Archive for the ‘Noteworthy’ Category

Here’s a GDC video podcast with some members of our games management team, who took time out of their busy GDC schedules to answer your questions.

Featured in the interview are Jaakko Kaidesoja, Gregg Sauter, and Dr. Mark Ollila. The questions are moderated by Matthew Kumar of Gamesondeck.com. It is about ten minutes long.

Click the thumbnail below to view on your PC.

The video is being hosted on share.ovi.com, a new service from Nokia that lets you easily share your content. And here’s the link to the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge that Mark references at the end of part two.

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!

One of the first reviews of a next generation N-Gage game has been posted over on Pocket Gamer. They have put Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep through its paces and found it good, awarding it a 9/10 score and their coveted ‘Gold’ level award.

Here’s a snippet:

“Even in a review rapidly approaching its word count limit, we’ve only scratched the surface of this game’s charms. The graphics are excellent, with the fixed view from your boat allowing some sumptuous scenery — particularly the sunsets. It also showcases the N-Gage’s landscape gaming mode, not least because you can use the soft-keys above your N81’s screen to play, clutching the phone like a mini PSP.”

Congratulations to Mike Smith, Brandon Crick, and the whole team over at Infinite Dreams for a job well done!

Read the full review here.

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.

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.

We’re pleased to announce that two N-Gage games have received International Mobile Gaming Awards.

ONE by Digital Legends was recognized as the winner in the “Excellence in 3D” category, beating out such contenders as Metal Gear Solid and Prey mobile, a well-deserved achievement for the stunning visuals of this silky-smooth fighting game.

Another next generation N-Gage game, Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol, was announced of the winner of the “Excellence in Gameplay” category, beating out Championship Manager, Ghost in the Machine, and even Creatures of the Deep.

ABOUT ONE

ONE breaks the boundaries of mobile gaming. Experience amazing 3D fighting with stunning motion captured animations. Customize your character to make it truly yours. And with the Online World Ranking System, everyone will know who truly is the ONE. Look for a link to the official game site, coming soon. Meanwhile here’s the official game page with screens and videos.

ABOUT DIRK DAGGER

The core game-play of Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol is a classic point and click adventure game. The humorous story driven game combines simple minigames and harder puzzles in a very unique way. Innovative camera control provides the player an intuitive way of exploring the world.

We hope to add a game page for Dirk Dagger to N-Gage.com very soon.

ABOUT THE IMGA
The International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) is a yearly contest for the most innovative and creative mobile games in the world. The objective of the IMG Awards is to create a new and exciting set of awards to recognise the world’s most talented mobile game developers.

If you own our Nokia N81 device, then visit the First Access forums to download the pre-release version of the N-Gage application, start playing games, and have fun!

What is N-Gage First Access?
N-Gage First Access allows Nokia N81 owners to download the pre-release version of the N-Gage application, try and buy N-Gage games, and provide feedback on the experience. It’s a great opportunity to be the first to join the new wave of mobile play.

The features available through this pre-release version of the N-Gage application are constantly evolving, so keep in mind that this offering is only the beginning, and our feature set, game catalog and device portfolio will continue to grow in the weeks and months ahead.

Useful Links
We have set up an entire series of forums for you to ask questions, post feedback, get help, and find others to add to your Friends List. Please use these links to get started:

First Access main forum
Application Download
Frequently Asked Questions
Feedback
Getting Help

Feel free to comment and discuss on this post, but for detailed instructions and discussions, you’ll want to visit the First Access forums.

–ikona

It’s just been announced that Nokia’s Anssi Vanjoki will give a keynote address at this year’s GDC Mobile. The title of his talk will be: “Play with anybody everywhere — context, the new paradigm for game play.”

Some details on the talk from the GDC program guide:

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.

GDC Mobile is a track within the Game Developer’s Conference focused on mobile gaming and entertainment. This year’s GDC Mobile takes place on February 18-19, 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif. during GDC 2008.

For more on GDC Mobile, check out the official site.

 The Guardian, a widely-read and influential UK newspaper, has called ‘Project White Rock’ one of the most promising games of 2008.

Writing on the Guardian’s games blog, Keith Stuart has put together a list of the 20 most promising games of 2008, including White Rock alongside such stalwarts as Advanced Wars, Street Fighter, and StarCraft.

Regarding White Rock itself’, he says:

“Little is known about Nokia’s flagship title for the re-invented N-Gage platform - just that it’ll run on both mobile and PC, with users of both platforms presumably able to compete with and against each other in some kind of online adventure.”

He’s particularly impressed with the game’s developer, RedLynx, creator of the award-winning Pathway to Glory. He calls Pathway to Glory “brilliant,” and adds, “Would have been a million seller on Nintendo DS.”

Project White Rock is an unannounced first party N-Gage game, first mentioned publicly at last year’s Game Developer’s Conference — see this blog post for details, or search the blog for ‘whiterock’ for more mentions.

We know all of you are eager to get started with N-Gage First Access, and we are just as eager to get it into your hands and start hearing your feedback. We have teams of people around the world, literally, working overtime to deliver this experience to you.

Unfortunately, as can sometimes happen in software development, unexpected difficulties can occur. We have been doing an internal run with more than 1,000 global testers this week, and during this process we uncovered an issue we feel we need to address. Overall, the games and service are working smoothly, but because of this issue, we feel we could not release N-Gage First Access before the holidays as planned.

As we work on a solution, we will continue to polish the overall experience, ready more games for N-Gage First Access, carry on our extensive internal testing over the holidays, and prepare for the new year and the new wave of mobile play.