Experience Gaming interviews John Ozimek of Macrospace on the company’s collaboration with entertainment giants Square Enix and Cartoon Network. A good interview and definitely a must read. Some key grafs:
XG: How does it feel like developing mobile games in Europe?
JO: Europe is a unique market because there are so many different cultural and technical considerations if you are to address the whole market and not just your home country. For example, each game we produce needs to be available in the five main European languages, and often we end up producing versions in Chinese, Russian and Greek too. We even have games in Indonesian and Thai.
Also, consumers in Europe have a massive choice of handsets and service providers, which can really complicate the development process - some of our simpler games, like Turtles and Dragon Island, are available for 70 different handsets. This makes developing games a challenge, but it’s also a lot of fun, as the market is growing very quickly.
Although most of our development is done in our London office, we also have an office in Singapore, and our games are available across the world.
This means that we try to create games that appeal to as wide an audience as possible.
Mobile gaming is still relatively new, which means there are many other developers out there, especially in Europe. It\’s good to have some friendly competition - it really keeps us on our toes!
XG: How did your collaboration with Square Enix come about?
JO: Our partnership with Square Enix has been a great success so far, and I think it has taught both companies a great deal. Square Enix was looking to launch their games in Europe, but realised it was a very different market from Japan for the reasons I have just mentioned - mainly the concentration of different languages and handsets. As a developer we are always looking for interesting companies to work with; as massive fans of Square Enix games, it was a fantastic opportunity to work with one of the most respected games companies in the world. The result is a partnership which we get to develop games based on famous Square Enix brands, and Square Enix benefits from our in-depth knowledge of European handset technology and the way the industry works here.
XG: What are the games you will be releasing for Square Enix?
JO: The first three games we have co-published with Square Enix are “Aleste”, “Actraiser” and “Drakengard”. “Aleste” and “Actraiser” were originally developed for the Super Famicon back in the 80’s and were quite well known at the time. In developing the mobile versions, we had to start from scratch, as the code for mobile phones is completely different to that used in console games.
However, most new phones actually have a lot more processing power than the old games consoles, so we were actually able to improve on the original games in some ways. For example, the graphics in “Aleste” are better than the console version as we could support more colours on-screen than in the original.
“Drakengard” is a brand new game, based on the Playstation2 version of “Drakengard” (also known as Drag-on Dragoon). Obviously we couldn’t re-create the same experience on a phone as on a console, so the challenge for us was to make a game that combined the same gameplay elements as the original, yet give a unique mobile experience. I think the result is a great companion to the Playstation 2 version, and it gave us the chance to do some fun things - like having cheat codes for the Playstation 2 version hidden in the mobile version, for example.
For all three of the games Square Enix had done a lot of the core work on coding the game engine and AI, and also some of the graphics, so really the work load was split roughly 50-50 between the two companies.
XG: What about the Cartoon Network mobiles games you are publishing?
JO: Our partnership with Cartoon Network is a very important part of our business, and we have been working with them for nearly two years now.
Obviously, Cartoon Network has a fantastic catalogue of characters, so it’s great to be able to create mobile games of famous cartoons like Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones and Dexter’s Laboratory. So far, we have developed and published 12 games, and there will be a new one out next month. We work very closely with Cartoon Network on how to get the best out of each game, and what game dynamic works best with a particular character. Even though the games look quite cartoon-ish, you’ll always find really strong gameplay underneath the cute graphics.
XG: How did your collaboration with Manchester United come about?
JO: We released two of our own football games at Christmas – “Soccer Unlimited” and “Penalty Shootout”, and these got us noticed by Manchester United, who was looking to develop their own game. All the teams and player statistics in the game were provided by Manchester United, and it is the first official mobile game to carry the Manchester United logo, so that is a great achievement for us. Even though it has only been out for a few weeks, we have had really good feedback from gamers. We aim to make a game that will appeal to Manchester United fans as well as people who are just looking for a fun football game, and I think that’s exactly what we have created. Hopefully the game will be available across Asia in the coming months.
XG: Can we expect to see more official football club games from you?
JO: We have already created a football game especially for fans of the Spanish football league, where you can play as any of the 20 teams in the Spanish league including Barcelona and Real Madrid. We have some other projects in development at the moment, so I\’ll be able to tell you more about these later in the year!
XG: Macrospace’s EmuX technology has been generating a lot of interest from web publishers. What can you tell us about it?
JO: EmuX is a way of playing mobile games in your web browser - it’s essentially a tool that lets you try a game before buying it. We felt that it was very difficult to tell if a game was good or bad based purely on a couple of screenshots: a game might look great, but has bad gameplay. So EmuX was developed to make buying a mobile game a much easier experience, allowing you to make an informed decision which will hopefully mean you buy more games in the future.
EmuX uses the actual Java game files and replicates the exact behaviour of a mobile phone, even down to the key layout and UI. It’s a very flexible tool - you can choose pretty much any Java game, and we have versions for a range of Nokia and Sony Ericssion phones, with other versions in development. It’s already in use by operators including Orange in Thailand and O2 in the UK, as well as sites like mobu.com, and of course Macrospace.com.
XG: What can we expect from the company in the near future?
JO: At Macrospace, we are focusing more and more on the connected aspect of mobile gaming - multiplayer, Bluetooth, online high scores - that kind of thing. Mobile phones are devices which can connect to people anywhere in the world, and this is a really exciting idea for developing games in the future. We have already launched a number of games with connected features; “Cannons Tournament” allows up to four players to compete over mobile networks anywhere in the world, and games like “Alpha Wing” and “The Flintstones Bedrock Bowling” let you upload your high scores to the web to show how good you are.
Our latest game, “Fatal Force”, takes these online features to a totally new level with the Battle Zone. This lets you upload not just your score, but also tracks your accuracy, which weapons you use most. And you can even form clans and loads of other cool stuff! This lets us create games that not only appeal to the normal gamer who wants to play an exciting, fun game, but also to more experienced ’hardcore’ gamers, who want to perfect their skills and compete with other gamers.
The new phones coming on to the market allow us to develop some really cool features, so look out for more games with Bluetooth multiplayer modes, downloadable levels and even 3D graphics before the end of the year.
Here is an overview of their EmuX web emulation service - a mobile gaming marketing tool that removes the uncertainty from buying games by offering a web or terminal-based 'try before you buy' experience for users.
