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.
 

Okay, that’s enough flying around. Time for some action. The first mission with the space junk is quickly resolved and I blow away the rubbish outside the space station in no time. The way the debris bursts with a tremendous explosion when I hit it is fantastic. I don’t have to wait long for the first mission with potential for enemy contact.

I still have to grin at nervous, one-eyed Bolar. Right then, let’s get him home in one piece. As expected, we have company on the way. My first encounter with the Vossk in over 3 years. As before, their dull, dark grey hulls make them difficult to spot, even on the gigantic display of the iPhone, but the head-up display reliably shows them as an enemy target.

First enemy contact on the iPhone

Their spaceships are significantly better than my little Icarus in weaponry, armour, and manoeuvrability, and a frontal attack was not a good idea even in the past. I duck under the first salvo and fire my booster to get behind the enemy fighter with a wide loop. All right, now you’re going to get it. A fine salvo from my twin lasers hits the target and the Vossk fighter’s energy bar declines significantly. I’d love to finish him off, but the time limit to get Bolar to the next waypoint is getting short. A quick moment to orient myself and then set course for the yellow dot at the edge of the screen. Bolar whinges away at me, and I boost again. Time presses. After another attack by the Vossk, which I am also able to parry, I bring Bolar to the last waypoint. He’s happy as a clam that we made it in one piece, and I pocket the credits. It’s a pity I had to let the Vossk get away, but I’m sure we’ll meet again soon.

The Doctor offers a lucrative assignment

Word of my deeds appears to have got round. Doc Washington hires me as a wingman. He won’t tell me much, just that we are guaranteed to run into trouble. Sounds like fun. The money is right, so off we go. At first, the journey is quiet. We reach the first waypoint without incident. Doc’s spaceship makes a much better impression than mine; his business seems to be doing well. As soon as possible, I’ll take a look around and see what the market offers for better ships and weapons.

The dramatic music announcing the approach of enemy units pulls me out of my thoughts of a new spaceship. Vossk fighters. I ignite my booster and hurry toward them to draw their fire, so that Doc can attack the Vossk with his powerful lasers. I am able to shake off the Vossk with time-tested evasive manoeuvres and launch a counterattack. With satisfaction, I wipe out two of the Vossk, whose ships are much better than mine. Well, it all comes down to the pilot, doesn’t it?

But where is Doc? I aim for the green dot on the radar until the green marker appears in the middle of the screen. Far away, Doc is in a hot dogfight with the last Vossk. I fire the booster and hurry to help him. The Vossk doesn’t last 10 seconds under fire from both our lasers. BOOOM – and Vossk wreckages flies through space.

No mercy for GOF iPhone aliens

Christine has the first delicate mission for me. A Vossk weapons convoy has been reported. Together with Christine’s wingman, we go hunting to stop the delivery. We fly in formation for a while. I enjoy the view of the smoothly flying Terran fighters with their triple engines. Suddenly, enemy targets pop up on the radar: three large Vossk freighters with an escort of four Vossk hunters. We break formation and dive into the fight. Now I have to keep an overview. My weapons are intelligent enough that they only hit enemy objects, but with a total of seven ships constantly circling between the gigantic freighters, you have to watch out who is behind whom.

I quickly identify the pirate whose hull is already heavily damaged. His evasive manoeuvre does him no good. With a little effort, my lasers find their target. They tear apart the enemy spaceship with a tremendous explosion and a mighty fireball with a secondary ring impulse spreads through space. Quite a sight.  In the meantime, my wingmen have done good work, only one fighter can still be seen on the radar. Not for long. The remaining Vossk doesn’t stand a chance against three Terran hunters, and his life also ends in a ball of fire. The three Vossk freighters are now defenceless against us. We attack them one after the other. Their hulls are strong, but they can’t withstand the constant fire of our lasers forever, and gigantic explosions tear the enormous freighters to pieces. Satisfied, we turn for home.

To be continued…