Casual Connect in Hamburg, from 10. – 12. February 2010 right at the front-door of FISHLABS 

We are very pleased to attend Casual Connect with three topics on the second day. Casual Games Association Events are the premiere events for the casual games industry with over 3,500 professionals attending Casual Connect Events each year. Casual Connect Europe brings together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the casual games industry with the best of networking and learning.

This year FISHLABS is among the front runners: With 10 iPhone Games and more than 21 Millionen downloads we are now ranked as one of the top players worldwide.

At Casual Connect we are attending three panels:

What’s the Smart Choice in Smartphones?

Attendees:
Alex BUBB, Senior Partner Manager, Media and Games Nokia
Joe NEALE, Head of End User Programs Symbian Foundation
Michael SCHADE, CEO FishLabs
Moderator:
Chris JAMES, Founder Pocket Gamer

Smartphones are the new black in the mobile content world, but who are the main players and which of the many new platforms and accompanying app stores should you be supporting? Our expert panel of platform representatives and publishers offer an invaluable guide from Android to Windows Mobile.

Case Study: Ad-Funded Games

Speaker: Michael SCHADE, CEO FishLabs

Smartphones are on their way to become the most engaging media in everyone’s life. Millions of downloads with hundred thousands of hours game time make ad games on smartphones like iPhone, Android and other new mobile platforms the Trojan horse for brands to cut through the daily media noise. Learn from best practices with Volkswagen and Barclaycard how to engage with consumers on a global level in a long-lasting and lean-forward experience.

Business Models & Pricing – Making Money on the App Store

Attendees:
Nicholas LOVELL, Director GAMESbrief
Michael SCHADE CEO, FishLabs
Christopher KASSULKE, CEO HandyGames GmbH
Moderator:
Tim HARRISON Founder The Mobile Consultancy

The iPhone has well and truly shaken up mobile games pricing, enabling a wide variety of new business models. This session examines these models and key pricing trends from the initial rush to the bottom to the emerging premium bracket along with micro-payments, lite and free versions, subscriptions and asks the simple question…which models are making money?

Of course there will be enough time for chats and discussions after and in between the panels and we look forward to many inspiring conversations.

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!

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.

This was the question and therefore the central topic of the roundtable at the Quo Vadis game developer conference in Berlin last week, which we attended along with representatives from arvato mobile, Jamba, Exit Games, Chromatix , Cipsoft and Exozet.

Download fees and lack of marketing for mobile games

Naturally the well-known points of criticism such as the lack of presentation of mobile games and hidden download fees were brought up immediately. Stefan Blanck, Chromatix’s Managing Director who also moderated the roundtable, stated that these are the same problems as three years ago and that it doesn’t seem that the wireless service providers have any intention of rethinking this. Some of the participants put this into perspective by mentioning that almost every wireless service provider now offers data flat rates, but that most users are not aware of it. In fact, a lot of mobile phone owners still don’t know that they can do more with their phones than just make phone calls, send text messages and take pictures – they can also use them to play games.

We were able to offer some concrete examples of this since we often meet mobile phone owners who didn’t know how to get mobile games onto their phones and that there are even some games preinstalled on their phones. It isn’t surprising, because in many cases the mobile games are hidden deep in the menu. For example, how many end users are aware that “Java World” contains mobile games? Mouth-to-mouth propaganda could really help here, but which mobile games are worth recommending to friends and how can you then easily and quickly get that particular game?

No reward for innovation and quality in mobile games

This is another problem in the mobile games industry – a lot of mobile games are released every week so there is only so much attention that can be generated for each individual game. Therefore most companies prefer to spend a lot of money on known brand names, leaving only a small budget for the development of the actual game. Christian Twellmann, Head of Mobile Games at arvato mobile, which operates the O2 games portal in Germany and the Vodafone games portal in Ireland, explains the situation as follows: “Actually, only three categories of mobile games are sold successfully: innovations, Top 10 and recommendations. With the flood of game titles we get every week, most of the games have disappeared from these categories within four weeks at most and hardly generate any more downloads. The quality of the games barely plays a role. Innovation and quality can hardlycatch on this way.”

Casual gamers or core gamers – which target group ensures growth?

The group’s opinions to this question varied somewhat. Thomas Richter, Head of Games at Jamba, prefers to follow the strategy of introducing new users to the subject with very easy games or applications: “We want to attract new users to mobile applications using social applications such as Partner Tracker in order to then perhaps sell them a very simple game before offering them more complex games.” Matthias Hellmund, Head of Mobile Development at Berlin-based Exozet, added: “To do this, we first have to get rid of the potential users’ fear of expensive subscriptions. Especially in Germany that is still one of the main reasons most people keep away from mobile games.”

Those of us at Fishlabs are convinced that the core gamers are the right target group to develop the market. Like in many other areas, the “early adaptors” are the ones who enjoy trying new things and are also willing to pay for it and overcome technical hurdles. However, the vast majority of mobile games tend to still focus on casual gamers. In particular, core gamers merely roll their eyes at adaptations of console games with a simple game idea, comparatively simple graphics and short gameplay. However, we are convinced that this target group would be willing to pay more for better quality and more depth in the game, while casual gamers tend to be more sensitive to price.

However, the prerequisite for this is that we must finally be able to sell mobile games for more than 5 euros and that the developers’ percentage of the profits needs to be much higher. Instead, mobile games continue to be marketed like ring tones, which is in blatant contradiction to the time and money that is spent developing a mobile game. What is needed is a high-end segment for mobile games and commensurate marketing on the part of the wireless service provider. Especially with the opportunity for publishers and developers to be able to sell additional games or upgrades to the end customers.

Innovative and high quality mobile games through third parties

The roundtable agreed that the industry still has a long way to go. In fact, they expect that third party providers such as Jamba or even new players such as Amazon will do a better job than the wireless service providers. Thomas Richter added, “Of course we are also keeping an eye on this target group and are already offering high quality Symbian mobile games if they are available for a certain phone. However, we don’t advertise the game this way, because the average end customer doesn’t know what “Symbian” is.

We are also convinced that innovative and high quality games should be marketed on the Internet. The Internet allows users to learn more about the game and download a free demo onto their mobile phones. The success of free browser games, in which money is earned by selling in-game items, is paving the way. Access to the game is extremely easy and if the game is well-liked, money is earned through long-term motivation. Quality is the deciding success factor here.

Our summary of the event is: The market for mobile games has not developed much, despite the ever-improving quality of mobile phones, since the wireless service providers are too inflexible to try new marketing methods. In fact, the opposite is true: mobile games with well-known brand names are difficult to market and the pressure to simply adapt old games instead of creating new and better game experiences is continually increasing. The consequence of this is that new channels will established on the Internet. High quality mobile games with more content and the ability to purchase additional in-game contents or services using common payment systems appears to be a promising solution to the problem.

Good news for mobile gamers in the east: starting immediately, mobivention will sell our mobile games through more than 20 local mobile network operators and other on-line portals. Many of our fans come from Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia (yes, we know that these countries are actually part of central Europe, not the east). Our mobile games may be available from our website, but we don’t support payment via mobile phone bill for all countries. For younger gamers who don’t have a bank account or a credit card, this is often the only way to pay for mobile games.

Specialist for mobile games in central and eastern Europe

Our new colleagues from mobivention have long been successful in central and eastern Europe with themes, wallpaper, video, and mobile games. For us, this is, of course, a terrific cooperation. Besides the direct contracts with local mobile network operators, mobivention also has an extremely competent team with lots of local employees. This is essential for smooth communication in the individual countries and, of course, also helps us enormously to understand the local conditions better and to respond to them. Thus, we will also offer our mobile games in more local languages.

And here is the complete list of the new sales regions for our mobile games: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

Our bags are packed and today we leave for San Francisco and the Games Developer Conference, the Mecca for computer, video, and mobile games. The GDC is the world’s most important event for game developers, publishers, and those who would like to enter the field. For five days, the entire focus will be on games for the PC, consoles, or mobile phones. Naturally, we will be there too, to track down the latest trends in mobile gaming and to set a few ourselves.

FISHLABS presentation: Mobile phones as game consoles

This time, we will even give a presentation about mobile games. Our topic: “Console Game Experience on Mobile Phones with Immersive Games and Innovative Gadgets”. What is that about? Quite simple: to date, most mobile games have had a rather simple design and either the fun is over after a few minutes or  things repeat endlessly with limited variations. Of course, simple games don’t have to be bad. If the game play is so good that even the 99th still motivates and challenges, there are many hours of fun in the game. Actually, this kind of mobile games is even extremely popular with a very large target group. But they usually fail to excite real gamers who are used to something completely different in terms of graphics, game depth, and interaction on PCs or consoles.

Mobile games have to get by with limited technology

Thus far, mobile games have been at a disadvantage, because mobile phones simply do not have enough processor speed or storage and the displays were too small. In addition, the downloading of mobile games was limited by network operators, so that the potential of high-end mobile phones simply couldn’t be used. No wonder that most implementations of PC or console games are disappointing. The game play and the scope of the games was not originally designed for such end devices and thus suffered from the technical limitations. That is more than enough for classic games such as Pac Man, Tetris, and so on,  which mobile phones have offered since the beginning of the new century. That is another reason why this game genre is so popular on mobile phones.

Enormous graphics and computing power in your pocket

Of course, mobile phones are becoming more and more powerful and in particular devices from Sony Ericsson have been on par with the first Playstation since at least the K800. Some mobile games which were developed especially for the Symbian devices from Nokia and Sony Ericsson with 3D graphics chip need not even shy away from comparison with games for the PSP. Upcoming mobile phones will even be able to compete with the latest generation of consoles, and most network operators have lifted the size limitation on game downloads. Only one thing is still poor: the controls of mobile games. The buttons on the phone were not developed to control mobile games. Therefore, particular attention must be paid to the controls in developing game play, especially for 3D mobile games, so that gaming on a mobile phone does not turn into a frustrating experience due to the controls.

Your mobile phone becomes a true game console with a separate game controller

All FISHLABS mobile games have simulated analogue controls, similar to a game controller. Given the limited options of a mobile phone keypad, they are certainly among the best in the market. Still, they can never achieve the touch & feel of a real game controller which allows, for instance, sensitive aiming in first person shooters. This is probably why some clever US American boys and, most notably, a girl decided to invent an analogue game controller for mobile games. Beth Marcus, founder and CEO of Zeemote, and her team developed the first and so far only analogue game controller for mobile games worldwide. Beth certainly knows her way with joysticks. She’s the one who invented the force feedback joystick and later sold her company to Microsoft. And now she seems to have landed another major hit. Here at FISHLABS, we spontaneously redesigned our shooter Heli Strike in order to test the new game feeling. Mobile phone in one hand, the Zeemote in the other, it is possible to navigate the helicopter elegantly across the phone display via Bluetooth and fire salvoes with the buttons on the front. Not only can the helicopter be steered much better with the Zeemote, you can also relax much more looking at the display and concentrate better on the action. This makes Heli Strike even more fun, and you will eventually put down your phone and the Zeemote with great reluctance.

FISHLABS mobile games support Zeemote

We were so pleased that from now on, we will adapt all our mobile action games to be used with the Zeemote. The device will not be released for a few more months, but we will keep you updated and our fans will be the first who get to order the Zeemote directly from us. If you happen to be visiting the GDC in San Francisco as well, you can try out our mobile games with the Zeemote in the North Hall, room 111, on Tuesday at 4 pm.

Go full throttle in Powerboat Challenge™, the new mobile game from FISHLABS! This mobile game isn’t just about speed on the water, it’s also about cool dudes, hot women, cheeky comments, and the right racing style. Both casual players and hardcore gamers will really get their money’s worth.

Choose from four not exactly everyday drivers and their speedboats. The boats differ in looks and, of course, in their handling characteristics, such as top speed, acceleration, and manoeuvrability. But the drivers themselves also have their own personalities and make cheeky comments. Over the course of the game, you will complete different types of races held all around the world. These include lap races against three other boats, elimination races where the last boat in each lap drops out, and solo races against a time target for each course.

But this mobile game isn’t just about speed. The courses are marked by buoys that you have to pass on the correct side and as closely as possible. The closer the better, because then you can ignite the turbo for a short time. But be careful: if you pass a buoy on the wrong side, you will receive a penalty point. If you miss three buoys in a race, you will be disqualified. In addition, you will also get style points for every skilfully rounded buoy. Earn enough style points and tuning sets will be unlocked, that you can then buy with your prize money from the races.

Pimp my boat – the shop has cool gadgets for your racing boat

If you have demonstrated enough style on the course, head for the shop. Choose from among bigger engines, chip tuning, fatter turbos, or extra spoilers for better  manoeuvrability. Of course, looks aren’t neglected either. All the changes to your powerboat are immediately visible and really stand out during the races. Fully equipped, you then start the next race. If you have successfully completed enough races, the next location will be unlocked, where you will have to prove yourself anew against tougher opponents, who naturally have also pimped up their boats.

Mobile game with unbelievable visual effects

This game will blow away everything that’s ever been seen in the field of water racing games on mobile phones. The detailed 3D graphics run smoothly, despite numerous light and particle effects, the environment is even reflected realistically on the surface of the water. And all of that with up to three opponents to make life difficult for you. It’s time to game on your mobile phone like it was a console! Of course, if your phone isn’t one of the fastest, you can reduce the graphics.Overall, around ten hours of fun are waiting for you, before you have played through all the drivers and courses. Don’t let anyone tell you that mobile games are just for casual players and every now and then!