Mobile Games: Creating Business with Nokia N-Gage [Paperback]

Jouni Paavilainen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2003

NRG and Nokia deliver the book that teaches how to work within the complex, Nokia-proprietary wireless game development platform, N-Gage. Official documentation from Nokia for developers learning how to program mobile games that use the Nokia N-Gage platform. Technology has always driven the game industry forward and introduced newopportunities to create compelling user experiences and positive surprises forthe consumers. While technology has been the main driver, the importance ofusability cannot be underestimated. Today, the game industry is facing thechallenge and opportunity to bring games available for the population of over abillion cell phone users around the world. With this, cell phones are quicklybecoming a platform for game play and a large one at that. Unlike consolegames, there are numerous platforms to play in the mobile game space, alsoknown as wireless game play, and mobile service providers play a large role inwhat games you can get and play. No matter what type of mobile game you'reworking with (i.e. which platform - Nokia, Sony, etc. - or what type of game -simpletext message games, highly developed Java games, console-like richgames, etc.) the challenge is the same: How do you make mobile games easy to obtainand use? With so many variables, developers and designers are in need of abook that shows them what they need to know. New Riders Games brings youthe book that will help solve it all. Through a partnership with Nokia, we bringthe book that will teach you how to work within the wireless game world. TheNokia N-Gage platform is the tool that will be used to teach the hands-on tipsand techniques developers and designers need to know.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jouni Paavilainen is one of the leading analysts of wireless gaming and emerging telecom technologies. He is a member of Accenture Digital Innovation Lab where he pilots and evaluates the most recent wireless technologies and concepts. He lives in Espoo, Finland, with his wife and a son.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

To be honest, I did not have a Vic-20 when I was a kid. I did not have a Commodore 64 either. Instead, we played at being pirates in our back yards, wearing masks and using sticks as swords. In those days, our gang considered computer kids to be nerds. Who wants to sit inside, staring at a fuzzy screen with moving triangles and squares when you could put on a Batman mask and save the world?

Back then, I did not know that staring at a computer screen would be such an essential part of my life—just writing this book required eyeballing the good old screen for about a thousand hours. But it was fun and it was worth it. It gave me a chance to peek behind the scenes of Nokia while it made a bold leapfrog into mobile gaming with its new device, Nokia N-Gage. I got a chance to be there before the curtain was lifted, lurking for tiny bits of insight and hanging on every visionary word. Furthermore, I was able to work with a superb team that interviewed some of the hottest players in the gaming business—including people from Activision, THQ, Sega, Eidos, and many others—exclusively for this book.

Along the way, I figured out that the N-Gage game deck is part of an epochal vision being executed by Nokia and its partners. The emergence of advanced smart phones—devices with an operating system and online connectivity—starts the new era of mobility. For the first time in the wireless arena, the same innovation that has fuelled the growth of personal computing and the Internet will be unleashed when the millions of software developers can design and implement custom applications for handsets. Finally, it will be possible to produce high-quality content for mobiles, the kind that will transform a phone into a media console and, even further, into a remote controller of life.

In this context, Nokia N-Gage is an access point—a gate—to the world of games. By bringing wireless elements to the core of game play and introducing new ways of communication and social interaction, the N-Gage game deck reshapes the concept of gaming. Moreover, it is the first in a series of innovative gaming devices, promoting a new category of wireless games. The games in this category break the rules of traditional gaming by deploying the unique characteristics of mobility—location, pervasiveness, and connectivity—anywhere, anytime.

I hope you enjoy reading Mobile Games: Creating Business with Nokia N-Gage and get a glimpse of the same excitement I felt writing this book.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Games (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735713758
• ISBN-13: 978-0735713758
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,992,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A good basic overview on mobile game production, November 10, 2007

By 

Mobile Developer (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mobile Games: Creating Business with Nokia N-Gage (Paperback)

This books provides a basic introduction to mobile game production. The book itself does not get into any technical detail about game development, instead it explains the business potential of mobile games. While the title does include "Creating Business with Nokia's N-Gage", the information in this book can be applied to any (or most) modern mobile phone devices. If you are new to mobile development and game production this book will be a good introduction.

0 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What's the point?, May 11, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Mobile Games: Creating Business with Nokia N-Gage (Paperback)

What's the point of this book? The N-Gage bombed. Why would anyone want to write software for this dead product?