The success of the Nintendo DS has proved that touchscreens and games can go together very well, and Nokia announced last year that they will be releasing touchscreen phones in 2008. Are we going to therefore start seeing touch-based N-Gage games, and if so, would that be a good idea? In this special in-depth article, All About N-Gage takes a look at the pros and cons of touchscreen phone gaming, and ponder whether this would suit the N-Gage platform.
Before we start, here are a couple of facts:
- In December 2007, in an interview for Pocket Gamer, Jaakko Kaidesoja apparently made a throwaway remark about "GPS and/or touchscreens" being part of the future of N-Gage. That's not exactly a direct statement, but it tells us that Nokia is at least considering making touch-based N-Gage games.
- In August 2007 at the Go Play event in London, Nokia announced they would be introducing touchscreen-based S60 phones some time in 2008. S60 phones are the kind that run the new N-Gage platform, in fact N-Gage games are technically S60 games, so it seems possible we will see a touch-sensitive N-Gage-compatible phone some time soon.
Would it be a good idea for N-Gage games to have touch-based controls? Well, there are good arguments both for and against it, so we're going to try and present them all here in this article, and conclude by balancing one against the other.
Part One: The case FOR touch-controlled N-Gage games
1. Touchscreens would stop the debate about whether phone controls are good enough for gaming
One old chestnut that keeps coming up when people discuss phone gaming is how you control the games.
Some people maintain that only a dedicated games console can have the right kind of controls to make games fun to play. We would respectfully disagree with this, and point out that games developed specifically for phones (such as Infinite Dreams' back catalogue) tend to make excellent use of phone controls, but the doubt still remains in many people's minds.
If N-Gage games could be controlled by a touchscreen though, that doubt could be killed stone dead, because it's become clear over the past four years that touchscreens on their own are easily good enough. Touchscreen-based N-Gage games would automatically have console-quality controls, and that console would be the Nintendo DS.
The DS has sold in bigger numbers than any other recent console, either home or portable. What's even more significant is that the DS has made some progress towards attracting a wider audience, most famously with the massive-selling Brain Training (aka Brain Age) series that is aimed at older gamers, and the wonderful puppy simulator Nintendogs that is aimed at younger gamers. This wide appeal is exactly the kind of thing that phone gaming aims for too, because every kind of person uses mobile phones, from grandparents to schoolchildren. In fact the N-Gage platform already has two titles which are very similar to DS games: Brain Challenge is N-Gage's equivalent of Brain Training, and Dogz is N-Gage's Nintendogs.
The secret of the DS reaching a wider audience has often been attributed to its control system: it uses a touchscreen, which makes controls extremely intuitive (for example in Animal Crossing if you want to walk somewhere you just touch the place you want to walk to). It also makes the device itself look less frightening, and it allows the game designers to completely customise the controls to suit each particular game.
It should be noted of course that the DS also has two screens, hence the Dual Screen name, but the second screen isn't touch-sensitive, and it's rarely used for anything except to display status screens or extra scenery. Most DS games could work perfectly well on just one screen, which is what a touch-sensitive N-Gage-compatible phone would have.
2. Touchscreens would allow games to be more easily ported between the N-Gage platform and the Nintendo DS
Earlier this year, the acclaimed N-Gage game developers Ideaworks3D released a new version of their Airplay development kit which allows games to be ported between the new N-Gage platform and the DS. There have been such ports before, Gameloft released Asphalt Urban GT on the original gen N-Gage and the DS, so we know it's already technically possible, but the new Airplay SDK should make it even easier.Ports between the N-Gage platform and the DS would allow developers to make games for both at once, or to port particularly successful titles later on. Either way, it would increase the amount of third party software support for the N-Gage platform.
3. Touchscreens would allow games to be more easily ported between the N-Gage platform and a future "PlayStation Phone"
There have been many rumours in recent years that Sony is considering making some kind of gaming phone or gaming platform for their phones, using the PlayStation brand to bring it to the public's attention.
Sony doesn't make phones itself though, years ago it abandoned phone making in order to set up a joint venture with Ericsson (who also abandoned phone making). Sony Ericsson is a separate company jointly owned by Sony and Ericsson, and it's one of the largest phone manufacturers in the world.
Now, here's where N-Gage comes in: N-Gage-compatible phones are all based on the Symbian operating system, as are all of Nokia's smartphones. By an interesting coincidence, all of Sony Ericsson's smartphones are also based on the Symbian operating system, and many games are released simultaneously for both Nokia and Sony Ericsson smartphones because of this. Nokia and Sony Ericsson are actually major shareholders in the company which makes the Symbian OS, and that's why they continue to use it in all their smartphones.
If Sony Ericsson does manufacture a PlayStation-branded phone or gaming platform, it's very likely that they would base it on their existing smartphones, which means it would use Symbian OS, just like N-Gage does. That would make it relatively easy to develop games for both N-Gage and any PlayStation Phone, or to port from one to the other, and that too would increase the amount of third party software support on N-Gage.
However, there's a catch: Sony Ericsson's smartphones all use a touch-based interface, while Nokia's don't. If Nokia wants to make it as easy as possible to port between a PlayStation phone and N-Gage, they ought to make their N-Gage-compatible phones touch-sensitive.
4. Touchscreens would allow games to be more easily ported between the N-Gage platform and Apple's iPhone
Game ports between N-Gage and Apple's iPhone might not be quite as easy as the ones mentioned above, because the iPhone uses the OS X operating system and not Symbian. But such ports would be far more plausible if the N-Gage platform had support for touch controls, because it would allow any port to work similarly to the original. There would be a minimum amount of work required to port the actual design of the game, because both platforms would have similar control systems.
5. Touchscreens would remove any need to compromise phone design for the sake of gaming
The original N-Gage and QD were commercial failures, and Nokia spent a great deal of time doing a post mortem on what went wrong. The best-known failures (sidetalking, difficulty in changing games) were quickly corrected by the QD model, yet the original generation of N-Gage still failed to take off, even though the identical S60 hardware was very successful when sold as normal-looking smartphones like the Nokia 3650.One of the results of Nokia's post mortem was that most people who play phone games don't necessarily want their phone to look like a gaming machine. They do value gaming as a feature, but it's not the main feature they look for in a phone, so they don't want the design compromised for the sake of gaming.
In short: most people want their phone to look like a phone, not a console.
This has left Nokia in something of a dilemma: their audience is telling them that they don't want phones designed for gaming, but they do want games to have comfortable controls.
Nokia's response so far is to include subtle gaming-oriented buttons on certain models such as the N81 and upcoming 5320 XpressMusic, and to allow the multimedia controls of the N95 and N96 to be used as gaming buttons. These kinds of buttons do work, and this writer has had great fun using them, but what about people who buy these phones and don't want gaming at all? And what about those who do like gaming but feel that just a couple of extra buttons are inadequate?
Touchscreen controls in N-Gage games would completely avoid all these problems, and resolve Nokia's dilemma.
N-Gage-compatible phones with touchscreens would allow N-Gage games to have console-quality control systems, as there would be no practical difference between playing a touch-based N-Gage game or a Nintendo DS game.
There would be no need for any gaming buttons or unusual direction pads, phones could be designed entirely as phones, and there would be no need for any compromises.
Part Two: The case AGAINST touch-controlled N-Gage games
However, the arguments above are not perfect. There are some serious challenges that will be encountered if the new N-Gage platform embraces touch-based controls.
1. What about the non-touch phones?
In all the hype about touch-based phones, one fact seems to have been forgotten: no one actually buys them.
Yes, lots of people talk about them, and they're often seen on TV and in films, but when you look at the sales figures you realise that almost all phones actually sold are the normal button-based kind. The iPhone, probably the most famous touchscreen phone, has a market share of less than 1% after a year on the market. Nokia, which has a 40% market share, doesn't even make any touchscreen phones (though they will release touchscreen models later in 2008).
Even if touchscreen phones doubled or trebled or quadrupled their sales, they would still only be a small niche market. The conclusion one comes to is that for the foreseeable future the phone world will continue to be dominated by non-touch phones.
The whole point of N-Gage is not to go for the niche market, but to go for the mainstream market. If N-Gage is eventually present on even a tenth of Nokia's phones, and Nokia's sales continue at their current rate, that would increase N-Gage's userbase by 40 million every year.
The only way N-Gage can get to this mainstream market is by making games that work on mainstream phones. Touch-based games won't work on mainstream phones, so very few people will have the hardware needed to play them.
In other words, why should Nokia make touchscreen games if the vast majority of their customers can't play them?
2. What about one-handed controls?
One of the most useful features of mobile phones is that they can be operated with one hand. If you're carrying a bag or holding on in a train, you can still use your phone with the other hand to read messages, view your appointments, or even play games.
Touchscreen phones generally require two hands to operate, so the above situations may render them useless. As phone gaming is meant to be a way of passing time on your journey to work or school, anything which stops games working with one hand may be a major problem.
3. What about the games that need buttons?
Even with all the acclaim and sales success that the Nintendo DS has had, there are still some of its titles which don't really use the touchscreen at all. Most famous of all is possibly Mario Kart DS, a racing game which is almost entirely controlled using the DS's conventional buttons and direction pad.
Good game designers can use whatever controls the hardware has, but there may be some game genres which would be difficult to do without buttons (though equally some genres would be difficult to do without a touchscreen).
4. What about physical screen size differences?
One of the most interesting things about the N-Gage platform from a technical point of view is the sheer variety in the compatible hardware. The phones which can run N-Gage games look very different physically. All of them have the same screen resolution, but some of them have physically much smaller screens than others, because some people prefer buying smaller phones.
As it becomes more mainstream, more and more phones will join the N-Gage platform, and that will mean even more variety in the size of phone screens.
If N-Gage goes over to touch controls, how will these cope with the huge variety of screen sizes? Will touch control be as easy to use on the physically smallest screens as it is on the largest?
5. What about compatibility with older games and games from other button-based phones?
All of the games made so far on N-Gage have been based around button and direction pad controls, and as far as we know all of the games currently in development are similarly button-based. Nokia's predicting that there may be 50 or 60 N-Gage titles by the end of the year, and we would take an educated guess that there may be 100 or 200 by the end of 2009.
If this entire back catalogue of games is based around buttons, will any of them be playable on a touch-based device?
And what about all those Java and S60 games which are out there, how will they work on a phone that has no buttons?
Part Three: Touchscreens? Buttons? Why not both?
Balancing the arguments for and against touch-based N-Gage games is tricky, mainly because no one knows what the future holds for touchscreen phones. Even with all the hype it received, the iPhone only managed to sell about 5 million in its first year, whereas the total mobile phones sold every year come to 1000 million, with Nokia alone selling 400 million phones a year. At the moment touchscreen phones are a very very very small niche market, and perhaps this situation will not change.
On the other hand, the situation might change. For example, Asia is the biggest growth market for phones and contains most of the world's population. Some Asian languages, most famously Chinese, use very large alphabets which contain far too many characters for a keypad or keyboard to handle, so touch-based phones may be more of a mainstream hit there, especially when their price drops.
Another potential driving force for touchscreen phones might be changes in people's habits. As phone network data charges drop, people may become more confident about surfing the web through their phone, which is more easily done using a touchscreen.
Whatever happens, it's still far too early to judge the fate of touchscreen phones.
However, this may not be such a big problem for Nokia. Perhaps they can have their cake and eat it as far as touchscreen games are concerned, because of another two facts:
- It's perfectly possible to design games for both buttons and touch-based controls.
One of the biggest-selling and most critically-acclaimed games on the Nintendo DS was Animal Crossing, which allowed the player to use either the touchscreen or the buttons and d-pad, or both if they wanted to. It was just as playable either way, and provides something of a model for N-Gage if Nokia intends to try making touch-based phone games.
- It's perfectly possible to design phones with both buttons and touch-based controls.
A touchscreen phone doesn't have to be entirely touch-controlled. The front of a phone can be devoted to touch controls, but when the buttons are wanted or needed they can be slid out from under the screen using a slider mechanism.
A phone which combines a touchscreen and buttons allows Nokia to avoid pretty much all of the problems mentioned above. It allows both touch and non-touch games to be used on a single device, and it lets the user choose whichever control method suits their tastes and/or current situation.
Some people will prefer touch-only and some buttons-only, so they might want separate models, but those who want the best of both worlds could have it.
It's also interesting to note that Nokia's choice of button controls for N-Gage games (the d-pad and two buttons above the screen) could easily fit onto a touchscreen phone, even one without a keypad at all. Nokia's mockup touchscreen phone in the still above is laid out very much like the N81 in its closed mode, and one could well imagine the gaming buttons fitting above the touchscreen. Perhaps Nokia already have a button/touch combo phone in mind as far as gaming is concerned?
Part Four: The Epilogue
Whatever happens and whoever does it, it should be fascinating to see how touchscreen phone gaming plays out in the real world. Could portable consoles become obsolete? After all, touchscreen phones would have superior processing power, an equally good control system, and potentially a much much larger userbase.
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