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

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.

Fishlabs has done it again and brought home yet another Airgamer award, this time with Powerboat Challenge™. Our latest mobile game earned 93% from the testers at the leading German online magazine for mobile games. We now also have a hit in the sports mobile games category among the top 5 mobile games.

Besides the extraordinarily high-quality graphics and the excellent playability, the folks at Airgamer particularly liked the enormous game depth which Powerboat Challenge has to offer. Airgamer’s summary says, ‘Wet streaks of lightning in 3D with a wealth of variety and an outstanding look!’

The evaluation in detail:

• Graphics: very good
• Sound: very good
• Controls: very good

Pro

• Detailed 3D graphics
• Extensive career mode
• Racy feeling of speed
• Precise controls
• Numerous upgrades

Length of game enjoyment: long

Difficulty level: easy to hard

Dominik Hirsch, mobile phone game tester at Airgamer summarises:

‘Exclusively good marks are rare, but Fishlabs has earned this. The graphics set a new (Java) standard for mobile phones. This is primarily due to the very authentic water depiction and the brilliant feeling of speed. But even in scope and variety, the watery frenzy never compromises, and the style system, boosts, and upgrades will give you the need for speed and gaming!

There’s power in there!’

We have nothing to add to that and would like to thank the folks at Airgamer for this terrific evaluation. You can read the complete test at the following link:
http://www.airgamer.de/handyspiele/test/zeige/powerboat-challenge.html

We are releasing our new 3D mobile game Powerboat Challenge™ somewhat earlier than planned. Starting today, you can get the game for your mobile phone from our website without download fees. Then it’s time to select one of the zany characters with a cool racing boat, and off to the starting line for the first race! Of course, performance will also depend on what sort of mobile phone you are using to play Powerboat Challenge™.

Graphics options also in 3D mobile games

Depending on the performance of the various end devices, mobile games run at differing speeds or in varying quality. In Powerboat Challenge™, the choice is yours. We have taken the quality right to the absolute limit of what is possible for Java mobile games (Java is the programming language that is used for most mobile games). If the game doesn’t run fast enough for you on your mobile phone, you can turn various effects on or off by choosing Options from the main menu and then Graphics. You may be already familiar with this from PC games.

Sufficient performance for 3D mobile games?

Some mobile phones are almost able to match PCs in terms of computing performance. The Nokia N95, for example, has a 3D-chip that allows 3D mobile games to run very well. But for racing games, what matters is high computing power for calculating the 3D physics. This is necessary, for example, to simulate realistic handling of the racing boats. If you have one of the state-of-the-art Sony Ericsson phones, like the K800i, then you are well-equipped. More than just the 3D graphics run very smoothly on those. They also have enough computing power not to lose their oomph even in races against three other boats. Then you can enjoy your Powerboat Challenge™ with all of the water, light, and wave effects.

One final tip: on some mobile phones, Powerboat Challenge™ runs a bit faster if the sound is turned off. So 3D mobile games aren’t quite up to PCs (yet), but you can’t stick a PC in your pocket

Game on!

Your Fishlabs Team

What a day for us - The German Developer Award 2007 goes to FISHLABS: Blades & Magic is the best mobile phone game of the year! Again, we have been proven to be the leading developer of premium 3D mobile games. This is another terrific accolade for our entire team and is the crowning conclusion to a very successful 2007.

As the only 3D mobile game, the action role-playing game Blades & Magic won over the jury, consisting of 30 industry-experts, and beat out the competition. This is also an important signal to the entire mobile games industry that complex 3D games are also able to thrill so-called core gamers on mobile phones.

Achim Quinke, Project Manager of Gamecity Hamburg, is also excited about the Award: “The award impressively underscores Hamburg’s leading role in the field of mobile games. With the Hamburg prototype sponsorship and our numerous services, we will be able to support innovative game developers even more strongly in the future.”

Blades & Magic is a graphically opulent, 3D action-RPG with up to 10 hours of playing time,which sets new standards for mobile phone games. In the role of Bryn, a young warrior of the Grimblade clan, the player must survive numerous quests and learn powerful spells and abilities in order to be able to use them wisely in battle in the lifelike world of Blades & Magic. The fantastic story of Good and Evil gives players the choice of making their way as a fearless fighter or a powerful mage in order to free the land of Auronia from the demon lord Balrazhul.

Get to the dedicated mobile game site of Blades & Magic

Submerge into plenty hours of 3D gaming fun. You might expect to to do that in front of your PC or your gaming console. However, FISHLABS gives you the game to do that on your mobile phone! The 3D action game DEEP: Submarine Odyssey is so innovative it was nominated for the Sony Ericsson Content Award. The submarine adventure created by FISHLABS made it to the top 5 mobile games!

DEEP – Thrilling 3D Action on Your Mobile Phone

With Deep we took the basic premise of our highly acclaimed Galaxy on Fire several steps further to create a never before seen amount of freedom in mobile gaming. The goal was to create a mobile game that gives players the feeling that they can do whatever they want to at any time they please. Be it fishing, hunting down pirates, producing and trading goods, upgrading one’s ship or continuing the main story line. The world of Deep was designed to keep players captivated and motivated for hours and hours.

Get to the dedicated mobile game site of DEEP