The Colour Of Mobile Magic

The DiscworldThe first mobile game based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels is due for an October release in the UK. Based on ‘The Colour of Magic’ the player controls Rincewind in an attempt to guide Twoflower about Ankh Morpork on a site-seeing expedition without having the naive tourist “waylaid and robbed by the more nefarious denizens of Ankh Morpork”. I’ll be interested in finding out how The Luggage is implemented into all of this…
Blue Sphere Games won an exclusive three-year global license to create and distribute games incorporating the Discworld characters, and seems to have plans for more games based on the series. I want to play Granny Weatherwax or Mustrum Ricully…or the Librarian — that would be sweet. This article has some good quotes on the development process.
In terms of Blue Sphere Games in general, they also have the licenses for brands such as Mr Bean and Dilbert… I think this is a much better way to go than getting licenses for movies. First, there isn’t the time constraint of having to get the game out when the movie is in the cinemas — if it takes an extra few months to get a good game instead of a mediocre one that doesn’t create problems. Second, the brands have some serious longevity. They don’t pop up for a few months and then fade into the background of video stores, they’ve been around for a long time and have a dedicated fan base which means they’ll be popular for a long while to come, increasing the shelf life of the games. Third, there is far more scope for multiple game developement. Most movies have one game based on them, but the last I heard there were more than 25 Discworld novels, each a potential game. As long as the games are not clones of each other (although a series of sequels would work) they should all do reasonably well.

iFone has launched the mobile version of Cluedo as part of its Hasbro license…so it joins such games as Battleship, Monopoly and Micro Machines (once again, if done well I think this license is better than that of a blockbuster movie). “The mobile version of the game includes a number of new features to enhance the playability including new characters, suspects, locations and weapons. Underlining iFone’s belief in multiplayer games, the wireless version of Cluedo SFX has been designed with three play modes; the Classic game, the Quick-Game designed to allow users a ‘snack-size’ game play, and a Multiplayer game involving up to four human player and CPU combinations. The game will also feature the ability to save existing games for play at a later date.”

Finally, Gameloft will put Asphalt: Urban GT 2 on the Nokia N-Gage, with the go date set as November this year. The press release says that this edition “takes the franchise further with more wild action – with real cars and motorbikes in real locations…The world of Asphalt: Urban GT 2 is visually stunning in 3D, backed with solid driving and a realistic collision engine to create a great racing experience on the N-Gage platform!”

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