In the second part of our Galaxy on Fire™ 2 Developer Diary Lead Programmer Hans-Christian-Kühl tells us more about the production process and the teamwork involved. In addition, HCK shares his personal favourite features of the upcoming version of GoF 2 with us.
For all the sci-fi junkies among you, who still haven’t played the first part of our space saga yet, FISHLABS offers GoF at a 50% discount starting today. The weekend sale ends on Monday – so make sure to quickly lay your hands on the Betty or one of the many other ships of the GoF universe and enjoy premium 3D-space-action for just $ 2.99.

Part of the porting of GoF 2 has been major changes in the design and artwork. Why was that?

That happened, because we did not have so much room for the original Java version. Back then, the entire version could not be larger than one MB. At the time, we used the trick of not building the ships completely as one object, but rather like a ‘Lego’ ship put together from individual modules. Ultimately, there were 30 different modules that were used to create roughly 40 different ships. But there were essentially the same ships for the different races, varying only in the colours and textures. Now, we have a lot more possibilities and can create a set of unique ships with their own textures for every race – because now we have the necessary memory. The same is true for stations. Previously, they were put together from modules. Now, we can create unique stations for every race, which of course is a lot of work, but looks really good.

What is the process in developing the new 3D ship models?

Marc Nagel, our Art Director, doodles the ships from three sides with a rough texture template. Then the 3D artists get a specification from me what the maximum size of the texture can be. Then they get started, and constantly look it over and say where the geometry has to be fiddled with, the size changed, or other changes have to be made so that everything fits together. After all, the models also have to fit the design specifications that are already there from the Java version, such as weight, speed, or armaments of a ship. If we were to completely rebalance all of that, we would be working on the port even longer. Therefore, we try to use the original data as much as possible and ‘only’ change the graphics.

You also have someone on the team who is only responsible for the different space stations, right?

Yes, Jeremias Hohn is our lead 3D artist. Jerry is currently only doing stations, but he has to be finished with them this week, so that we can try them out in-game. Be he can explain much better about what he is currently working on.

Who coordinates the project when it comes to the balancing?

At FISHLABS, we work in very small, flexible teams, that are always being reformed as needed. So of course, there has to be someone who always has an overview of the whole project. As Lead Engineer, I am not only responsible for the programming, but at the same time, I am also the project manager and concept developer. In the end, I look everything over and say if things should go more in one direction or another. Apart from that, we frequently sit down with Marc or Uwe Wütherich, our creative director, and of course with Michael Schade, who considers everything once again from a marketing perspective. Naturally in particular cases, it depends on the department. One good example is the interface.Fredrik Überle, who works on the interface as 2D/3D artist, loads the latest skyboxes and new 3D models for his work in Photoshop behind his current interface, so that he can see right away if it fits with the style, look-and-feel, and brightness.

What role do the production meetings play?

Of course, the production meetings are becoming much more important at the moment, since we are working with more and more people on the project. In the initial phase, it’s enough for someone to come by and look at the current status and adjust it. In the current phase, where more than 10 people are involved in the project, we have to coordinate more closely, which is only possible through regular production meetings.

How will GoF 2 be tested?

First, I test the game until it makes sense to give others access to it. In the next stage, we enter a new project in our test tool and inform all FISHLABS employees by e-mail where the game is, what needs to be done, what to look out for, and what should still be disregarded in this phase. Then we ask who wants to test the game. But of course, there are also people in the team who have to test the game. We also like to get feedback from outside and, for example, invite students in. Here, we work with questionnaires a lot, particularly to get a feel for our balancing and find out what the testers especially like and if the game is too hard or too easy.

The new version of GoF 2 offers more room not only for 3D models and textures, but also for more characters and plot threads. How do these new content options affect the development?

Previously, we didn’t have as much room for text. In GoF 2 for Java, we had a total of just 1000 strings, that is character strings from one word up to about 10 lines. Now we can add as much content as we want, for example, a description for every solar system or piece of equipment. That is why we also plan to work with professional authors. One example: we need an alien race. Aha! What are they called? OK, they’re green, and what else is there about them? The new smartphone platforms give us the opportunity of providing a lot more information and backgrounds. In the future, for example, the characteristics of the different races, systems, planets, and characters will be better developed, so that the whole universe will have more depth and vitality.

That sounds as thought the new options are both a blessing and a challenge for the developers?

Naturally, we have to adapt. If GoF 2 is going to become even better known and suddenly we’re facing a port to platforms such as the PC, XBLA, or other major consoles, you could quickly create a universe that may not have been properly thought out, but which continues to be used, and then suddenly you are confronted with unsolvable contradictions. Therefore, we have now reached a point where we have to go over the prior content, so that there is nothing in the way of a future expansion of the GoF universe.

Has the system of alliances and factions in the GoF 2 universe been further refined as part of this development?

Originally, there were only two factions: the Terrans and the Vossk. If you have done a lot of missions for the Terrans, you will eventually be out of favour with the Vossk and have to pay money if you want to land on their stations. Meanwhile, we have four factions: Terrans, Vossk, Midorians, and Nevelians. Now the reputation system oscillates between the Terrans and the Vossk, as well as the Midorians and Nivelians. If you do something for one side, that has an effect on the other side – even if all you do is fly out and attack some random ship. In extreme cases, there are diplomats where you can buy your way out, if your reputation has reached a critically low level. Unlike in GoF 1, there is no simple division into friend or foe - in GoF 2, every faction is innately neutral toward the player. Only once you cross the threshold of a certain number of points, will the entire faction be hostile to you and its members will shoot on sight.

What parts of GoF 2 have turned out particularly well so far and what are your favourite features?

You can just fly out and do whatever you want! There is a tutorial in the beginning, which explains the basics of the game, but after that, you are soon given a great deal of freedom. Another favourite feature is the abundance of items. We have approximately ten times as many items as in GoF 1. Then, of course, you can design your ship however you like. What weapons do I install? What are their characteristics? Or should I use the slot for more cargo space, or install a better scanner? Another favourite feature is definitely that you can now communicate more with your environment. Previously, there was only the mission board, always with the same text. Now, there is a personal address, which varies. That makes it more lifelike. At the same time, we now have virtually unlimited character portraits. Here, we used the head generator we had already used in our title Deep.

That almost sounds like we can expect a completely different game under the old names with GoF 2?

Naturally, the core and the story remain. But compared to the Java version of GoF 2 and the GoF 1 version for the iPhone, the new version of GoF 2 will clearly stand out and represents a major step in development. The original GoF 1 was very limited in terms of the freedom you had. The universe was already open, but you could only leave the stations as part of missions. Now, I can just leave the station and decide for myself if I want to complete missions or just fly around and mine ore, hunt pirates, use maps to discover new systems or stations in the growing GoF universe.

Next will be Marc explaining the art redesign in Galaxy on Fire 2 for iPhone…

In recent months, the galactic rumour mill has been buzzing, and we have frequently been asked if and when we are going to bring out Galaxy on Fire™ 2 for the iPhone. First, the good news: yes, we are bringing out GoF2 on the iPhone and we have been working all out on it since October of last year.  But we still need quite a while, because GoF2 is an unbelievable complex and extensive game - and our quality standards for what we want to offer you are, as ever, high. To make the wait a little more bearable and to give you an impression of just how all-encompassing the work is and which details we are polishing, we will begin describing all of this regularly in our developer diary, starting now. To take a more laid back approach to all of this, we will let those mainly responsible speak for themselves in interviews.

Let’s get started with Hans-Christian Kühl, also known as HCK, the lead developer of Galaxy on Fire™:

Where did the original idea for the GoF [Galaxy on Fire] series come from?

I had the idea after we had finished some smaller games like Motoraver and Robot Alliance. I thought, ‘Let’s see what will work,’ and started to make a tech demo, that I then later expanded. After that, more people from Graphics and Design came on board pretty quickly, and the project was born.

Was it difficult to convince owners Christian Lohr and Michael Schade of the concept, or were they both excited from the beginning?

I think they thought it was a good idea from the start, especially because it was so open and free compared to projects like Motoraver or Cloud Commander, which were limited to single roads or a canyon. With GoF 1 we already had 500 different planets and 100 systems, which almost no one could have imagined for a mobile game back then.

…and thus taking a step away from linear level design toward a sandbox, an open world?

Yes, originally it was just 13 missions that had to be played through. Afterwards, the system opened, and you could fly everywhere - that was a major innovation at the time.

Playing GoF brings back memories of classic titles, especially Origin’s Wing Commander series and its sequel Privateer. Did titles like that influence the development of GoF?

„Privateer“ was kind of like „Wing Commander“ with added tradesystem and more freedom. „Freelancer“ was really the first game, that combined the best aspects of the previous titles – namely a good story, a huge universe with several factions, a tradesystem, individual ship-modification, ore-minig, generic missions and lots and lots to discover. Definitely an inspiration. An additional source of inspiration concerning the productions of various goods according to blueprints has been „Eve Online“.

What are you currently working on for GoF 2?

Currently, we are working on 3D models of ships, weapons, asteroids, as well as various hangar scenes and the bar where you get new missions. At the same time, Marc Nagel, our art director, is making 2D concepts for new ship models. Then I try to bring it all together. Next, Marc and others will help me with that and deal primarily with the shader, so that everything looks right. And, of course, we mustn’t forget the sound. We’re still looking at a lot of work.

What adjustments are necessary for porting GoF 2 to the coming C platforms?

The most conspicuous thing is the graphics. But for me as a programmer, the change from Java to C is the biggest step. Unfortunately, there’s no tool where you can push a button and everything is reformatted. Whole concepts need to be redesigned. And with a huge game like GoF 2, that already wasn’t easy with the Java version. The Java version of GoF 2 is based on a predecessor, Deep - an underwater game that was itself based on GoF 1. That means there were already two intermediate steps from development to improvement. Porting all of that to C was extremely difficult. Since we already had GoF 1 in C for the iPhone, I first had to consider whether I should take the GoF 1 version in C and turn that into GoF 2 or take the GoF 2 Java version and port that to C. I must have needed 2 weeks just for that decision. Ultimately, I decided to convert the Java project Projekt completely into C, and that was good. Of course, that is only the technical side of the programming. With the graphics, everything had to be adapted, there was no stone left unturned.

Will the work on GoF 2 make the work for upcoming projects easier?

Of course, there’s always some benefit. For GoF 2, for example, we are currently working a lot with geometry and texture shaders under OpenGL ES 2.0, which we will certainly be able to reuse in future projects.  Other components of the game, such as the depiction of space with nebulas and the simultaneous depiction of a large number of objects, will also be able to be reused. But naturally, we will get the greatest added value if we develop a sequel to the current title or integrate add-ons like in-app purchases, that unlock new levels or equipment.

The GoF 2 port also resulted in a conversion from integer to float. Why? What are the advantages?

All newer end devices use a floating-point processor. Floating point operations [mathematical calculations using floating point numbers] are carried out in the hardware. For older Java devices, we realised projects using integers, because that ran faster and those devices did not have their own floating-point processor in the hardware. That brings some simplifications into the game: for example, we no longer have to calculate everything large and recalculate it small again later in order to realise small numbers in this way. Actually, we can now compress the whole game much smaller, so that the units of length are smaller. Previously, a ship had to be 1000 length units in size so that it could move smoothly. Now, a ship can theoretically consist of just one unit. Visually, the changes in the game will be apparent in that things no longer shake during camera rotation and navigation.

Does being able to use float also reduce the programming effort?

Not for GoF 2, of course, because this is primarily a port. In this case, the conversion is rather complex. But for future productions, it will be good that we can rely on floating-point.

What else has been especially difficult to implement so far?

Memory management in Java and C is completely different. Unforeseeable problems could crop up any time.  You could play the game for two hours and suddenly it crashes, and at first you don’t know why - it is probably because someone at some point didn’t release something somewhere, where everything occurs automatically in Java. In addition, we now have a lot more textures and of course everyone wants everything to look great. But we ‘only’ have 10 – 20 MB of texture memory available. In comparison, with Java we had to get by with 512-byte texture. Everybody in the team said, ‘Oh, everything will fit in, we have to make use of this somehow!’ Now, they all come and say, ‘Everything should look really good now, and we still need five 1024-byte textures…!’ In the end, we have to sit there and make sure we don’t pack too much content into the game.

To be continued…

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We started the new year with a bang: Our most successful iPhone ad game, Barclaycard Waterslide Extreme, has cracked 10 million downloads, Rally Master Pro™ will be released –  for free (!) – in an extra high resolution Symbian version for Sony Ericsson Satio™ and Vivaz™ in a few days, and we recently launched a new iPhone game for Volkswagen: Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge. This iPhone promotional game we are particularly proud of, because usually promotional games are inferior to regular commercial games for reasons of budget, and the subject of fuel saving is rather uncommon in games. Nevertheless, we were able to turn all that into a high-quality, exciting game, as even the folks at toucharcade declared (a great honour!). You see, promotional games can be quite entertaining, and so you can look forward to at least two more free  casual games, that will be launched by this summer.

Fresh games for iPhone, iPad & friends

Of course, this year, we aren’t just developing ad games for iPhone and iPad and revamping existing iPhone games for other smartphones; we are also working on several completely new titles. With a racing game that has music as an essential component, we are entering new territory. We can’t tell you too much, but the first playable version caused quite a sensation both in-house and with marketing partners.

Along with our iPhone and iPad developments, we also want to put out feelers towards Android this year. As with the iPhone before, we will first port our casual games, like Burning Tires™, to get a feel for the new platform. If the effort proves worth the trouble, we will definitely follow up with more titles. Beyond that, we are working on a AAA title closely together with Nokia featuring OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics for a large screen.

Reunion with Keith on iPhone, iPad and Nokia Smartphones

It’s been at least a year since we ported our most important brand to the iPhone: Galaxy on Fire™. Our 3D space shooter with open gameplay and RPG-like equipment options for spaceships is still unchallenged in the AppStore. But despite heavily pepped up graphics and crisp sound, GoF on the iPhone cannot deny its Java origins and its five-year old design. Sci-fi action fans will be glad to hear that we have been working on converting Galaxy on Fire™ 2 to the iPhone and other smartphones since October.

The sequel to the space epic has set standards in the Java field similar to Part 1 and, thanks to the even more open game design, offers significantly greater potential to be a megahit on the iPhone. So you can look forward to seeing Keith and other acquaintances from the first part once again later this year and play the Alien part for the first time in the Mission Pack in summer. And to keep the wait from being all too boring, we will keep you up-to-date with the status of the development with a regular developer’s diary.

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Sony Ericsson has been known for its outstanding 3D gaming performance on Java phones for years now. It all started back in 2004, when Sony Ericsson introduced the first mass market Java phone that could render decent 3D graphics on a 176×220 pixels screen. We had been early on and released our first 3D games Motoraver, featuring 3D driving physics in a fairly large sandbox-style city at night, and Robot Alliance, a proper first person shooter in full 3-D (!) with smoothly animated 3D characters, all within 350KB of data.

Continuously, Sony Ericsson improved their hardware and, even more important, the Java Virtual Machine it was running. The crown of 3D enabled java phones still belongs to the K800i, the game experience felt close to the Playstation 1, even if it was not as fast and on a smaller screen. And Fishlabs has to give Kudos to Sony Ericsson. Without this great performance we could never have created mobile games of such high quality like Blades & Magic, Rally Master Pro, Snowboard Hero and Galaxy on Fire 2.

From music to photos to games

In 2005 3D gaming was hyped very much but could not break through as the carriers always forced developers to support the lowest common denominator and the majority of handsets could only render 2D graphics. Sony Ericsson did right in focusing on music instead and introducing the Walkman brand to mobile with great success. A year later Sony Ericsson repeated the success story labeling their photo feature phones with the popular brand Cybershot. With all those millions of Walkman and Cybershot phones sold, sharing a consistent Java platform and decent 3D rendering capabilities, Sony Ericsson’s strength in mobile gaming started as the best kept secret of the industry and led into ruling the mobile gaming business: in 2007, Sony Ericsson was the fourth largest manufacturer of mobile phones worldwide, seven out of ten games downloads were happening on Sony Ericsson phones in Europe and emerging markets like Latin America and South East Asia. Until today, Sony Ericsson has released over 50 models supporting proper 3D rendering and has an installed user base of approx. 200 million devices (Fishlabs’ estimate). Not a bad thing for developers like us, focused on 3D mobile games, if only the ecosystem was right.

iPhone – the mobile games game changer

Nothing is constant but change. It was not Nokia, with its great ambitions in mobile gaming, finally introducing N-Gage as a service, or Vodafone with more than 300 (?) million subscribers who literally changed the mobile gaming business over night. New kid on the mobile block Apple swiped away all competitors with a mobile phone featuring a game experience beyond Nintendo DS and close to Sony PSP. With the latest installment of iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3rd generation featuring OpenGL ES 2.0 even beyond PSP. In combination with the App Store integrated in iTunes, a fair business case for developers (70/30 revenue share) and a low entry barrier (get started for less than $299 with an iPod touch and the iPhone SDK) for everyone mobile game developers were flocking to this new exciting platform.

Satio – ramping up for the fastest mobile gaming device?

It took Sony Ericsson a while to find an answer to the unexpected competitor coming from the computer area backed by a loyal customer base addicted to superior user experience – which is exactly why Apple is so stunningly successful with the iPhone. Although, feature phones based on Java had been a great success for Sony Ericsson and were the preferred mobile phone for gaming by tens of millions users, the future in mobile gaming lies in smartphones. However, any half-hearted attempt to stand up against the leader of smartphones will fail. But Sony Ericsson has sent a decent device stuffed with the latest hardware to the race. The Satio features the same 3D-Chip PowerVR SGX  as the iPhone 3GS running Symbian on an even more powerful CPU ARM11 clocked at 600MHz. Furthermore, it comes with plenty of memory and with a bigger display than the iPhone featuring 640 x 360 pixels resolution. 

Lots of horsepower – what is it good for?

It is one thing to stuff a lot of nice hardware into a mobile phone. It is another story to make all this power available to the developer. Sony Ericsson did an amazing job here. We have ported Rally Master Pro from iPhone to Symbian featuring almost the same functionality on Satio (only automatic acceleration when using touch controls due to single touch on Satio and no multiple simultaneous sounds due to lack of layered sound capabilities). Although the resolution of the Satio display is quite higher compared to the iPhone we experience a stable frame rate of 30 frames per second on both devices running identical game code and graphical assets. Thanks to the better screen resolution of Satio, it is stunning how much more details can be rendered in the scene (the original iPhone textures were designed with some head room for larger screens).

Xperia X10: Mobile games on the big screen

Today a prototype of the latest Sony Ericsson smartphone has arrived at our studio: A shiny Xperia X10 and we have to convey it looks stunning, indeed. It is still a very early proto but navigation on the capacitive touch screen feels great and fluid and the whole menu is much more inviting and intuitive to play around with than it used to be with previous smartphones from Sweden. As the X10 is an Android based phone it will take a while until we have our first game running on it. But one thing is for sure: The big screen is a great, great plus. You can see our website in full 800 pixels width and everything is crystal clear. Even the small fonts can be read with ease. Equipped with a whopping 1 GHz Snapdragon Chip supporting OpenGL ES 2.0 it promises high-end smartphone gaming on the big screen.
 

We have been working really hard on Rally Master Pro™ for iPhone since January now. In the last couple of months the team has grown up to ten developers working full time on our most anticipated iPhone game. Three engineers were working in parallel on the code, three 3D artists were finalizing the tracks and cars, our internal QA team and our producer have been chasing the last bugs while our creative and art director always had a sharp eye on the project, to make sure that everything was polished to perfection. All-in-all, pimping Rally Master Pro™ up for iPhone was an even bigger job than creating the original Java game and you will see that, no doubt! But the job is done now. We have just submitted Rally Master Pro™ and we are waiting anxiously for Apple’s approval.

Real tracks, more tracks, lots of tracks

Rally racing is about speeding and drifting on tracks with varying surfaces like asphalt, gravel or sand as if there was no tomorrow. You need to have wide and narrow roads with straights mixed with various types of curves. The roads also have to go up and down hill and feature challenging crests or constrictions. Every track has to have a personality and you as a driver will be introduced to this “person” by your co-pilot. So you better listen carefully to him to be able to master it and become a pro – yes, we are serious about the name of the game.

If it’s a rainy day go rally racing on iPhone

In a real rally you don’t always have nice weather. In fact, the weather condition has a great influence on the driving behavior of your car. Asphalt gets slippery when it is wet and if you are going off-road it gets worse. In winter, when racing on snow, you are drifting more than anything else and skillful driving becomes an art. To bring this experience to perfection in a rally racing game you need physics that reflect the driving behavior properly. Even on Java we had 3D physics running in Rally Master Pro™ that were calculating each wheel separately depending on whichever surface. However, on iPhone, with way more computing power, we could increase the sample rate much higher and achieve a much more accurate driving experience in the game.

Controls matter most, especially on iPhone

Handling and controls in a real racing game have to be spot-on. Even the best eye candy and the most advanced physics won’t make you believe you are behind the wheel of a rally racing car if the controls suck. Since tilt or touch controls and auto acceleration don’t work for everyone in the same way we have implemented comprehensive configuration possibilities in Rally Master Pro™. You can set pretty much everything the way you prefer it and even lefties have not been left out.

Give me some eye candy

To make you “feel” the road underneath your tires you not only need good physics and spot-on controls. Last but not least, the visual feedback on the weather condition needs to be accurate as well or the illusion of being in a real rally is ruined. We already had an advanced particle simulation in Rally Master Pro™ on Java. Each wheel was emitting various dust and dirt particles depending on track and weather condition. However, on the big screen of the iPhone it was not convincing enough.  So we had to start all over and create the particle system from scratch with a graphical user interface so we could tweak all the parameters in real-time. Now you can see mud flying into the camera when you drift on off-road tracks through the trees and huge clouds of dust vapor behind the car if you are on a dry, dusty road. Check out the spray when it is raining and you are racing on asphalt.

Final Word

Of course, you always can do better and people will always find something to complain about, like there is no proper cockpit view or you can’t tune the car (actually, you are not allowed to do this in a real rally anyway) but we think Rally Master Pro is highly addictive and offers a lot of fun and great value if you are a petrol head. You will be able to find out about that yourself soon and until then we can only recommend to check out our official game trailer below.

Certainly, some of you have wondered whether we will only be making ad games for the iPhone, since we haven’t announced anything new about our own iPhone games in a long time. The fact is that the development of ad games for the iPhone and iPod is currently a very lucrative business for us. But the best thing about that is that we can use it to finance the costly production of our own iPhone games. That means the better the ad games we develop do, the more we can invest in our own games. So you win either way. Free adv games for quick casual game fun and our top titles that get as much as possible out of the iPhone and offer hours of excitement.

The Best Mobile Game of 2008 soon for the iPhone and iPod touch

Rally Master Pro™ has really cleaned up in the last year. All of the games magazines gave our rally simulation top marks, and Pocket Gamer even rewarded our hard work with a Platinum Award. That makes Rally Master Pro™ the only racing game to date to receive the best possible evaluation from Pocket Gamer. According to the Pocket Gamer Analysis, which summarises the most important mobile gaming magazines, Rally Master Pro™ is even the Best Mobile Game of 2008. No question, of course we had to bring Rally Master Pro™ to the iPhone.  Starting in the autumn, every iPhone and iPod touch owner will be able to put the pedal to the metal and test their rally skills in sun, rain, and snow on 27 varied and detailed extreme courses.

Revved up rally graphics for the iPhone

Naturally, we have revised all of the 3D models and textures. The number of polygons has increased four-fold, and while the Java version of Rally Master Pro™ has to make do with five 256×256-pixel textures, which still is a huge amount for a Java game though, we have given the iPhone version 18 textures with 512×512 pixels and seven with 1024×1024 pixels - way more than we used in any other of our iPhone games before. Rally Master Pro™ comes to the iPhone with tracks of corresponding wealth of detail and variation.

The particle simulation has also been heavily tuned up. Depending on the track surface and weather, a variety of dust, spray, and even dirt particles will be generated for each individual tire. The various kinds of particles act quite differently. On dry, dusty tracks the car leaves a massive cloud of dust while racing through a forest on a rainy day you can literrally see the mud flying. To a certain level, we did that in the Java version too, but thanks to the computing power of the iPhone the particle simulation is way more advanced, here.

Dynamic lighting depending on weather and environment

The dynamic lighting for the rally cars in Rally Master Pro™ is completely new. Thanks to the high-powered 3D chips (OpenGL graphics acceleration) in the iPhone, we can light the vehicle in a variety of ways, depending on the weather: with lots of light and shadows when it’s sunny, diffuse when the sky is overcast, and correspondingly dim in rain and storm. But the environment also affects the lighting of the vehicle. Drive under bridges or through the shady area under trees and the car will be appropriately darkened. It isn’t necessarily an effect that you notice during the race too much, but it nevertheless provides a realistic game experience, and you can enjoy it all at leisure in the replay.

All screenshots have been taken from the Beta version and we are still working heavily on many things. However, to give you a first impression on how Rally Master Pro looks like on iPhone these should do.

To be continued…

Tremendous computing power, a huge display, rich sound, and analogue controls via touch or motion sensor. The iPhone was just made for out space shooter game Galaxy on Fire™. For some weeks, our mega-hit is rocking on the iPhone and iPod touch. We have completely reworked all of the graphics, elaborately recomposed the soundtrack, added new sound effects, and developed a new survival mode and analogue controls, for a real outer space feel. But one thing at a time.

Pure outer space eye candy on the iPhone

Right from the start-up sequence, Galaxy on Fire™ for the iPhone has a new look. The FISHLABS logo shimmers in the interlaced monitor design and all of the menus are correspondingly designed. An homage to the early 90s, when many of us spent hours playing Wing Commander and Elite. The first 3D scenes run in the background, more reminiscent of the PC games of the late 90s than a mobile game. Gigantic spaceships glide slowly past the camera, while small fighters fly patrol in front of a huge planet. All of this is accompanied by the familiar Galaxy on Fire™ main theme, but in a rich orchestral sound – I feel like I’m sitting in the cinema.

When is the film finally going to start?

I already have the main menu behind me. I chose the story mode. Of course, I remember the intro well, on the Sony Ericsson K700 at the time. It was impressive, because it was fully animated in 3D, rich in detail, fluid, and with an astonishing visual range. Impressive for a platform where only 2D games had run before. The new intro on the iPhone will knock you out of your socks. A twinkling background of stars shimmers, lone asteroids spin slowly by. The first semi-transparent text box is displayed, while the camera pans gently to one side and a splendid nebula enters the picture. In the middle is a planet, illuminated by a gleaming sun. Subtle lens flares play in the virtual optics. I select continue and the camera pans to a high-resolution, bright orange planet, with a space station in orbit rotating around its own axis in 3D. Eden Prime, AD 3587. It begins. Finally.

Arrival on the iPhone – I mean Eden Prime

Majestically, the SS Ulysses approaches and flies past the camera close enough to touch. The numerous details on the hull of the Terran battle cruiser are clear. On the stern, the gigantic ion drives pulse in bright cyan. Has my jaw dropped? Christine bids me welcome. Sweet. She doesn’t know that we met three years ago. No matter. I don’t let on and follow her to the hangar.

My first mission in outer space on the iPhone

It is roomy here. At the end of the camera pan through the spacious hangar, I spot a small something hovering above the floor. Hmm, it looks as though my first spaceship is still little more that a tin can with rocket engines. Whatever, I listen patiently to Christine’s instructions, and then my first test flight.

Wow! What a frame rate! Small particle fly towards me, my Icarus, with its glowing drives, stands out fantastically from the glittering backdrop of stars. The head up display provides all functions at a glance and, thanks to the huge screen, covers very little of the scene. While Christine explains the basic operation of the controls and the HUD to me, I look for the fire button. The bottom right looks good. PHEEEEW, PHEEW and the first twin laser shots fly toward the horizon in a glowing green. Wicked sound. Again. PHEEEEW, PHEEW. That was definitely missing in the Java version.

In the meantime, Christine approaches the first waypoint. Her ship is far in the distance, recognizable only as a yellow tail and the green marking in the HUD . She is probably wondering where I am. What was that she said about the controls? Ah, the analogue stick in the lower left. This is supposed to work? I’m surprised, the controls are very good. Amazingly smooth, the 3D scene flows past me and I fly in every direction until I start to get dizzy.

Now I really have to hurry to the first waypoint. On a normal mobile phone, the booster would be the ‘3’, but that doesn’t exist on the iPhone. Hmm, maybe the double arrow next to the analogue stick? WOOOOOHOOOOO! Boring tin can? With a noise like a turbine, the Icarus takes off like a bat and my head rocks back slightly, as if I could actually feel the acceleration. Conditioned like one of Pavlov’s dogs. I hope no one is watching me play.

To be continued…

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!

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!