Archive for March, 2008

Have you heard this phrase yet? It came up at the Game Developer’s Conference, in a story first broken by PG’s Jon Jordan:

“It’s all very cryptic, and to be honest we’re not entirely sure what this is about ourselves. It’s a phrase Nokia staff have been dropping into conversations, as well as having it printed on their funky shirts at GDC.”

Indeed, the phrase was on the shirt Anssi Vanjokji wore during his keynote address, as well as printed in the Nokia brochure packed into every GDC bag. 

A mysterious source has emailed me some pictures to share with you, along with some additional information I will disclose in due course. Click the pix below for detail on the brochure and “funky shirts. ”

My source asserts that For the Love of Gaming and Project White Rock are related. This was confirmed by some media reports, such as Evergeek. Let’s pick up the story there:

“[Project White Rock] is cross-platform, it’s multi-platform, it’s N-Gage, it’s PC, it’s the amazing RedLynx; the kimono is opening a little bit today. We do it all for the love of gaming.

“If you doubt the gamer’s cred or sincerity, here’s a little self-check, perhaps a humbling one: Test your own for-the-love-of-gaming quotient at www.fortheloveofgaming.com. Don’t blame me if you can’t get the music out of your head.”

Ah hah! So For the Love of Gaming points to a quiz. A tough quiz! For the record, I scored 13 points, but my score has been bumped off the board. I guess I have something to do this weekend. :)  

But it seems there’s more to this story. Here’s Zedge from Zedge.net, who goes a little deeper down the rabbit hole:

“So there I was, minding my own business, at the Nokia booth, playing one of their new N-Gage games… when I got a tap on the shoulder by a friendly PR rep. She asked me if I would want to be part of an ‘experiment’ and I responded with, sure, why the hell not.”

He describes how he was ushered into a private room with a mysterious figure who questioned him about ‘Project White Rock’. He was then given the For the Love of Gaming quiz, but scored enough points to gain a little more information.

Zedge was then handed a mysterious vial with a white USB stick inside. He describes what happened next:

“I was told to immediately put it away and not show it to anyone. How mysterious! I was then told to check out the contents in private and to await further instructions. How clandestine!”

He then concludes with a picture of the mysterious vial:

He hasn’t been heard from since!

My source was unable to provide one of the mysterious vials, and in fact immediately broke the connection when I asked for one. I didn’t even get a chance to ask for one of the funky t-shirts. Maybe someone can find out what is on the memory card in the vial, and learn a little more about Project White Rock that way.

Anyone have any ideas on this one?

N-Gage First Access has been available for several weeks now…wow, it seems like we just launched it yesterday. And anyway, while we’ve seen a number of game reviews, the first ‘reviews’ of the overall N-Gage experience are coming in now too. Here are four.

Mobile Review, a mobile gaming site based in Russia, had this to say about the experience:

“Everything is smooth, convenient, and with a great wow-factor to it. On the face of it, they have finally solved the problems of the previous gaming-minded phone.”

Portable Video Gamer — that’s a new one to me — has also taken a good look:

“The care and attention to detail that Nokia has put into this suggests that at the very least, the new N-Gage platform will raise the bar for integrated mobile game distribution and multiplayer connectivity.”

Naturally, Pocket Gamer has spent a lot of time with the service and had this to say:

“(T)he First Access application itself is marvelous. The discovery process is easy … and the choice of buy-outright, rental and free demo options is excellent.”

Symbian Freak also goes through the entire service in this three page write-up, and despite some connection issues, seems to enjoy all the features:

“To rate a game you just simply highlight the game you would like to rate, which will then take you to another page on which you can rate the game using stars and also write a small sentence on what you think about the game.”

Of course, there’s plenty more feedback on our Forums. So how would you rate the N-Gage application on a scale of one to ten? What are the best features? The worst?

The lads over at Pocket Gamer have been getting their hands on aearly versions of upcoming N-Gage games, and have been busy writing up previews about them. Here are the latest links:

Hands on with Dogz

“On the face of it, Dogz is one of the less exciting upcoming N-Gage games, since we already know it well from the Java version. However, don’t muzzle it to the back of your consciousness just yet  because a hands-on playtest proves the game certainly shouldn’t be written off on those grounds.”

 

Hands on with Snakes Subsonic

“Snake is the Mario of mobile gaming, and like Mario it gets a facelift every time a new generation of hardware appears. Naturally, the latest N-Gage platform is no exception, and during our recent Finnish excursion we had a second chance to get our hands on the flashest version so far of Nokia’s evergreen reptile, Snakes Subsonic.” 

Hands on with Creebies

“One of the more intriguing N-Gage games in development we’ve come across is Creebies, not least because Nokia is pitching it as one of the key titles on its new platform designed to appeal to women.” 

If you could have a “hands on” with one unreleased N-Gage game, which one would it be?

Two New Reviews of Space Impact Kappa Base

Pocket Gamer takes a look at Space Impact Kappa Base, the arcade shooter developed by the team over at Method Solutions. The reviewer finds the game challenging yet addicting, noting:

“We’ve become genuinely addicted…. We’ve been going back to earlier levels with our newly-bought weapons to improve our score and rating, and discovering the quirks of those various guns, lasers and missiles…. If you’re prepared to put in the time and effort, Space Impact opens out into a wonderful shooter that you’ll be playing for months.”

Hot on the heels of the Pocket Gamer write-up is this review from All About N-Gage. They also like the game, going into great detail about the background and with a smattering of screenshots. Here’s a snippet:

“Whether you like SIKB depends on what kind of gameplay you enjoy most. Although the offline game is called “story mode”, the aim is really to play and replay levels constantly chasing after a better grade, and to unlock more items. If you just want to play through the game once, then you will be missing the point of SIKB. This is an “old school” scrolling shooter where high scorers receive the greatest rewards.”

For screens and videos, check out the game page, and remember the game is currently available through N-Gage First Access.

NokNok, a site that’s into Nokia phones and has a cute woodpecker mascot, has a quick interview with Will Shen, head of N-Gage first party games production for North America. Picking up on some of the themes from the Game Developer’s Conference, he talked about some of the possibilities N-Gage games can have going forward:

“Shen also stated that Nokia is seriously looking at location-based gaming via GPS, but level-headedly emphasizing that the “focus is on innovation”, and not gimmick gaming. Similarly, he echoed last week’s news of plans for touchscreen N-Gage gaming and even the possibility of first and third-party accelerometer-based games for Nseries devices with the capability.”

Give it a read.