3D Mobile Gaming Ahead Of Its Time

We are a true pioneer in 3D multiplayer mobile gaming and have been working on games like V-Rally 3D - featuring online ghost racing and first person shooter Robot Alliance in a massively multiplayer online gameplay (MMOG) experience - all the way back in 2005. Of course, we had to face extreme technical hurdles back then and the functionality was quite limited. Also, the number of handsets that these games worked on was very small. Actually, only three devices from Sony Ericsson (F/K500i, K700i, S700i) could handle reasonable 3D graphics at that time. However, in order to exchange the game data online we had to stop the rendering every time we wanted to connect to the mobile network. Gameplay-wise it was far from what core gamers desired but it was revolutionary at the time.

No Business Without The Operator

Over the years, mobile phones became much faster. With 3D enabled mobile phones from Sony Ericsson and Nokia dominating the game downloads in 2007, theoretically, we could have addressed a potential user base of some 100 million mobile gamers with basic multiplayer online features. However, even with a reasonable user base installed, we still had the issue to implement new business models like subscriptions or micro-transactions with in-game billing dealing with 160 carriers worldwide. A task that was impossible, especially since most operators had outsourced their gaming business to aggregators who had no interest to go beyond simple pay per download models. But even if those business models had been in place the lack of flat rate data plans would have left any game utilizing connectivity floating dead in the river before it had a chance to start.

The iPhone – The Game Changer

Nobody had it seen coming. While the mobile gaming industry complained about fragmentation, operators taking too big a cut , crappy WAP portals and a value chain that hardly delivered any great value to the consumer, the iPhone came simply out of the blue. With computing power somewhere between Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, an even larger display, innovative touch and tilt controls and, even more important for connected gaming, no extra costs for connectivity, Apple took the lead in mobile gaming contributing 10% of the whole mobile gaming revenue with a handset market share of only 1.2%. Apple was clever enough to force operators to sell the iPhone with all-you-can-eat data plans to drive content downloads, with only one goal in mind, to sell more devices.

Generating Critical Mass

With the Apple App Store, made for developers to come up with innovative ideas, users have the power because content is ranked by users and the content created by third party developers not gaming managers.  This new store reaches a target group of more than 40  million wealthy early adopters who all use more or less the same device and with a direct business relationship, Apple started a new era in mobile gaming. They knew, only in an ecosystem where taking the extra risk is rewarded and a fair chunk of the revenue is given to the developer, could innovation and quality succeed. Following Apple’s tremendous success, other handset manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and lately LG have introduced or announced app stores. Finally, operators started realizing their approach of selling content is outdated and under the umbrella of JIL (Joint Innovation Labs) app stores will finally come from the operators. So the app stores are coming. Some still have teething problems but competition will force every stakeholder to get their homework done. Finally the number of handset users addressable for high-end mobile gaming is gaining critical mass.

In-App Billing – Monetizing Multiplayer Gaming

Now, with a market big enough for 3D multiplayer mobile games, it is again Apple who introduces the last missing part to even justify costly developments of MMOGs on mobile phones: subscriptions and in-game transactions.  With the latest firmware 3.0 for iPhone and iPod touch developers can monetize their applications beyond the pay per download model by selling subscriptions or micro-transactions for in-game items. This may be less important for games with simple multiplayer functionality - like turn based tournaments or asynchronous ghost racing as the multiplayer mode is not a necessity for the game - but a good way for games to diversify from its competitors and does not need to be monetized beyond a single payment per download.

However, in MMOGs a constant and expensive hosting service is needed to run the persistent game world and players of MMOGs expect constant content updates or they lose interest and flock to other MMOGs with a better offering. All this has to be monetized over the lifetime of the MMOG. Subscriptions are a proven model to do this for premium titles whilst casual MMOGs seem to be more successful with a business model gathering a vast number of players to play for free and monetize through in-game items.

LTE – Get Up To Speed

So Apple has successfully set up an ecosystem with about 40 million high-end connected devices and a strong shopping system that enables MMOGs on mobile devices today. However, these MMOGs won’t be truly “mobile” because only the Wi-Fi connection of the iPhone provides enough bandwidth to deal with dozens of players in a 3D scene simultaneously. It is LTE networks that is needed to bring MMOGs on mobile phones so users can be play their games literally anytime and anywhere. Also, with LTE as a new service operators have the chance to introduce subscriptions (only Verizon does already) and micro-transaction billing methods to make sure that developers/publishers will take the risk in massive development and the constant operating service of MMOGs. It is in the operator’s very own interest to do that as MMOGs will heavily drive the usage of data and content services and, if the content offering is compelling enough, keep the churn rate low. It might take a while to reach critical mass on LTE for core or even casual gamers on mobile devices to play against one other but it is inevitably MMOGs on mobile phones with ubiquity and constant connectivity that will reach an addressable market of more than 4 billion users.

(Originally posted on ng Connet Program Blog)

iPhone, iPhone, iPhone! Right now, you hear and read about almost nothing other than the unbelievable successes of Apple with the iPhone and the App Store, and every competitor is measured against this. Over 500 million applications have been downloaded since the launch of the App Store a little more than half a year ago. More than 20,000 applications are now available – most of them games. Gameloft, the second largest mobile games publisher, has announced that Apple is by far their largest customer. In addition, one has to consider that Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile network operator with over 300 million users, has at least 10 times more potential customer than Apple with their iPhone and iPod touch users together. Current analyses impressively record the high acceptance of applications among iPhone users: according to ComScore, at least one third of iPhone users in the USA have downloaded a mobile game. For normal mobile phones, the share is a mere 3.8% in average.

Mobile Games Forum 2009: It’s all about iPhone and App Store

It’s no wonder that at the Mobile Games Forum in London two weeks ago every discussion centred on iPhone games and the App Store. Even the keynote speech by Suresh Sudera, Head of Games at Vodafone, used Apple’s success as a model. As essential problems for developers, Suresh named the extreme fragmentation of mobile phones (umpteen hundred versions of a mobile game are required to market it worldwide on as many devices as possible), low margins (depending on the contract, the developer receives 25-50 % of the end customer price), and insufficient marketing (limited essentially to advertising within the network operator’s WAP portal).

Interestingly, our blog at the beginning of the year – which announced that we would focus on iPhone games and other smartphone platforms and that we would not be developing new games for sale via network operators for exactly the reasons mentioned above – caused quite a stir. It is significant that even the top publisher THQ, with unbelievably strong brands such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Worms, has now headed in the same direction after severe losses.

Are iPhone Games and App Store really so much better?

But why is Apple so successful with games for the iPhone and iPod touch? Is Apple that good or are all the others that bad? Indeed, Apple triggered a revolution with the iPhone and the App Store. The iPhone is by far the most powerful device for mobile games and even partly outperforms the PSP from Sony. The biggest advantage of the App Store is certainly the seamless connection to the iPhone. Every user connects with the service as a matter of course. Because this takes place via data cable with the PC (side loading) or directly via WiFi, there are, of course, no connection fees, which is the case for most network operators, if a user does not have an appropriate data rate. The iPhone is even better positioned for use on the go, because Apple has ensured that the device is only offered together with a data flat rate. Thus, customers never stumble into a cost trap with their iPhone.

3:0 for Apple.

During use over the data cable or WiFi, it is immediately apparent that browsing through the applications is significantly faster and more intuitive than on a WAP portal. The amount of information for every application is also outstanding, with an extensive description, five high-resolution screenshots, and, last but not least, user evaluations and recommendations. Standard WAP portals offer only a brief text, screenshots only as an exception, and evaluations and recommendations such as at Amazon are usually sought in vain. One laudable exception here is the mobile games portal for Vodafone Germany, for which surfing within the portal is also free.

Vodafone scores their first goal, 3:1.

Thanks to the direct business relations without a middle man and the ability to be able to make daily analyses of downloads by country and to update applications and marketing materials every day, the success or failure of games and any marketing measures can be immediately evaluated. As a game provider, we are thus able to react very quickly to customer demands and market changes and constantly improve our offer.

BAM! Shortly before the end of the first half, Apple scores again against the network operators and sends them to the dressing rooms at 4:1.

Lots of light – lots of shadows?

Currently, the only, but also serious, disadvantage to the App Store is the glut of applications. With 20,000 applications, one quickly becomes spoilt for choice, and hundreds are added daily. Despite the recently added categories and user evaluations, it is difficult to find the good games.

That also affects providers. If your titles aren’t in the Top 25, you will generate relatively few downloads. As a result, the number of fun applications and very simple games is very large, and there is a ruinous price war, because providers themselves are allowed to set the price point. Ultimately, this leads in turn to the disadvantage of the user, because elaborate and really good applications (games) have a hard time asserting themselves. That makes the development of high-quality games or very special applications (games?) for a particular target group extremely risky. But there are already rumours that Apple is establishing a premium category for a few publishers. Likewise a defect which Vodafone Germany has identified and they have already successfully launched a premium category.

Vodafone closes in, 4:2.

Comparing all of these advantages with the situation of selling mobile games through network operators, where, as developers, we receive a mere 25-50 % of the end customer price, must support hundreds of different mobile phone models, and have to work with countless partners, Apple’s business model is by far the fairest, most flexible, fastest, and thus also the most profitable. And ultimately, that leads, in turn, to better applications to the advantage of the end user.

Apple sweeps Vodafone and friends from the pitch, 5:2.

Do other mobile phone manufacturers even have a chance?

Let’s put it this way, every half-hearted attempt to close the gap with the iPhone is doomed to failure. Apple’s iPhone was a wake-up call for the entire industry, and other manufacturers who fail to go all out now will be left in the dust. Among the so-called smartphones, Apple is already far out in front and will certainly not rest on their laurels, but will open up other target groups.

However, it must be remembered that a large part of their success comes from the fact that Apple has limited itself to the high-end segment. The margins here are high and only one product had to be developed. That saves on development and marketing costs. The other mobile phone developers will certainly thin out their portfolios considerably and bring significantly fewer models onto the market in 2009. In any case, the other providers will also have to directly offer a high-quality range of applications and services. It is no longer enough just to offer a mobile phone with a camera and MP3 player. There have already been relevant announcements.

What are Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Android, and Microsoft doing?

Nokia has expressly declared that they will generate a significant part of their sales through extra internet services and are already well positioned with OVI and the integrated game offer N-Gage. Similarly to the iPhone, games from Nokia can first be downloaded to the PC and then copied to the mobile phone, which saves on transfer costs over the mobile network. A solid DRM system provides the relevant copy protection. Extensive community features, such as on-line high scores and user evaluations for games round out the offer from Nokia. The strategy of only allowing access to selected publishers with high-quality games and pre-installing their mobile games on umpteen million devices as a try & buy version could make a critical difference from the App Store. In addition, Nokia leads in the area of growth markets, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and, with telephones which may not be as powerful as the iPhone, but are cheaper, offer the game consoles for the mobile gamers of tomorrow.

Apple and Nokia go into halftime 2:2.

With PlayNow, Sony Ericsson also has their own portal for mobile content which is directly accessible from the mobile phone. However, the offer is more comprehensive than consistently high-quality, and the information on the individual games is as meagre as with most network operator WAP portals. Since there is no evaluation system, customers have to buy a pig in a poke. Community features or the option of side loading are also lacking and providers of high-quality games are missing an effective copy protection (in general, not effective for Java games). Sony Ericsson needs to improve in every area if entry into the high-end field is not going to be missed. The latest announcements regarding focus on high-end handsets give reason to hope that something will happen here.

But even with all these deficits, it should not be underestimated that Sony Ericsson is far ahead of their competition in the area of Java and, with their positioning and proximity to the parent company Sony, they are much closer to the subject of games than their competitors. Sony Ericsson is correspondingly popular with mobile gamers in Europe (mMetrics), Russia, and large parts of Asia. In itself a good basis from which the development into the smartphone field and the expansion or restructuring of PlayNow could be extremely successful.

Sony Ericsson trails Apple 2:1 at the half, but could still surprise with a new attack and a changed defence in the second half.

Google’s Android platform with its Marketplace has similar approach to Apple’s strategy. The publisher receives 70 % and takes over marketing themselves. However, Android is ultimately a Java platform, which offers no protection against software piracy. The first mobile phone with the Android operating system, the G1, with its performance data and especially the design and manufacturing quality, cannot keep pace with the iPhone. An important aspect particularly for gamers. In addition, Google is only known for searching and finding information and its free additional services, such as Google Maps. Google earns money exclusively with advertising. But the sale of mobile content simply does not fit in this strategy – even if Google apparently want to generously pass this income to publishers and network operators. Therefore, it is more than doubtful if users are prepared to pay for games and other applications in a Google environment they expect to be free. Even more doubtful is if potential users are prepared to let Google permanently peer over their shoulders in everything they do on their phone: the activation of the G1 requires a Googlemail account via which the entire usage behaviour can be followed by Google.

With its unfortunate line-up, Android had a bad start in the first half and will have some catching up to do at 0:2. Whether the team from the Internet search giant will find the right means of deciding the game in their favour is more than an open question.

Involved in the smartphone business for years, Microsoft has made a good name for themselves with business customers thanks to Windows Mobile and strong partners like HTC and Sony Ericsson (!) as well as an excellent connection to the Office environment. However, Windows Mobile has not been able to establish itself as a mobile game platform due to the lack of an App Store and missing end customer marketing. Even at Handango, one of the largest on-line providers of Windows Mobile applications, Windows Mobile-based games have rather a niche existence – despite the high-quality games which are far superior to Java games thanks to the native Windows Mobile operating system.

With the already announced Skymarket, about which little is known, Microsoft may be able to close this gap quickly. That Microsoft is able to conquer even relatively unrelated markets late in the game has been impressively demonstrated not least by the astonishing success of the Xbox360 over the presumed top dog Sony and their Playstation 3.

Trailing 1:3 at home. In the first half, Microsoft has been slow to get into the smartphone game and it has taken a while for the communication between the players from different clubs to agree. But it wouldn’t be the first match that the software giant has turned around in the second half or even overtime with massive pressure thanks to their immense reserves. We expect just about anything from this team.

Conclusion

2009 promises to be an extremely exciting second round in the field of mobile games. The victory in the download business will probably be determined among the mobile phone manufacturers. Even if Vodafone and T-Mobile (USA) appear to have recognized the writing on the wall and announced or even implemented extensive improvements, there will hardly be any fundamental change. There is too much fragmentation in mobile telephones and too many problems with the business model with middlemen and different management in the various regions underlying the sale of applications via network operators. In other words: We don’t see a global App Store coming on mobile network operators.

Among the device manufacturers, or rather the platform operators with Microsoft and Google on board, Apple is clearly in the lead. But the iPhone is not the best mobile phone for everyone to play games on. Nokia still sells several times as many devices and even Sony Ericsson, together with their proximity to Sony and possibly with an alliance with Microsoft, is certainly in a position to secure a large chunk of the mobile games business. Heads-up for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week as for sure we will hear some announcements from the usual suspects.

In this context not the players for once, we have fortified ourselves with beer and sausages after the exhausting first round and now eagerly await further developments and, of course, the results of the game.

Game on!

What a year for FISHLABS! All of our mobile games were showered with awards. German and international online magazines gave top marks by the score to Powerboat Challenge™, Rally Master Pro™, Gladiator – The Mobile Game, and Snowboard Hero™. As a result, FISHLABS led the international charts for the best mobile games in 2008. Not bad for a small company with just 30 employees. Naturally, we were tremendously pleased with all of this recognition and are very proud of it.

Unfortunately, none of this guarantees that high quality and innovation will earn back the expenses of the costly production of such mobile games on the open market, to say nothing of making a profit – the purpose of every professional company. There are a number of diverse reasons for this:

• Even high-quality mobile games are offered at a relatively low price
• Mobile network operators keep at least 50 % of the revenue
• Distributors help themselves to up to 25 % of the end-user price for the more or less simple task of passing on the mobile game
• Mobile games are marketed like ring tones – the name of a mobile game is the only distinguishing feature, the customer only learns about quality and innovation after the purchase
• There is no effective copy protection for mobile games. They are downloaded illegally over the Internet in huge numbers – there are roughly ten times as many illegal downloads of our mobile games as legal (and that is just those that we are aware of)

All of this would not be so serious if these problems had not been known for years. Unfortunately, almost nothing has changed in this regard, and we do not expect there to be fundamental changes in the market for mobile games in the future. Mind you, by this we only mean the market for mobile games which are sold by network operators and Internet portals.

New sales channels for mobile games

In 2009, FISHLABS will rigorously pursue other methods. Above all, we will, for the time being, not develop any new Java mobile games for sale via network operators and Internet portals.

With the long-awaited sequel to our best-known mobile game, the space shooter and trade simulator Galaxy on Fire™, we will rely entirely on the new marketing concept which we successfully introduced with Rally Master Pro™: Galaxy on Fire™ 2 will be available for free download directly from our website and a few selected partners. Anyone who wants to can download the game to their PC to save the mobile transmission costs. In any case, Galaxy on Fire™ 2 can be played for a few hours (!) absolutely free. Only in the later course of the game must the game be unlocked for 100,000 myFISHLABS credits. In western countries, the purchase of a myFISHLABS Credits Gold Package for 5.97 Euros is enough for this. We have also taken great care that myFISHLABS Credits are priced lower in emerging markets in accordance with their purchasing power and that the most important payment systems of each country are available. 

Copy protection for mobile games with extra benefits

In order to adequately protect Galaxy on Fire™ 2 against piracy after the free playing period, the mobile game uses an online connection to our OCEAN™ server to check whether the individual player is authorised to use the paid premium area of Galaxy on Fire™ 2. This check occurs only once per game session and the one-time 10 KB data transfer is minimal, in order to keep the cost to the player as low as possible. The game security data are kept in the phone’s memory until the game is ended. Thus, Galaxy on Fire™ 2 will even work in the underground, so long as there has been a brief connection to the OCEAN™ server beforehand.

Of course, honest users consider copy protection to be an imposition. Why should honest buyers have to accept difficulties or even extra costs for a product they have paid for in full? The answer is simple: because this product and other like it in the future will not exist if it is too easy to obtain a free (illegal) version and the manufacturer cannot make a profit from their product.

But our copy protection also has its good side: above all, download fees do not apply. Depending on the mobile phone contract, that could be up to 15 Euros for a large mobile game like Galaxy on Fire™ 2. Furthermore, we offer up to two cross upgrades. Thus, players can start playing Galaxy on Fire™ 2 on one mobile and keep playing even after changing to another model from a different manufacturer (!) for the second time. The saved games are stored on the OCEAN™ server with every authorisation and loaded as needed. Even without changing mobiles, this is a useful function, for example when your mobile receives a firmware update. And at the same time, all premium players are entered in the international high scores table.

We can’t wait to see how Galaxy on Fire™ 2 and the new sales concept are received in the market. Even if data flat rates have not yet been widely established and we will probably lose some users in the short-term, online connectivity in mobile games is the future and FISHLABS is always one of the leaders!

With that in mind, game on and a successful 2009!

We hold our promises: The FISHLABS mobile games will be back in the public - this time we’re at the YOU 2008 in Berlin from October 24th to 26th!

Win Sony Ericsson mobile phones and FISHLABS mobile games packs

So here’s the deal - anyone who couldn’t be at our booth in Leipzig gets another chance, this time in Berlin. Once again you can win a Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman phones or a Sony Ericsson F305 gaming phone in our YOU 2008 contest. And even if you don’t win a phone, you won’t be left out on the fun - any participant without a win will receive a FISHLABS mobile games pack for free, which you can then install on your mobile phones. And we’re talking about full mobile games here, not simple demo versions.

The FISHLABS mobile games bus is back on the road

You’ll find our booth in Hall 23b with the booth number 213 - in our direct vicinity you’ll find Wikipedia, StarFM and the “Mädchenbus” - so it will be hard to miss us! As was the case on the Games Convention, we’ll present our mobile games as a real eye-cathcer: Anyone who knows our mobile games bus, will recognize it in an instant at the YOU and will know that FISHLABS is back!

Mobile games on the big screen

Our visitors at the Games Convention loved them: The FISHLABS mobile games on the big screens - never before have mobile games been on display in such sizes. The well-tried FISHLABS quality came to shine on those big screens and showed that we’re able to deliver high visual quality at low prices. So what are you waiting for? Visit us at the YOU 2008 in Berlin and experience the FISHLABS mobile games at first hand - it will be worth it!

We called it and we did it: We rocked the Games Convention and man DID we rock! Whoever visited us at our booth in Hall 5 could witness the sheer insanity that was FISHLABS - and to the people who weren’t there: Man, did you miss out on something!

Happy winners of our mobile games and a Walkman phone

Just like the happy winners of a Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman phone, who couldn’t believe at first that they’ve actually won something. Or the endless numbers of mobile gamers, waiting for their free mobile game to be beamed on their mobile phone! And last but not least the huge amount of visitors, which we’ve been able to please just with a Sony Ericsson lanyard or a FISHLABS T-Shirt, in exchange for their participation in our prize.

It’s been four very exhaustive but worthwhile days with the visitors at the fare, from which most people didn’t expect THAT kind of visual quality from a mobile game, as we displayed our games on five big plasma displays at our booth. On which we countered that just FISHLABS mobile games look that good!

THIS is what mobile games can look like? Here at FISHLABS, they do!

No matter what age, position or reason for being at the show - anybody who took a glaze at Galaxy on Fire 2, Gladiator, Blades and Mages or Powerboat Challenge felt the urge to get one of those FISHLABS mobile games. And we felt this urge at our counter, where visitors pushed each other to be the next in line to get one of those free mobile games, which sometimes took some time: When 300 mobile phones pollute the air with their Bluetooth signals it becomes hard to single out one of them…

As a day at the fare can be somewhat exhausting, many people chose to relax a little bit at our booth - thanks to our cozy seats, which some people found so cool that they’ve tried to take some with them!

Get some FISHLABS mobile games for breakfast!

We’ve been up front at the main hall as well - the first booth people could put their eyes upon was: FISHLABS mobile games with our classic 75er Ford Transit. This is where people could get their flyers right away and take part in our prize. As you see, there was no escape from us!

Even the trade visitors got their fair share of FISHLABS mobile games - we placed some bigger-than-life mobile phone at the entrance to Hall 2, where we presented ourselves as part of the “Hamburg@Work” booth. Lots of people gazing at the visual quality of our games here as well.

We even made it into the nightly news - the ARD Nachtmagazin taped our booth and people playing FISHLABS mobile games for their coverage of the first day of Games Convention and had one of our promoters show them a mobile game in detail.

We’ll meet again - with our bus and the FISHLABS mobile games at the YOU in Berlin!

Sounds too good to be true? You’re bothered, that you couldn’t make it to Leipzig this year? No problemo! We’ll be back at the YOU in Berlin from October 24. to 26 in Hall 23, Booth 213 - be there!

The Games Convention is just around the corner, and our preparations are in high gear. This time, we will have three booths: you will find our promotion van right inside the entrance in the large glass hall, where our mobile games can be downloaded free to your phone via Bluetooth. Our promotion girls will then show you the way to our main booth G20 in Hall 5.

Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman mobile phone drawing

At our generous booth in Hall 5, you can not only get a first-hand impression of our upcoming games, we will be giving away a super-cool Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman mobile phone every 2 hours. In addition, we will be holding drawings for FISHLABS games packs, each with 5 full versions. That way, you can start playing right away. You should probably just relax on one of the many cube seats at our booth, because our games won’t let go of you so quickly.

First FISHLABS mobile game on Symbian with OpenGL ES

Our business partners will always be able to reach us at the GameCity Hamburg booth F11 in the Business Centre in Hall 2. There we will demonstrate another ‘world premiere’: Powerboat Challenge™ on the Symbian platform with full OpenGL ES hardware rendering. Even with four boats at once, full-throttle graphics, and all of the light, reflection, and water effects switched on, the native game runs at maximum visibility at an unbelievable 30 frames per second in full resolution and landscape format. That is mobile console gaming at its best!

Galaxy on Fire™ 2 gameplay video ready to go

Along with our current mobile games Powerboat Challenge™ and Rally Master Pro™, we will also be showing the release candidate for Gladiator and the first playable version of Galaxy on Fire™ 2, which you have been eagerly awaiting. For those of you who may not be able to travel to the GC, we have put together the very first gameplay video for Galaxy on Fire™ 2.

Of course, this video does not represent the final version of the game. Above all, we still have not fully implemented the head-up display and so we have left it out here. But you can already see what direction the gameplay is going: for example, you are no longer tied to one station, but can fly directly to nearby planets and their stations and move freely between star systems using jump gates.

You can also get an eyeful of the new graphics quality in the sequel in this video – and that even though these are not even the final graphics! You can expect not only gaming highlights, but also visuals that may be unique in the field of mobile games!

Take a close look, and you will discover even more gameplay features: for example, the option of taking control of the turrets yourself. Very handy when you are attacked from behind  or when flying past larger battleships, if you want to take out their guns with targeted fire. Or the new special weapons, such as EMP bursts, which incapacitate your opponents for a brief moment, so you can finish them off. And the nukes are nothing to sneeze at – they’re a real blast! Especially if you have to destroy a real monster ship or too many enemies are after you all at once.

FISHLABS on GCDC Mobile Games Panels

FISHLABS will not only be in the exhibition area of the Games Convention, but will also be taking part in three mobile games panels on Monday during the GCDC:

The State of the European Mobile Games Industry

Abstract: The European mobile games industry has developed its own quality and style that is unique in the world. Europe is also the home of Nokia, Gameloft and high profile international developers such as Ideaworks3D, Fishlabs and Digital Legends. Many European studios (Elkware, Iomo, Haiku, Sumea, etc.) have been bought by Japanese and American studios in the recent past and this is a trend that is likely to continue in the coming years.

Enough reasons to ask ourselves: can we grow the mobile entertainment business ourselves? Can we do our own research and development? How about Financing? Can we improve the European market commercially? Any best practices in the games or media industry?

On or Off Deck: Is there a future for mobile games distribution without the operators?

Abstract: 2008 started with the launch of NGage, the announcement of the Iphone SDK and Google’s Android program. Big companies seem to discover the potential of mobile game distribution, a potential that was already discovered by Jamba, Zed, Buongiorno and Sony Ericsson with Fun and Download. C4M sees a future in the Japanese distribution model based on free games, others are experimenting with distribution via e-mail, virtual item buying and in-game advertising.

This panel of experts will give you an insight in the present and the future of off deck distribution strategies.

Multi Platform Publishing Strategies

Abstract: To be announced.

You race over the closed off country road at top speed, flying past trees and fields. You stomp on the brakes just before the next curve. You follow the narrow curves in town and hit the edges of one or two patches of mud along the way. Once you reach the town’s exit point you put the pedal to the metal. You’ve barely made it out of town when your co-pilot orders you to take a “sharp right.” You turn onto a narrow gravel path through the forest. You notice immediately that the car drives very differently on this new ground. The grooves in the road also make it difficult to handle, and there’s always the danger that you will completely lose control if you veer too far out of the grooves in either direction.

Console-style drifting in a mobile game?

But you have everything under control; turning your front wheels sideways you drift cleanly through the 180° curve to the end of the forest. You hit the gas pedal again. You launch into the air at top speed on the hill at the railroad crossing. But you’ve miscalculated, jumped too far and driven right into the stone wall at the next curve. That cost you a few seconds and your fender looks really bad. No time to think about it now. The time target is tight. Stomp on the gas. Your wheels spin and the mud flies. The rear of the car starts to go into a skid, but you easily steer against it. Once you’re back on the street you can finally see the finish line on the horizon, and you finish the second stage with a bit of a time delay. The first stage was easier somehow.

Repair mini-games will get your car back in shape

As you can see, your car has sustained some damage. Good thing you can repair it before the next stage. The question is, should you have the team repair it or lend a helping hand so that it goes fast? But maybe you’re pretty clumsy and will only delay your team? You grab the torque wrench and tighten the lug nuts back on in record time. Nice job! Your car’s in top shape again, and you’re off to the next stage.

The landscape has changed quite a bit and the course preview leads you to suspect that this next race will be a little more demanding. The terrain is more hilly, and the ground constantly alternates between paved and sandy spots. When the sun is shining the grip is OK, but heat thunderstorms can cause downpours at any time and then the race will become a real downhill slide.

Flying high

So much for theory. The countdown begins, and you stomp on the accelerator. The car shoots ahead and you jump over the first hill at breakneck speed – with complete trust in your co-pilot, who tells you that there is a straightaway ahead. You’re in the air for quite a while. You think you feel your stomach drop. In a mobile game!

But you’ve launched off the hill at a slight angle and start skidding when you land. It takes a lot of effort, but you get the car under control before the next hairpin curve and skid on all four wheels through the apex of the curve. It probably looks great in instant replay, but it cost you a lot of time.

Did we just pass spectators or cows at the edge of the course?

The car is under control again. You race at top speed through a picturesque village. Nice. Maybe you should spend your next vacation here. Enthusiastic rally fans are standing along the edge of the course, and you really don’t have time for autographs. But you haven’t lost the race yet. You’re doing reasonably well in the race overall. Apparently the other drivers also had problems with this stretch, and you’ve even got a couple seconds on the car in second place. You concentrate on the next stretch.

Can someone get rid of the cliffs?

You’re going to need it. The road is much narrower and it can get really tight, especially between the cliffs that now frequently tower on both sides of the road, Something’s bound to go wrong at some point at this speed. and the rain has made the road extremely slippery.

You could see the archway at the entrance of the rock formation from quite far away, but you’re a little too fast in the curve immediately in front of it. The car still hasn’t straightened out enough, and you ram the passenger side of the car into the wall - BAM! The whole side is dented in. It’s obvious that the car has sustained quite a bit of damage. Somehow it isn’t driving that well. It’s going to cost you valuable time that you don’t have. So you take the riskier curves to compensate for the lower speed. This has consequences. You graze the cliffs over and over again and further damage your car. The main goal now is not to have any more accidents and simply make it to the next repair! Otherwise there will be no more rally for you!

Damage to the car – do you play it safe or play for time?

You paid dearly. You dropped back to fifth place. Your car is severely damaged. If the team repairs it they can spruce it up somewhat within the stipulated time allowance. But will that be enough for the next two stages? They certainly won’t manage to repair everything without a hitch. If you help them, together you could completely repair it. But if you mess it up, you may not get the car to where it needs to be. You need a better car, otherwise you won’t advance quick enough in the mountains. So you decide to help them out, and you do your job well in the mini-game. You hit the starting line with an almost completely intact vehicle, ready to make up for the lost time.

The air is getting thinner

High up in the mountains. Great view, but the route plan doesn’t look good. There’s one curve after another. Well, at least you have asphalt under your tires and the car handles well. Based on the interval times you recognize that you’re doing well. You are perfectly attuned to the rhythm of the serpentine curves. You wind your way higher and higher with the greatest of ease until you reach the top of the mountain pass. From here on in it goes straight down. Hopefully your brakes can withstand it. But the material was worth the money. You make it safely across the finish line. And have moved up one place!

The right tactic for that crucial tenth of a second

On to the next stage. You read the next course overview. The course appears to be similar to the previous one and also has a few considerably faster passages. You can make up some time there. However, it is pouring down with rain. Raindrops on the windshield make it difficult to see. If you veer off the course at this point, you may as well pack up and go home. You push those thoughts away, because the time keeps mercilessly ticking away. You let it fly on the straightaways. Almost nothing can happen here. But you have to really throttle down before the curves. You need to rely on your co-pilot reading the pacenotes. Your brake lights now light up at every curve, and you are rewarded with second place.

Show down

It’s time for the last stage of the rally. You’re still driving in the mountains on asphalt, but you have to leave the course at the halfway point. You take a “sharp left” and the surface changes once again. There is enough space between the cliffs to adjust the car to the unpaved road in the curves, but you are severely penalized for every error. Cliffs are hard. You violently come into contact with the unforgiving natural lane markings one or two times. The car loses its top speed. It isn’t noticeable in the winding section, but the last part of the race is on the road. You could lose some crucial seconds here. It’s going to be close. Damned close. The last intermediate time is displayed. You are two tenths of a second behind the first place car. You could also say “first loser”! Can you do anything?

It all adds up in the end – in a mobile game as well

You shoot through the final finish line. Your car doesn’t look very good anymore. You’ve really squeezed every last drop out of it. Your thumb hurts and the joystick of your Sony Ericsson K800i has left behind a deep imprint. You can now lean back for the first time. You watch the last stage again in the interactive replay. The TV cameras mercilessly reveal where you wasted valuable split seconds. You rewind, play it back, change the camera angle and have to watch how you slammed into the rock wall twice. Is this the spot where you may have gambled away the win?

It’s time for the final numbers. You can’t believe it. You are five tenths of a second from third place! This can’t be happening. How long have you played? Just under an hour? And that was the amateur rally? Oh man, that’s really tough. Weren’t mobile games designed for casual gamers? OK, maybe you should have used the brake more from the beginning instead of cutting it close around the corners everywhere. At least you have now unlocked all the courses for the time qualification and adrenaline mode and can train on them. You simply have to finish in the top three, then you’ll get a new car and will have qualified for the pro rally. It would be ridiculous if you didn’t…

It took a little longer than expected but right now we are flipping the switch: not only is Rally Master Pro™ finally coming out, we are also starting myFISHLABS, our new community for mobile gamers. And this community will really be something. For one thing, it is, of course, completely free. Register at our website and you can provide a variety of information about yourself. For example, along with your model of mobile phone, hobbies, and so on, you can also enter your favourite FISHLABS mobile games and thus easily find new friends who like the same games. You can send each other messages and even free SMS (we will launch this feature end of August when Games Convention kicks-off). Or go straight to the forum to discuss our mobile games with other gamers. You won’t even have to reregister for that, of course your myFISHLABS account applies to our forum, too.

Credits account for easy payment and big discounts on all mobile games

In addition, all members of myFISHLABS well receive a credits account, which can be used to pay for our mobile Java games quickly and conveniently. That not only makes paying a lot simpler, you will also get a discount of at least 20% on all our mobile Java games, and the more credits you buy, the bigger the discount – up to 50%! But it gets even better. For registering, we will give every new member 20,000 credits. For that, you can even get one of our mobile Java games for free! However, you need to be a little patient for another couple weeks as we will launch this feature end of August, as well.

Mobile Java games with on-line high scores

With myFISHLABS, we want to offer you a platform where you can measure yourself against like-minded gamers. In the future, all of our mobile Java games will have an on-line connection to our FISHLABS server (code name OCEAN™). You can use that to upload your current game stand, like high scores. Rally Master Pro™ is the first mobile Java game where we will offer this new function, and naturally the focus is on the best times for the individual courses. In other games, such as the announced Galaxy on Fire 2, you will be able to upload not just your current score, but entire saved games with all  the information imaginable –  but more on that later.

Finally, upgrades for mobile Java games, too

OCEAN™ can do much more.  For the first time, we can now update our mobile Java games and make additional content available. That has always been important to us, and with Rally Master Pro™ we will completely reinvent the downloading of courses. Naturally, we have made sure that the amount of data to be transferred is kept as small as possible, in order to keep the connection fees low. Thus, for example, all the graphics for the courses are already in the mobile Java game embedded. Only the course route will be downloaded, and that is only a few kilobytes.

Copy protection and try & buy for mobile Java games included

All of this has another pleasant side effect: this version of Rally Master Pro™ is optimally protected against piracy. Therefore, we can offer you the mobile Java game to download for free. The first two courses are free and you can pay for the next seven to the conclusion of the first rally with the free credits from registering for myFISHLABS.

Anyone who hasn’t registered and gets a pirated copy from the Internet can only play the first two courses of Rally Master Pro™. But we are sure that everyone will want to play the whole game and register at myFISHLABS!

However, some features are still in the test phase and we will launch myFISHLABS with all features by the end of July. But we didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer and we launch myFISHLABS with a limited feature set now, so you can download Rally Master Pro™ at no cost right away and play the first nine tracks for free.

So, head straight to myFISHLABS to register and then download our latest mobile Java game Rally Master Pro™ for free!

The cat is out of the bag: our latest racing game is called Rally Master Pro™, and the name says it all! This is no mobile game for beginners, and it may set new standards in the field of mobile Java games. Many of you already know that we created quite a sensation in 2005 with V-Rally™ 3D. Some time has passed since then, and we have been itching to raise the racing game bar again for quite a while.

While the trend in consoles and PCs seems to be away from hardcore and towards casual, we have been moving in the opposite direction with our mobile games. Mobile phones are becoming more and more high performance and we want to exploit that to bring a real console feeling to the mobile phone:

2D cardboard cut-outs on the mobile phone are yesterday’s news

For a rally game, that naturally means real 3D graphics without fake backgrounds that simply scroll from left to right like a backdrop – those days are finally over. The scope has to be right, even if we are still faced with the narrow limits of approximately 1 MB file size for 3D mobile games. However, we wanted to have a lot of especially varied tracks, without having to have some courses simply driven backwards (a really pathetic way to increase the number of tracks). So, we have developed a module concept that allows us to realise 27 (!) different tracks. That may be unique for a mobile Java game to date.

It also bothered us that, up to now, it was only possible to drive left, right, and straight ahead in mobile racing games. With V-Rally™ 3D and Burning Tires™, we have already shown that it is also possible to go uphill and down. In a real rally, extreme differences in elevation sometimes have to be overcome and drivers must send their rockets twisting up the switchbacks. For that, we had to specially develop a terrain editor which also allows modules on different levels. In addition, the modules themselves had to be provided with the appropriate transitions and ultimately they had to be taken into account in the physics, as well.

Graphics aren’t everything – the physics have to rock, too!

Especially in a rally game, the primary focus is on the driving experience, and consistent 3D physics are indispensable. They must provide credible driving behaviour depending on the nature of the track, weather conditions, and the state of the vehicle. Ease up on the gas before a curve, tap the brakes, and then put the pedal to the metal and counter-steer to drift smoothly through the curve. That is rally driving! And pseudo-2.5D physics  that only simulate the lift-off of a vehicle jumping  a hilltop – yawn – are simply not acceptable. When you take off, there should be a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, and when you land, you should think, ‘Ouch – the chassis just bottomed out!’

Weather is a physical phenomenon – not a graphics effect

And if there is going to be weather, then it should not be a few particles flickering in front of the camera from top to bottom, but should really come down in 3D space and, of course, have an effect on traction, in other words, significantly influence the driving behaviour. And while we’re talking about traction, it should also vary with the track composition. Driving should be completely different on asphalt than on gravel or even snow. Of course, a road is not always made the same way and the surface can change now and then. Most especially on the edge. Have you ever caught a soft shoulder with a wheel? That really pulls at the steering. And that is exactly what happens in Rally Master Pro™!

3D damage model: rally cars are not indestructible – not even in a mobile Java game!

It’s funny how, in almost every mobile Java game, the colourful little car cheerfully bounces off of everything and nothing happens, apart from slowing down.  Oh, right, mobile games are only for ‘casual players’. None of that! In Rally Master Pro™, if you go crashing into the embankment, you not only receive a time penalty, something also gets broken. That’s not just a single time penalty, your car is also slower after the crash. And you can see that on your precious car! Rally Master Pro™ offers the worldwide premier of a 3D damage model in the field of mobile Java games.

Rallies spectacularly displayed on the phone with TV cameras

But that is not the only worldwide first for mobile Java games that we have implemented in Rally Master Pro™. The interactive replay for forward and reverse replay and dynamic switching between TV and vehicle cameras are just as unique. Sure, we already had dynamic TV cameras in Powerboat Challenge™ (2008), Burning Tires™ (2006), V-Rally 3D (2005), and even Motoraver™ (2004)  before they could be seen in other racing games for the first time this year – but only for the camera behind the car – super!

Have we made ourselves unpopular with EA, Gameloft, Glu, and the others? No matter, it isn’t big marketing budgets that make the difference between the success and failure of a game on the market, it is you gamers. Ideally, that is how it should be.

In that spirit: Game on!

Your FISHLABS team

Submitting mobile games to wireless service providers and Web portals is really tricky. We have to create umpteen different versions of our games for the different handsets, hundreds of screenshots in every format and resolution imaginable and come up with marketing texts of varying lengths in German, English, French, Italian and Spanish for each distribution channel. The entire delivery of just one of our mobile games can easily contain 500 files and, even when zipped, be approx. 300 MB. It doesn’t just take a really long time to name and compile all the files for all the supported handsets in all the languages for each wireless service provider, it can also be monotonous - and error-prone - work when it has to be done manually.

Error-free delivery of mobile games with Metaflow

We have recently started using the Metaflow mobile content management system. This software solution is linked with the most important wireless service providers’ databases and Web portals, and we use the system to maintain all our mobile games, screenshots, videos and marketing texts. Now all we have to do is press the proverbial button and we have a complete and correct delivery for any of the distribution channels ready at all times.

Mobile games available quicker for new phone models with Metaflow

But Metaflow can do even more than that; the wireless service providers get new phone models every month and there are hardly any mobile games for them in the beginning. That is because we as the developer get the information from them pretty late. In addition, numerous companies are involved in the subsequent filling of new versions of our mobile games (also known as backfill). This process is also correspondingly protracted and error-prone.

Since Metaflow gets informaiton about new phones directly from the wireless service provider, we now know every day whether a model is available from a certain provider and which models they are. All we then need to do is enter the previously tested version in Metaflow (we get test handsets from the manufacturers before they are released so we can adapt our games ahead of the model launch) and press the button, which releases the mobile game for sale. Everyone benefits from this: you as the gamer because you can get our mobile games faster as well as the wireless service providers and all the other companies that are involved in launching a mobile game. And last but not least, we benefit when our mobile games are immediately available for a brand new phone because we earn more money, which allows us to develop the next game.