Mobile Game Postmortem: Ngame's Chop Suey Kung Fu by Matt Kelland When Ngame moved into the WAP market they concentrated on big, innovative multi-player titles like Alien Fish Exchange, Merchant Princes, and DataClash. However, it was immediately apparent that, successful as these titles were, they were almost too big for a mobile phone. After talking with carriers about what they wanted, Ngame realised that we were going to need a suite of smaller titles to bulk up their portfolio. The entire spec for Chop Suey Kung Fu was written in half an hour, on less than one side of letter paper. It was multi-player. It was a popular genre. And lastly, it was really, really easy for the player to understand. This punched every carrier’s buttons. The marketing guys loved it. Chop Suey Kung Fu has become one of Ngame’s biggest successes, frequently outperforming the much bigger games, and is now one of the world’s most popular wireless games.

Designing Mobile Games for WAP by Lasse Seppänen Whether you are designing sports cars, furniture, or WAP games, the basic process is always the same. Besides having great ideas, you have to know what the fundamental characteristics of your chosen design area — your limits and opportunities. The Wireless Application Protocol is a standard for delivering content (text, images & hyperlinks) to wi reless devices; from a game designer's point of view this means that both the game content and the game logic must be stored on the server. In addition to technical issues, successful WAP game design requires an understanding of the commercial environment as well. Lasse Seppänen explore the highs and lows of designing successfull mobile games with WAP.

Creating Games Using Java 2ME by David Fox While a few creative developers have devised truly interesting games using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), its still a lot like building a skyscraper out of Popsicle sticks. In the end, the simple text-pushing protocol just won't cut muster if you want responsive, graphically rich games. Gladiator, one of the most popular WAP games, is really nothing more than a rock-paper-scissors clone! Luckily, mobile phone manufacturers have embraced Java in a way that not even PC manufacturers and browser makers have. Java is clearly the future platform of choice for mobile devices, and an ideal platform for mobile games.

Wireless Entertainment: The State of Play by Thomas Puha The wireless gaming revolution has yet to happen outside Japan, but the prospects for the fledgling industry are great. Cell phones have reached mass market penetration in many areas around the world, and games are certainly one of the most popular services offered. The tremendous success that NTT Docomo is enjoying with iMode in Japan hasn't slowed in the sluggish economy, and the continuing success of (still rather basic) wireless gaming in Japan is still reassuring countless developers and operators outside Japan that there's money and success to be had in the wireless market.

Is That a Game in Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy to See Me? by Patrick Gardner There's no doubt about it: wireless gaming has huge promise. But before this new format can really take off a few more pieces of the technological puzzle must fall into place. Once they do we will have the opportunity to create entirely new entertainment experiences that can compete, both in terms of satisfying players and generating revenues, with those provided by more established platforms like PCs and game consoles.