N-Gage ripe for good vibrations, says Nokia exec
Also camera and mic input, location...
Vibration looks set to play a bigger role in N-Gage games in the future, judging by comments made by Nokia's Dr Mark Ollila in an interview with the company's own N-Gage Insider website.
"One technology that I think we'll see more of is haptics," he says. "Vibration is something that our games should be using because it is such a powerful way of sending information to the player."
Ollila also says camera input will be more important in the future, following its use in recent N-Gage game Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol.
"Will we be using the camera to do things like augmented reality where you take real videos and re-augment that video feed with virtual objects? With augmented mobile reality, we've looked at how if we put markets in the real world, your phone in camera mode recognises them."
Ollila also talks about using the handset's microphone for gameplay, such as blowing dust off a table – something that's already being used on Nintendo's DS – as well as reiterating Nokia's interest in incorporating location into N-Gage games.
The big question, however, is how soon all this stuff will be part of the N-Gage software development kit (SDK), so developers can start really making use of it.
Ollila also talks about cross-platform gaming, citing Reset Generation and Yamake as N-Gage examples. We know all about the first of those, but mentioning Yamake is interesting.
The game sees you creating your own mini-games and puzzles from the content stored on your phone, then sharing them with people. Ollila's comments hint that this sharing may go beyond other N-Gage users, and extend to websites and/or social networks.
