Archive for February, 2008

In a talk this afternoon, Nokia’s Peter Lykke Nielsen — with an assist from the guys at Digital Legends Entertainment — showed interested game developers how the OpenGL ES 1.1 standard will be incorporated into the N-Gage Software Development Kit (SDK) in the near future. Nielsen is the product manager of the N-Gage SDK.

As many of our more technical-savvy readers already know, a number of N-Gage compatible devices that are also OpenGL ES 1.1 compliant are already in the market. The good news is that Nokia plans to offer hardware-acceleration of select N-Gage games going forward, as well as a software rendered version for those devices that lack hardware acceleration.

The bad news is that I can’t tell you which games will feature 3D hardware support or when they will be available. But considering we were shown a sweet-looking demo of ONE running under OpenGL and that the Digital Legends team gave an overview of their experience developing, one can probably draw one’s own conclusions about at least one game.

* For more detailed information on creating games for N-Gage, visit http://developer.n-gage.com/.

Dan Scott, Nokia’s Head of Global Production took this stage this afternoon to present to the Game Developer’s Conference some of the things that Nokia is doing as a first party games publisher on the N-Gage platform.

He said that the mission of Nokia Games was to drive innovation on the platform, demonstrate best practices in terms of development, and of course, bring revenue to Nokia.

While mentioning there were many more first-party games in development than have been announced, he held back from showing anything new. Instead he used the examples of ONE, Creatures of the Deep, and Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol to make his points.

Among the things Nokia games could do to innovate were introduce micro-transactions, episodic content (which he suggested would roll out with Dirk Dagger), games that used pervasive real-world elements, and even games that used different things such as the camera or the motion sensor for input controls.

Another possibility was something called a “cross-genre” game. In this instance, the events in one game, such as a strategy game could affect what happens in another game, perhaps an action or roleplaying game, sharing metadata across the N-Gage Arena service.

Scott also mentioned games such as Project White Rock in terms of a game with both a PC and mobile presence and Yamake for its community of user-generated content. Even a massively multiplayer game for mobile was given as a possibility for N-Gage, but not defined as anything specifically under development.

Above all, one came away with a sense of excitement and a desire to innovate on the part of Nokia’s first party game efforts: the best is yet to come.

*For another take on this story, see this Pocket Gamer write-up.

The first session at GDC Mobile this morning to feature a Nokia presence was called “Publishers Under the Microscope.” It was a panel discussion featuring representatives from several mobile game publishers, including Namco, Vivendi Games, and I-Play. Representing Nokia was Dr. Mark Ollila, director of Technology & Strategy, Games.

Speaking directly to the US-based mobile game developers, the panel offered a gloomy assessment of their prospects, since so many other mobile developers around the world, such as those in Eastern Europe or Asia, were equally competent but offered much lower costs to publishers. The panel did suggest US-based developers could leverage their knowledge of the US market and its tastes to develop games that more directly appealed to the North American market.

 However Dr. Ollila did point out a game developer’s location was less a factor for Nokia’s first party game publishing efforts, due to our desire to push innovation and demonstrate best practices on the N-Gage platform.

The panel then went onto emphasize that sixty to seventy percent of any mobile game’s development budget still has to be dedicated to porting and quality assurance for all the different devices a mobile game has to support.

A ray of light in that equation is the N-Gage platform, as Dr. Ollila pointed out. As you likely know, N-Gage is designed to offer developers a single platform to develop for, which will then work across many different Nokia devices, as each becomes N-Gage certified. This frees up developer resources and allows them to work on more innovative, interesting games.

This was just a general overview of the panel. For more, be sure to check out the conference proceedings which are published after the conference, and for detailed information on creating games for N-Gage, visit http://developer.n-gage.com/.

We’ve just announced three new games for the next generation of the N-Gage from Glu Mobile — SPEED RACER, The Dark Knight, and Super Slam Ping Pong!

The Dark Knight and SPEED RACER are based on two upcoming movies from Warner Brothers, while Super Slam Ping Poing! is “a new original Glu title in the spirit of Glu’s runaway hit, Super K.O. Boxing!” according to the press release.

Here are more details about the games from the releases:

The Dark Knight
Play as Batman in The Dark Knight, the thrilling action game based on Warner Bros. Pictures’ upcoming blockbuster film. Batman fights to eradicate street crime in Gotham City using his advanced combat skills and an array of unique gadgets. However, things take a darker turn when a new reign of chaos is unleashed on the terrified citizens of Gotham by a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker.

SPEED RACER
In this mobile game inspired by the upcoming movie, SPEED RACER players become the ultimate grand prix champion in the Mach 6. They must conquer the art of drifting, sliding, jumping and defensive driving in order to stay ahead of the pack while racing on extreme tracks with the dirtiest of competitors.
 
Super Slam Ping Pong!
In the spirit of Glu’s runaway hit, Super K.O. Boxing, Super Slam Ping Pong is a hilarious, over-the-top game that features a cast of wacky opponents such as Master Wu-Pong and the Gnarly Gnome. Players must keep an eye out for each opponent’s tell and weakness as they fill their Super Slam meter to unleash powerful slams.

No word on any release date, but we’ll have more information on these games on N-Gage.com soon.

Hello N-Gage Fans!  It’s a lovely morning here in San Francisco and time for another Game Developer’s Conference to begin.

New Games 

Fresh off the wires are the latest announcements from Nokia regarding the N-Gage platform, including three new titles from Glu Mobile and three from Digital Chocolate.

There is a write-up of the Glu titles in this post; the three new games from Digital Chocolate are called DChoc Cafe™ Solitaire 12-Pack, DChoc Cafe™ Sudoku and DChoc Cafe™ Hold’ Em Poker. And don’t forget, we also announced Worms World Party last week.

Nokia Games Publishing is also bringing new games to the table, including Yamake and Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol. And our friends at SNAP Mobile have also announced a customized, multiplayer mobile version of the puzzle game Chuzzle by PopCap Games for their service. Check the release for more.

Keynotes and Podcast

In addition to these announcements, we’ll have a wide array of Nokia and N-Gage-related talks over the next two days, including a keynote address by Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Markets, Nokia.

Other talks will touch on key pieces of N-Gage and mobile gaming, from 3D acceleration to user experience. Check back on this blog for selected write-ups on those talks.  Get a complete breakdown of GDC Mobile sessions here.

Plus, we hope to be able to bring you a “vodcast” — or video podcast — with some key people in our games group in the next couple days.  They will be answering questions you guys submitted in the N-Gage forums.

Visit the Booth

And if you happen to be in town for the show, drop by our booth at #5628 in the North Hall of the Moscone Convention Center from 20 — 22th February. There will be live demonstrations of our mobile games, including First Access.

–ikona out

For those of you who can’t wait to play the next installment of ONE, the next generation fight game, Pocket Gamer has put a tasty hands-on preview.

Here are a few snippets from the piece:

Playing on an N81 in landscape mode, the effort that has gone into the visuals was easy to see. We played two of the seven worldwide environments available – a sun-baked Mexican car lot and a dark, underground German car park – and both were suitably atmospheric.

Other features Nokia says will be available at launch include multiplayer – two-player head-to-head via Bluetooth – as well as a global leaderboard and the ability to check out the fighting styles and stats of other players. And offline, as well as the main game option, you can also play in Arcade mode.

And of course, the official site has recently gone live, so you can check out the videos and info on the game.

“As dust settles from previous fights, the ultimate question arises. There are fighters all around the world claiming to be the ONE. Can you succeed in the survival of the fittest?”

The official game site for ONE, the fighting game for the next generation of the N-Gage experience, has just gone live.

Hit it up to see all-new in-game footage, behind the scenes videos, previews of the characters and game locations, then pick up some downloadable goodies for your PC and mobile device!

Show everyone who truly is the ONE.

This year’s DICE Summit was held at the Las Vegas Red Rock Spa and Casino, and the N-Gage team was there, rolling twenties.

What is DICE you ask? DICE stands for Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain. It’s another games industry conference, but unlike some of its larger brethren, it is by invitation only, limited to game industry insiders who get together to talk about the future of the industry.

Or in the words of Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences President Joseph Olin, “DICE is about great speakers.” And what a great speaker they had in Dr. Mark Ollila, Nokia’s Director of Technology & Strategy for Games & Multimedia, who gave this thought-provoking talk:

“Nokia is a company with a market capitalization that’s bigger than the entire games industry: How do you foster innovation from within a beast so large?”

One answer to that question is: “At Nokia, we challenge our producers to ‘Fail Fast Forward’ — don’t be afraid to fail, learn from it, and keep moving.”

Speaking of ‘Fail Fast Forward’, Mark also gave an on-stage challenge to Scott Foe, one of Nokia’s “ace game producers“, to win the Interactive Achievement Award next year with Project White Rock – suggesting the game will be released this year. While Foe hasn’t mastered that challenge yet, he did master the annual DICE poker tournament as co-champion.

DICE is also the where the annnual Interactive Achievement Awards are handed out, considered by many to be the most prestigious in the industry, since they are voted on by a jury of your peers. Nokia did not win any awards there, but our interprid, poker-playing producer did co-present the award for Cellular Game of the Year with 8 Bit Weapon’s Seth Sternberger.

The winning game in the mobile category was Electronic Art’s ‘skate‘, the overall game of the year was Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. You can see a whole list of DICE award winners here.

Speaking of game conferences, get ready for more news and posts like the Worms World Party and Yamake announcements, as the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference is only a few days away…

We’re pleased to announce Worms World Party for the next generation of N-Gage.

The game should need no introduction to those of you who were around for the first generation. A turn-based game featuring wacky worms in arcade combat, it was a long-time favorite in the N-Gage Arena thanks to its addictive gameplay and excellent multiplayer options.

Here are the key points from the press release:

* Massively updated from its original, award-winning N-Gage version
* Vibrant graphics allowing the player to visualize enemy terrain
* A slick new look including the much-loved, hilarious Worm animations
* Worms voice taunts which really bring the game to life
* Six level themes inspired by the best of the Worms series
* All the classic weapons, including the Super Sheep
* Four player multiplayer in the Arena
* Online matchmaking
* Friends List
* Global high score leaderboard
* N-Gage Points

Worms World Party for N-Gage is expected to be available in the first half of 2008. It’s from THQ Wireless.

Rejoice! And leave a comment.

We have just announced Yamake for N-Gage, a new game from Nokia Games Publishing. Here’s what the press release has to say:

Yamake for N-Gage, by Nokia Games Publishing, makes it possible for players to create their own games from a range of mini games by adding content, then playing and sharing them with friends and the wider Yamake community.

“Yamake is a groundbreaking new game for the N-Gage platform. Players can make, play and share games that are customized using user-generated multimedia content, and we are proud to be pioneering this new way of playing,” said Dr. Mark Ollila, Director of Technology and Strategy and Head of Games Publishing, Nokia. “This is exactly what the future of mobile gaming should be about - creating games that you love and want to play, then sharing them with other players.”

The easy-to-use design tools enable each mini game to be transformed by the player’s personal content such as text, pictures, sound clips and movies from the mobile device or PC - creating their favorite mini games, such as picture puzzles and quizzes that are as unique as the players themselves.

Players can share their mobile mini games via the N-Gage Arena, the Yamake community and via multimedia message between N-Gage compatible and other S60 devices. The Yamake community connects players with one another, allowing them to download and review the mini games, as well as share ideas for content.

Sounds exciting, but that’s about all I know about this one. We’ll try and get a preview and some more information on this one up on the website soon.