, insulated and mysterious about the submissions system itself. Despite these reservations, the developers we spoke to all share the same opinion that there’s a definite future for games on the iPhone, and have enjoyed working with it so far. “The iPhone continually surprises me by how capable it is,” says Qua. “The basic engine for Cube Runner took about two days to write, and I didn’t expect it to perform even half as well, going on my previous mobile 3D experiences.”

Having worked on other phone platforms, Farley agrees: “It’s been a very positive experience. There is no doubt that the iPhone has already changed the marketplace. Allowing applications to utilize functions such as the camera, GPS and connectivity is a major step forward from the restrictive nature of the Java implementation on most other phones. Unlike the N-Gage, it isn’t a technology platform shared across a number of devices – it is a single device. This is vital for consumer understanding and avoids additional device fragmentation. We have enough of that already in mobile gaming.”

And some developers are making a lot of money, too. Trism, Demeter’s first title, has made a quarter of a million dollars since its release in July. Demeter has quit his day job and now runs a small studio working on five games. Such success stories were unknown in mobile phone development until the launch of Apple’s handheld. “We have already seen that iPhone users consume far more content than currently seen across the traditional mobile phone market,” says Farley. “When that’s combined with a 70 percent revenue share for the content producer, it means that iPhone as a standalone mobile platform is almost certainly the most profitable for the small developer.”

And it’s games like Trism that may ultimately point the way to the platform’s future. Those comparisons to DS and PSP may effectively be part of the problem, raising false expectations for the device – expectations probably not held by the iPhone’s more casual audience for whom gaming is at best an intriguing bonus – but also leading developers in the wrong direction. Of the initial line-up of games, it’s quirky puzzle games like Trism and Tapulous’ free music title Tap Tap Revenge that have seemed most at home, while more complex offerings like the Mac port Cro-Mag Rally by Pangea Soft, or the reworking of De Blob, seem out of place.

The secret to developing for the iPhone may be to ignore the hype and the hardware, and treat it like a mobile phone after all. “I think the fundamental question we should be asking as developers is not ‘what kind of game do we want to make for this device?’ but ‘what type of game does the mobile gamer want to play?’” argues Farley.

“The iPhone is still ultimately a phone, and therefore it is unlikely many users will purchase it with just gaming in mind. They will play on the move for short periods of time and the early signs are that games designed with this in mind will be successful. Hopefully this gives those of us who have spent years building mobile games a bit of an early advantage over the other studios.”

Ivan Villavicencio, founder of developer IVRealms, agrees: “The iPhone is primarily a communication device. The DS and PSP are portable gaming devices. For the gaming industry it’s easy to try and fit the same old ‘match three’ game and box it up for the iPhone. This is what we are seeing now with the first wave of games. But the truly unique gems will be the games that think outside the box and incorporate what the iPhone has to offer.”