Wiley.Games.on.Symbian.OS.A.Handbook.for.Mobile.Development.Apr.2008 (779888), страница 55
Текст из файла (страница 55)
Feedback was so good that Nokia started toinclude more games as part of their ongoing strategy, including embeddedgames, such as Space Impact and Pairs, in their devices. Nokia ownerscould register to become part of Club Nokia and post their game highscores – an early example of social mobile gameplay.8.1.1 N-Gage Game DecksFrom the start, Nokia was quick to develop a comprehensive strategy tobring rich content games to the mobile platform. The strategy includeddevice hardware and software technology components, plus marketingand distribution services. The combination was given a separate brand:N-Gage. Prior to N-Gage, the game industry for phone-enabled mobiledevices consisted mostly of small development studios that developedJava games.
Nokia recognized the long-term opportunity to enrich theuser experience by bringing a mainstream video game experience to theirmobile phones.Nokia’s S60 UI platform on Symbian OS was released in 2002 (atthat time, it was known as Series 60). The N-Gage game deck was240THE N-GAGE PLATFORMone of the first devices to be released on the platform,1 and hit thestreets in October 2003.
As you’ll see from Figure 8.1, it was designedto be attractive to people who wanted to play high-quality games ontheir mobile phone, having controller keys optimized for playing games.Besides the ability to play games, the original N-Gage game deck hadfeatures typical of the Series 60 platform at the time, including messagingand PDA functionality (contacts, calendar, to do list and so on), as well asthe ability to make voice and data calls.
It also played MP3s and had anFM radio player, Bluetooth and USB local area connectivity, and GPRSnetwork connectivity.Figure 8.1 The original N-Gage game deckThe original N-Gage game deck had controls familiar to gamers,arranged in a similar configuration as on a typical handheld console,making it attractive for gameplay. The game deck had some necessarydesign constraints that may have put off those with only a passinginterest in games.
One example was the ergonomics – the game deckwas designed so the user held it sideways, speaking into the narrow edge,rather than flat against the face. Another constraint at the time was thathot-swapping between external multimedia cards was not supported bythe platform. Games were delivered on multimedia cards, and to swapbetween games, the user had to remove the back of the game deck andtake out the battery, forcing the device to reboot.Nokia responded to feedback about the N-Gage hardware, and a yearlater released a second game deck called the N-Gage QD, shown inFigure 8.2.
The QD was cheaper, could be held more naturally whenusing the phone, had a better battery life and, most importantly, allowedhot-swapping of game cards. The USB port, FM tuner, and MP3 playerwere, however, removed from the QD to allow it to be smaller in size.Sales of this new game deck were successful and it became very popularin some regions; however, it is no longer manufactured.1The N-Gage game deck mobile devices were based on the 1st Edition of the Series 60platform.A BRIEF HISTORY OF N-GAGEFigure 8.2241The N-Gage QD game deckAlthough the sleeker N-Gage QD was a greater success than theoriginal N-Gage game deck, Nokia found itself head-to-head in theportable/mobile game market with Sony’s PlayStation Portable and theNintendo DS.
Although very different in functionality, and intended to berather more functional than those portable game consoles, the specializedlook of the N-Gage game deck devices meant they were competing for thesame market share, against newer hardware coming from the behemothsof the gaming industry.
Nokia found itself in an aggressive market sector,competing against the two most successful players in the market – andit was time for a re-think. Instead of making a few specialized gamingphone products to run the high-quality mobile games they were creating,wouldn’t it make more sense to allow a greater range of Nokia’s S60phones able to run those games? To make devices that could also playgreat mobile games, rather than make mobile game players that were alsophones?Nokia was selling millions of S60 smartphones, and it made senseto make high-quality games available to the people buying them. That’swhere the new N-Gage platform comes in, as we’ll discuss in most of therest of this chapter. But first, let’s talk a little about the games that wereavailable on N-Gage game decks.8.1.2 Games for the N-Gage Game DecksOver the lifetime of the N-Gage game decks, over 30 N-Gage gameswere released.
Some of these are cited as great examples of mobilegames, including Pathway to Glory and High Seize, both of which tookadvantage of the multiplayer functionality available from the N-GageArena, discussed later in this section and in more technical detail inChapter 5. Games were released on multimedia cards, which could bebought from shops and outlets selling boxed game products. They werenot available to download over the Internet – the size of the games ruled242THE N-GAGE PLATFORMout downloading over the air – until very late in the life cycle of theN-Gage game decks.2Inevitably, the first games released were affected by piracy.
Within amonth of releasing the N-Gage game deck, there were reports of gamesbeing ‘cracked’ (which meant they could be downloaded and installedwithout purchase). Nokia moved quickly to implement a new securitysystem to protect the intellectual property of their games and preventgames becoming available through illegal channels.
However, the loss ofprofit, due to infringement and distribution of cracked games, was a dentto the image of the N-Gage brand.Nokia wanted the games available for the N-Gage game deck to be ofa very high quality. At the time the N-Gage game deck was conceived,games for mobile phones and portable game consoles often had poorgraphics and audio, and were typically ‘casual’ games, such as cardgames and well-known titles like Tetris. Game developers were mostlyusing Java ME, where the games were constrained by the performancecharacteristics of the Java platform, and by the fact that many of the phonesthey were targeting had very limited main memory and slower CPUs.The capabilities of the N-Gage game decks could enable game developers to create more imaginative titles, use better graphics, sound effects,and music; they could also cater for people who wanted a game thatprovided hours of interest, challenging gameplay, and high-quality presentation.
Nokia needed good games, and to ensure this, the companycreated a business unit to publish mobile games themselves. Chapter 1discusses the role of publishers in the game industry; in effect, theN-Gage game publishing team commissioned game titles from external game developers, managed the end-to-end game creation processusing in-house game producers, play-tested and certified the games, andthen marketed these games – and the N-Gage Arena community – to thegame-playing public.The first generation of games for the N-Gage game deck was outsourced to well known developers such as EA, Vivendi, and THQ.
Nokiadeveloped strategic relationships with these industry leaders to delivertheir titles and game licenses, such as FIFA Soccer, Splinter Cell, LaraCroft and Tiger Woods Golf, for the N-Gage game decks.The N-Gage game publishing team comprised a number of experiencedindustry professionals, and was well-placed to observe the evolution ofthe mobile game market.
The N-Gage game decks may no longer beavailable, but their legacy is a good one. The creation of a specialistteam for innovative mobile game publishing allowed Nokia to build a2For those of you who still have N-Gage game decks – some of the most popular gamescan still be purchased online at www.softwaremarket.nokia.com, with free trials availablebefore you buy.A BRIEF HISTORY OF N-GAGE243wealth of experience of the mobile game market. The game publishingteam was well-placed to define the evolution of the N-Gage game deckinto a platform, and its experience has undoubtedly given Nokia thecompetitive edge over other handset manufacturers, and a lead positionin the mobile game market as a whole.8.1.3 N-Gage Game DevelopersAs a publisher, Nokia worked with a number of game developer companies worldwide to create games for the N-Gage game decks.
Thesedevelopers created native games written in C and C++ using an SDKprovided specifically for them. The N-Gage SDK was an extension of thegeneric Series 60 1st Edition SDK available to the public at the time. Itwas created in Bochum, Germany by a team that was co-located withthe N-Gage device creation team. The N-Gage SDK provided a numberof additional libraries to access functionality that the standard Series 60SDK did not provide (such as content protection for N-Gage games, gameplaying protocols over a Bluetooth connection, and utilities for detectingsystem events relevant to games, such as charger disconnection eventsand low battery and network signal notifications).One of the other features of the N-Gage SDK was the ability toaccess the APIs necessary to add networked multiplayer functionality to agame, taking advantage of the connectivity of the N-Gage game deck anddifferentiating it from other mobile game consoles.
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
