What would you like to see on N-Gage in the long term? We've come up with ten suggestions which we think are do-able and would be good for the platform, click here and see what you think of them. As always, comments are very welcome.
Read on in the full article.
Nice article. I agree with you on most of the cases but a few.
2. Actually they should bring Lament Island 2 to N-Gage. Already many of us have played LI, and it'll not be convincing for us to buy it once more. A souped up version (with some Arena features and multiplay - God knows how to implement them in such a game) will be okay though.
7. Regarding location-based games, don't forget that N73 is a part of the N-Gage. It'll be too much to ask N73 customers to buy a BT GPS for gaming (who actually don't need it).
9. To me, lifestyle games are strict No-No, and it is so, for a section of gamers. But any way, Nokia will make them.
And I agree about releasing the fanpacks. It is a really cool concept that the original N-Gage featured, and should be continued.
According to me, the most important thing that Nokia should do, is to force Gameloft to upgrade Asphalt 3. It seems to be way short now.
sandy_1988, thanks for the feedback!
You may not like Lament Island, however I happen to think it's one of the best phone games ever made, and I know I'm not the only one. The way to resolve this difference is to include a demo on an N-Gage release of Lament Island. If there's a demo, then people will be able to tell if it's the kind of game that appeals to them without spending any money at all.
You're right that any GPS games wouldn't work on the N73, N81 or N93 without a GPS add-on, but the location-based stuff could also be achieved without GPS using phone tower location, which is what The Journey did. Alternatively Nokia might make them GPS-only releases, perhaps when GPS is a standard feature in all their new smartphones (which seems to be about to happen very very soon, even the upcoming cheap 6220 Classic has built-in GPS).
To me, lifestyle games are strict No-No, and it is so, for a section of gamers.
I'm sure a lot of people hate them! 😊 But a lot of people love them too, look at the massive sales of the Wii and DS and their "lifestyle" games.
The way to get a healthy gaming platform is to have games that appeal to all kinds of users, especially when it comes to phone gaming because all kinds of people buy phones.
Looking at the upcoming games list, I'm not at all interested in "Brothers In Arms", but I'm very very interested in "Creebies". I'm sure there are people who are totally the opposite to me, but the point is if we all buy N-Gage games then we'll all get more games published on N-Gage in the future.
According to me, the most important thing that Nokia should do, is to force Gameloft to upgrade Asphalt 3. It seems to be way short now.
I'm wondering if they are altering it, because they released a demo last year and haven't released the full game for the beta testing.
Nokia has said recently they are definitely going to make enhanced versions of games which use the 3D chip, maybe they'll do that with Asphalt 3? It could certainly do with some kind of smoothing out, it felt fairly jerky on the demo.
5. Bluetooth controller - it's ludicrous that not only is there no bluetooth game controller, but even more ludicrous, no bluetooth mouse support in S60/Symbian as standard (or even as non-standard). Has anyone got ANY idea why this seems to be totally off limits? Bluetooth mice support have been asked for loads of times on Forum Nokia over years, and Nokia basically stonewalls such enquiries. It's no use calling these things "Multimedia Computers" and then being scared of providing basic support (at no extra hardware cost incidentally) for the most basic of computer input devices.
ajck, I totally agree.
Last summer I spent a lot of time doing a series of articles using the N95 as a desktop computer through TV Out, and it would have been so much better if it had been compatible with some kind of pointing device:
With a pointing device and a higher TV output resolution (VGA perhaps), the N95 would make an excellent pocket-sized substitute for a laptop.
One reader pointed out something rather clever on this topic: there's already a third party S60 application which lets you use an S60 cameraphone as an optical PC mouse (you move the phone around with the camera facing downwards). Why not allow the S60 phone to be its own mouse, with the television acting as its display?
You may not like Lament Island, however I happen to think it's one of the best phone games ever made, and I know I'm not the only one. The way to resolve this difference is to include a demo on an N-Gage release of Lament Island. If there's a demo, then people will be able to tell if it's the kind of game that appeals to them without spending any money at all.
Sorry, but you misunderstood me. I didn't say I don't like Lament Island. I like it very much. But, having already played it, I will not put my money on it (and many others who have bought it won't be interested in buying the same game again). What I said is, rather bring Lament Island 2, which will be a new game, and will be lapped up by the N-Gage crowd.
And regarding Asphalt 3, it needs some upgrade, the controls are awry. Add that to my old rant - 'add more vehicles'.
But, having already played it, I will not put my money on it (and many others who have bought it won't be interested in buying the same game again).
Sorry, I didn't mean to misunderstand. Apologies.
I'm not saying people would buy the same game again, I'm just saying that by putting Lament Island on N-Gage, it will reach a much wider audience who would be buying it for the first time.
Most N-Gage users have probably never even heard of Lament Island, so I think it's worth putting the game on the platform so that a mainstream audience can discover the game.
Another thing I forgot to add. The gamers need Ludimate on-board (probably as a 1st party developer). Their Tilelander is a perfect choice for N-Gage, as it is a casual as well as a hardcore game.
Sandy, good suggestion.
There's so much talent out there in the smartphone gaming world, I really hope Nokia tries to pick up on it this time round instead of just dealing with huge companies. N-Gage games would work best if they're made by companies and people that specialise in phone gaming.
One promising sign is the high profile they've given to Creatures Of The Deep, which is made by smartphone developers Infinite Dreams. I hear a rumour they're already working on another game for N-Gage.
Infinite Dreams is a gem company I think. They could have easily made mass market crap games in hordes, but the way they keep on developing extraordinary games, I must say, they are the masters. Kudos to Nokia for getting them on-board. I am itching to play COTD and will be eagerly awaiting for their next offering. However, there is a problem with iDreams. Their support for released games is not as good as it should be. Take K-Rally, it has got numerous bugs, and they have not been corrected. Also, they haven't yet released the BT multiplayer client. Hopefully, with Nokia as the publisher, we will get better support for N-Gage games. And yeah, add Herocraft (probably as a 3rd party - they have some experience of publishing too) & IOMO too to the portfolio.
I think the problem with K-Rally and their other self-published games is that Infinite Dreams don't necessarily have the resources to issue updates as well as develop new stuff. They're a tiny company, and it's actually quite difficult to make money from phone games because it's very hard to let the world know your games exist, and most phone owners aren't sure what their model is compatible with anyway. The people that DO know about smartphone games tend to be people who know also how to find pirated copies, so they won't always pay for the games even if they play them, and if Infinite Dreams don't get paid then they can't afford to do any more games.
What I hope will happen is that Infinite Dreams make more games for N-Gage, which even non-technical people will notice because the N-Gage client will be built into all compatible phones and it's really easy to buy a game on N-Gage (it just takes two or three clicks). It also helps a lot that Nokia is the publisher for things like COTD because it's the publisher that pays all the costs. It means Infinite Dreams can concentrate entirely on making the game as good as possible, without having to worry about other stuff like marketing and sales channels.
I hope N-Gage becomes a convenient way for smartphone developers to find their audience, with Nokia handling the business of allowing people to discover and buy the games, and the developers just doing the actual game development.