The Sacred Rules of N-Gage Games
No matter what kind of game you enjoy on N-Gage, there are some minimum standards that ought to apply to all the titles on the platform. Here are our suggestions:
1) Ask if the player wants the sound on BEFORE starting the game
The one thing about phone games is that it's impossible to know where a person is when they start playing, because a phone is something people carry with them everywhere they go. Players who start up a game might well be in a situation where silence is required, so it's imperative that a game presents a "Sound yes/no" option up front every single time.
Saint: All of Gameloft's titles ask about the sound at every startup. This is presumably company policy, and a very good one it is too.
Sinner: Creatures Of The Deep, despite being probably the best-designed game on N-Gage right now, launches into the current resort's theme tune as soon as the game has loaded at whatever volume you last used.
2) Demos should give players a good idea of what the game is like
If you want to sell games on the basis of free demos, the demos should convey an accurate impression of what the full game is like.
Saint: Showing one of its many many positive sides, Creatures Of The Deep's demo lets you go through the entire process of choosing a spot and catching a fish at your own pace before asking you to buy the game
Sinner: The almost-infamous Block Buster Deluxe produced what our colleague Rafe called "The World's Worst Demo", consisting of just thirty seconds of dull block-breaking action before ending abruptly. Crucially, you don't really get a chance to try the bonuses which are at the heart of the gameplay.
3) Menus should be wraparound
If you're going to make an interface menu-based, it should be as easy as possible to navigate through menus, and one key way of doing this is wraparound menus (where scrolling past the top of a menu takes you to the bottom and viceversa).
Saint: World Series Of Poker Pro Challenge is wraparoundtastic, mate.
Sinner: The N-Gage app itself! If you're at the edge of a menu or row of icons, you have to go through all the options to get to the other edge. This gets frustrating, for example when you want to jump from the front page to the showroom.
4) Don't leap back to the N-Gage app just to connect to Arena
One of the messiest things that many N-Gage games do at the moment is revert back to the N-Gage application when they're connecting to the N-Gage Arena, then go back to the game again to display online rankings or whatever. The way it ought to work is to connect to Arena without leaving the game at all, and this is technically possible because some games do it.
Saint: Creatures Of The Deep has a perfectly seamless online section, it logs you in without ever leaving the game.
Sinner: Most of the other titles at the moment, for example Brain Challenge.
5) Let the player leave and come back without losing anything
Another key fact about phone games is that people tend to play them in shorter bursts than console games. Phones are more conducive to opportunistic gaming where you grab a few minutes here and there. To take account of this, phone games should always allow you to exit and come back at your current position, with the game automatically saved on exit.
Saint: Creatures Of The Deep once again scores highly, it lets you come back at the exact time you left, even in the middle of a tournament.
Sinner: World Series Of Poker Pro Challenge doesn't do itself any favours by resetting a match when you exit, even if progress in the match has taken you ages and is of vital importance in a tournament. To the game's credit you can re-enter at the level you were in in the tournament, but the match itself has to start all over again if you do so.
6) Display and explain the Point Pickups inside the game as well as in the N-Gage app
One thing N-Gage brings to all its titles is the Point Pickups system, which is very similar to the Xbox Live Achievements system. By setting certain challenges, they extend the life of games as players have something to aim for even after they've beaten the game itself. Unfortunately it's not always easy to remember what the Point Pickups are, and it would be nice if all games contained a list with descriptions of exactly what you have to do. At the moment you have to leave the game and consult the N-Gage app's "Gaming History" section instead.
Saint: Asphalt 3 has its own Point Pickups section within the game, complete with icons and detailed descriptions of the required tasks.
Sinner: Tetris has no Point Pickup section, and when you do look up its pickups in the N-Gage app it's still not exactly clear what you have to do. Does everyone really know what a T-Spin is?
7) If you're going to use online rankings, tell all the players their rank
The only point of online league tables is to give players an incentive to get a higher score, so they can watch their username progress up the table. If you don't know where you are on the table, the point of the rankings is gone because you have no idea what kind of progress you're making.
Saint: Creatures Of The Deep leads the pack once more, by not only showing your exact ranking but also having many many different league tables to climb.
Sinner: World Series Of Poker Pro Challenge just shows the highest-scoring twenty players with no indication of where you are. For most people this makes the feature pointless, as only a tiny number of people will have the skills and/or the time to get into the top twenty.