I have just come back from the Nokia Games Summit in Rome as I was asked to demonstrate some of the Mobile Radicals innovations in mobile games (Mirage Space, Mirage Money, Bombus, Boom!, 4 in a row) and it was a memorable experience. Not because it coincided with the worst storms Rome has had for 50 years and the problems this caused the organisation team ( who did a fantastic job of keeping the event running and producing a great experience for us all) but that this year I felt there was a real and demonstrable commitment to encourage innovation in the mobile game Industry. This was not merely the simple expectation it should be all down to the designers but there also needs to be innovation from manufacturers and operators in terms devices and business models to support innovative mobile games which was resonated in the talk from Jaakko Kaidesoja. Whilst there were a number talks I particularly enjoyed ( Roshi Givechi, Scott Foe, and Robert Tercek come immediately to mind) it was the panel on ‘Breaking the Borders in Mobile Gaming’ which most got the old grey matter thinking. The panel was discussing the greater incorporation of Music within games and one member was the musician Dave Stewart who is collaborating on the coming N-Gage title ‘Dance Fabulous’ based around new singer Cindy Gomez and developed by telented team at Digital Legends. It wasn’t the game that I want to talk about (although it does look good and will introduce some novel social activities) but rather in regard to a comment from the panel that mobile games could learn from Music industry which is good at maintaining loyalty of its customers to particular artists. This is interesting because the pc and console gaming industry has been good at maintain customer to particular titles or publishers these practices have never extended to promotion of the actual designers and these practices havent worked in mobile. Whilst you can argue that this wouldn’t work for the large teams on pc and console games there does seem a possibility for mobile games which involve much smaller group. In this way we might create a better perception of the art of the game designer (which currently seems just one step from pornographer) and also benfit the mobile games industry. Just a thought!!!

BTW this is a screen shot of me running mirage money within the heart of the Castel Sant'Angelo. I have no shame