News Headlines - General
View by Category
Ovi Store app available to download from Ovi Store mobile website
Ovi Store can be accessed from almost any Nokia phone by just going to store.ovi.com on the phone's web browser, but certain phones also have an Ovi Store application available which lets you use Ovi Store much more easily. Some people have managed to find the Ovi Store application available through the Download! icon, but it now appears that you can also download the app directly from the store.ovi.com website. The availability of the app seems to currently vary depending on which model you have and which country you live in, and the easiest way to find out if you can get it is to visit the Ovi Store mobile site and see if the link appears for you. See the screens below for details.
Uno a runaway hit on the phone
Over on sister site All About NGage OviGaming, Ewan's been putting a new implementation of the card game classic Uno through its paces. And, barring a token multiplayer mode and all-or-nothing sound, the developers seem to have knocked this one out of the park. And done it in Java, no less. Now all you've got to do is master the rules...
What Every Good Game Developer Should Know
Although specifically for the iPhone, Slide To Play have put together a Top Ten Things Developers For Mobile Games Need To Do and it's an article I want to send to everyone who makes a game on Symbian OS, including a number of N-Gage partners. On reflection, these are all pretty obvious, but the number of games that miss out these for no discernible reason could easily fill an online app store.
AAS Podcast #121: Nokia at the Game Developers Conference
In a GDC-inspired AAS podcast special, Ewan sits down with Jakko Kaidesoja (Nokia's VP of Games, Services and Software) to discuss the current status of the N-Gage ecosystem. It's a wide-ranging discussion and there's a LOT of meat in here, despite it only clocking in at 16 minutes - a must-listen for anyone remotely interested in N-Gage.
When Will SEO Be More Important Than Software?
It's going to be a common sight as on-device App Stores become more popular on smartphones, but SEO and potential Black Hat techniques to boost an applications likelihood of being found in a search could be just as important as development skills and making good banner ads. Pocket Gamer has an interview with Digital Chocolate (the name behind N-Gage titles such as Cafe Solitare) on the listing techniques that show them pushing the envelope.
Foe's EIF Talk on One Potential Future of Gaming
You might recall the discussions over Scott Foe's look at the future of gaming from the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Well now you can see the whole talk online via the online video service, Vimeo. There's a number of areas that the article glossed over, so here's your chance to see Foe's unfiltered thoughts.
The N-Gage Unification Theory - Looking to the Future Of Gaming
With the MWC and now GDC events under our belt, Ewan Spence draws from all the clues that Nokia has been dropping and comes up with a connected, converged epiphany into the future of gaming. The unification of smartphone functions, social networking and gaming is just around the corner, perhaps. Personally, I can't see any real showstoppers.
Nokia and Popcap Go SNAP at GDC
Popcap Games (or the online gaming equivalent of crack cocaine) have inked an agreement with Nokia to bring a number of their titles to mobile, and to use the SNAP mobile platform to provide multi-player support for the Java based titles. In rough terms, SNAP is similar to the N-Gage Arena, but primarily for J2ME applications, and it can also be run by a network provider as their own gaming portal (eg YourNetwork Gaming Portal, SNAP powered), which should make the networks as happy as the gamers.
1000 Pirate Downloads Is Only Losing One Legal Purchase
Gamasutra has a fascinating editorial by Russell Carroll, from Reflexive Games, talking about the amount of piracy in casual games and what measures have proven effective. The scary number is that piracy runs at up to 92% for their titles, and rather than one pirate copy equals one lost sales, Reflexive found that they had to stop one thousand pirate downloads to gain one extra sale.
We Want Puzzles and Card Games!
Looking for where to focus any new casual gaming projects? Then the latest survey (this one from Parks Associates) can help. Bottom line is that the majority of casual gamers are interested in Puzzles and Card Games, some 55%, with word and arcade games at 32% and 33% respectively. This compares to 'portable gamers' (eg the PSP and DS users) who almost equally look for Sports, Action, Driving and First Person Shooters for their kicks.
