Archive for March, 2007

According to this article on Gizmodo, the N-Gage experience is “better than we expected.” They go on to make a comparison to Xbox Live, then go on to talk about its strengths compared to that particular service:

First, it’s going to be subscription free. Nokia doesn’t charge you for it, and the only thing you’ll be paying is for the game itself…

What’s also cool is that some games will be cross-platform PC/Mobile compatible, meaning you can play with your buddies on the phone while they’re sitting at their computer. However, you don’t have to have a PC in order to play this–all this is over the air downloadable.

A nice write-up all around.

Games on Deck has published another important N-Gage interview, this time with Tomi Huttula, Head of Arena Product Management for Nokia.

In this broad-ranging piece, they discuss everything from the community features in next generation games to the evolution of the Arena:

With the new N-Gage platform we are reaching millions of users around the world and therefore have focused on easing new users into the community and making it easy to be involved at whatever level you wish.

Read the whole thing here — it’s three pages, with good stuff on every page, so be sure to click through.

And as you’re reading, remember that the new N-Gage platform means not just new games and new devices to play them on, but also a brand new N-Gage application (it won’t be called the “N-Gage Arena launcher”) on those devices, as well as a new website to support them all.

So if things seem quiet from the Arena team from time to time, it’s because we’re all working hard behind the scenes on the new site and the new application.

–Ikona out

Hey I’ll be the first one to admit that the Wii is definitely cool. Controlling characters on the screen with arm movements is just so much more natural and intuitive than a cumbersome series of button presses like Up, Down, Red+Blue, and stand on your head.

That’s why I found it interesting to read about a similar development effort for Symbian devices in the mobile space.

Arto Holopainen, a Finnish Symbian developer, posted a short article in Forum Nokia describing his work on a wearable gaming “sleeve”, that, when used in tandem with a Nokia mobile device, allows for a similar kind of control of objects on a screen.

Pretty cool huh? I can think of a few games you could use that for. How about a swimming simulator or a Hawkman game?

What are some ideas you guys have about motion detection, mobile devices, and games?

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s encouraging write up of Creatures of the Deep, Pocket Gamer is on the ball once again, this time with a hands-on preview of System Rush: Evolution for the next generation of N-Gage.

Here’s a little snippet from the intro:

“System Rush: Evolution aims to blend fully three-dimensional graphics and furiously fast racing into a compelling experience for handsets. It’s a formula that’s worked for other formats, so how’s it shaping up?

“Pretty well.”

Read the whole thing here.

Hey guys, Ikona here with a quick update. Our friends over at Pocket Gamer just put up a hands-on preview of Creatures of the Deep, the fishing game for the next generation of N-Gage.

Here’s some of what they had to say:

“Using a trusty trawler, you can steer you way to destination points on a world map to talk to fellow game-controlled fishers. Chatting up these characters opens up various fishing quests and adventures. For example, one quest we tried demanded we reel in a single 40lb tuna before the end of the day. Others will require hauling in a total number of fish or earning a set amount of experience.”

Be sure to give the full article a read, too.

This Game Developer’s Conference has come and gone but the N-Gage news keeps coming. Here are links to press articles about the next generation of mobile gaming:

Nokia N-Gage Platform and SNAP Mobile
Gamedev.net speaks to several Nokia representatives about the N-Gage platform offering and what it means to game developers.

Opinion: Games are becoming communities
Pocket Gamer discusses how community is becoming a huge aspect of where mobile gaming is going, using the next generation of N-Gage as one example.

All About Symbian and ‘Project White Rock’
Krisse over on All About Symbian picks up on the Project White Rock story along with other N-Gage news from the Game Developers Conference.

Adrants to Rant About Social Media on ad:tech Panel
Don’t miss KarlL. from our very own Future Watch blog at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, where he will sit on a panel discussing personal and social media as it relates to brand personality.
As always, if you find more stories, add them to our comments section!

– Ikona out

Hey gang, Ikona here, back from GDC with another hot session report. This one was a real eye-opener, since we got a rare glimpse behind the scenes of a new N-Gage game project that is unannounced and still under development.

The session was called “Designing Next Generation Connected Games”, and it was led by Scott Foe, best known on the N-Gage for producing Pocket Kingdom, one of the first massively multiplayer mobile games. He was also named as one of the “next generation of top gamemakers” in a recent feature published by The Escapist.

His session was aimed at fellow game developers, encouraging them to create games for the new N-Gage platform and offering suggestions on how to do that. To illustrate his points, he talked about the game he has under development — code-named “Project White Rock” — and shared some of the insights gleaned from it.

Along the way, he also dropped a juicy hint about whom he’s working with on this project.

A lot of you have been asking if RedLynx, whose High Seize and Pathway to Glory series are still some of the most popular games on the original N-Gage, are going to make games for the next generation of N-Gage.

Well nothing official has been said, but Foe did flash the RedLynx logo up there and said, “I’d like to announce\ RedLynx was working on this game with me, but I can’t” — so you can draw your own conclusions.

Nothing from the actual game was shown, so that’s going to have to remain a mystery for now, too — however I was able to ask around a bit and I’m pretty sure this is an original project, not a sequel to Pocket Kingdom or any of the existing RedLynx games.

He also hinted at the possibility that this new project could be both cross-platform and multi-platform — meaning that the game would work not only on N-Gage-compatible devices but also PCs, and that the gameplay experience on both would be equivalent.

All in all, one of the best sessions I’ve been to at this year’s show, and definitely of interest to any N-Gage fan.

– Ikona out

This year’s Game Developer’s Conference has been our best yet, and the press is picking up on the N-Gage message loud and clear. Here are links to press articles about the next generation of mobile gaming:

• The Return of N-Gage - Games on Deck.com interviews Gregg Sauter, head of third-party publishing for N-Gage
• Has Nokia learned from the mistakes of the original N-Gage? - IGN speaks to Nokia’s Jaakko Kaidesoja at GDC Mobile
• Gregg Sauter calls on game developers to support N-Gage - Keynote address coverage via Pocket Gamer
• GDC: Nokia’s Sauter Talks Next Generation N-Gage - more keynote coverage, this time from Gamasutra
• The Real Innovation Lies With Mobile - an essay published on Games On Deck.com, written by Nokia’s Mark Olilla, Director of Technology and Strategy and Games Publishing
• N-Gage platform push gathers momentum in San Francisco - Gamesindustry.biz covers Monday’s announcements
• GDC: THQ signs up to N-Gage v2 - MCV covers the new publisher announcements

If you find more stories, add them to our comments section!

– Ikona out

During this week’s Game Developer’s Conference, a group of Nokia managers gathered in an undisclosed location to talk about the next generation of N-Gage.

The questions on this podcast came from you, the readers of this blog and members of the N-Gage Arena community, as well as Jon Jordan from Pocket Gamer, who acted as moderator. The discussion covered everything from N-Gage hardware, 3D chips, new games, and the N-Gage SDK and its roadmap.

Interviewed were:

• Jaakko Kaidesoja, Director, Play New, Nokia Multimedia
• Gregg Sauter, Director of Third Party Publishing for the N-Gage Platform
• Mark Ollila, Director of Technology & Strategy and Nokia Games Publishing 

The podcast was recorded as an mp3 file, and produced by Karl Long, Nokia’s web/social media integration manager.

Why not download it to your Nseries device and give it a listen? ;)  To download the podcast, right click and choose ’save as’:

• Future Watch GDC Podcast (12.7 MB, 27:06 minutes)

Yesterday, Matt Levy, SNAP Mobile lead engineer, made a presentation showing how to turn a stand-alone Java™ game into a feature-rich connected mobile game.

This step-by-step walk-through demonstrated how easy it is to add multiplayer and community features, such as a friends list, presence, chat, ranking, and multiplayer game-play across operators using the vast array to tools, resources and support available from SNAP Mobile.

For more information, visit http://www.snapmobile.nokia.com.