Archive for the ‘GDC’ Category

Here are two video presentations from the recent Game Developer’s Conference featuring Nokia and N-Gage. Click the thumbnail beneath the description of each talk to view the video on Ovi Share. Enjoy!

Note: These videos are designed for PC websites, not mobiles. Clicking on the thumbnail links will open a new Ovi Share page where the videos are hosted. Click on the same thumbnail on the Ovi page to begin play. Be patient, it may take a few minutes for the videos to load.

Anssi Vanjoki
Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia
Introduced by Robert Tercek, founder and chairman of GDC Mobile
Keynote Title: “Play with anybody everywhere — context, the new paradigm for game play”

With an installed base of millions of N-Gage compatible devices, mobile gaming plays a key role in the company’s recent move into the services market. Through Ovi, Nokia’s gateway to Internet services, people will be able to easily access games, communities and other content with their mobile device. With over three billion mobile phones globally, the mobile device is quickly becoming the platform of choice to enjoy games and a wide range of digital content. Vanjoki will present Nokia’s move into context aware services and the impact that mobile devices are having on entertainment around the world and the role that N-Gage will play in evolving mobile games experiences and the industry.

Dan Scott
Global Head of Production, Nokia

Pushing the Mobile Gaming State of the art with Nokia 1st Party Games Sponsored by Nokia

Mobile gaming will not achieve the multibillion dollar predictions without the help of everyone in the industry. This talk will show how Nokia 1st Party games is addressing the major stumbling blocks that are holding everyone back and taking a leadership role in pushing the State of the Art in Mobile gaming.

Share your thoughts on the videos below.

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?

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.

Taking advantage of the Game Developer’s Conference, the lads over at Pocket Gamer sat down and interviewed Jaakko Kaidesoja, our head of games, about the current state of N-Gage and what’s still to come.

Naturally, one question they asked is the one that’s on everyone’s mind (and which gets asked several times a day on this blog and our forums!

Pocket Gamer: What’s the timeline for the commercial launch?

Kaidesoja: I think I made a mistake in the second half of 2007 announcing launch dates and then we missed them as we discovered some surprisingly difficult things. The commercial launch will be in the coming weeks. It’s not far away.

He also spoke with candidly about N-Gage and the questions about 3D graphics and Open GL, ending on this salient point:

“We need to create new concepts that are not riding purely on the graphics paradigm because people are used to the graphics paradigm. I believe our competitive advantage is to focus on the differentiation of N-Gage compared to consoles.”

I hate to end every post with “must read”, but if you care about N-Gage, it’s a must read!

Hey all, we’re working on getting our vodcast posted. In the mean time here are a bunch of new articles about Nokia and N-Gage stemming from our presence at the Game Developer’s Conference:

* The BBC has put up a video interview with Jaakko Kaidesoja, heads of Nokia’s Games unit

* Gamasutra has an interesting write-up of Anssi Vanjoki’s keynote address

* Another good take on Anssi’s talk comes from Mobile Entertainment

* All About N-Gage has put up videos (by way of Project Next) showing off Creebies gameplay footage and a mini-documentary on the Making of ONE

* MoDoJo has posted a quick talk with N-Gage head of production Dan Scott; so does Joystiq

* Pocket Gamer talks to Jaakko Kaidesoja about First Access

* Pocket Gamer also gives its take on Anssi Vanjoki’s keynote address

* One more from Pocket Gamer: a hands-on preview of Bounce Boing Voyage

If you have more links, drop them in the comments!

The second and final day of GDC Mobile was kicked off in style this morning by Nokia’s own Anssi Vanjoki, the executive vice president of the markets unit. He gave an interesting and informative keynote address entitled “Play with Anybody Everywhere: Context, the New Paradigm for Game Play.”

Speaking before several hundred game developers and other industry figures, he sketched out Nokia’s vision of a connected world, reminding everyone that an astounding one billion of our mobile devices are in people’s hands today.

He went on to say about 200 million of those device owners are technology leaders, for whom voice usage is only part of their overall interaction with the device. Technology leaders want and do more with their devices, things Nokia is working hard to innovate and provide.

Among some of the tools we can use in the future to create a more personal, pervasive connected experience with your gaming device are maps and GPS, TV out, motion sensors, metadata attached to user-generated content, and more.

And finally, regarding the First Access program, he said, “The feedback we are getting is music to my ears.” So keep up the good work everyone!

Footage of Vanjoki’s talk should be available through the official GDC website within a week or so; we will post a link when it’s up.

One additional programming note: we did record a video podcast today featuring members of our games management team, answering your questions from the Forums. We should have the link to it here on this blog some time tomorrow.

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