Industry News

Is Microsoft Paint about to displace Adobe Photoshop as the minimalist designer’s tool of choice?

Take a look at the cool work done in an advertisement for KuneriLite where they hand draw a Nokia N95 using just Microsoft Paint and one very talented hand, the result is pretty neat.

>> KuneriLite extends Flash Lite and allows developers to access S60 features (i.e Bluetooth, GPS, Camera, and more) and create great looking S60 applications.

Santoki’s game Sketch Mini has featured in Forbes list of Ten Cool Games for Mobile Phones.

“U.K.-based Web site Playyoo.com is a social network where user-generated content demonstrates the beauty of simplicity. Developers and gamers alike can upload and download games from anywhere in the world for free. Players control a stick figure in “Sketch Mini” as he tests his courage and dodges wrecking balls. The game runs on devices supporting Flash Lite, notably including recent Nokia and SonyEricsson phones, plus some LG, Samsung and Motorola handsets.”

Kars Alfrink, an interaction designer and consultant, did an interesting talk at GDC on the underlying basics of the Playyoo system. Please refer to his transcript for further details. Enclosed you’ll find his slides.

Last month’s scandal at Gamespot undoubtedly rattled gamers and loyal readers who turned to the site for objective reviews. If you’re not familiar with the story, Jeff Gerstmann, Gamespot’s longtime editorial director, was shown the door- presumably after giving a negative review for Eidos’s Kane & Lynch, which had spent a significant amount advertising on the site. Kyle Orland provides a great summary of the story over at Joystiq.

But what does this really tell us? We already knew that the interests of corporate sales & marketing and editorial departments can often clash. And in the age of marketing spin masters and PR gurus, it’s wise to take any “objective” review, post, or article with a grain of salt.

With the emergence of Web 2.0 and the collaborative web, we all become published reviewers (sometimes objective ones, and other times….). Online communities share ratings and commercially-untainted recommendations. Of course, it’s naïve to think that community-created reviews cannot be manipulated, however there’s something wonderfully honest and open about letting anyone with computer access and an Internet connection offer their opinion.

And at Playyoo, we take community input seriously (after all, we’re looking to you to determine who wins it all in the Playyoo Games contest).

When you browse for games, you can sort by the community’s top-rated games. Or, take it to a deeper level, and limit your focus only to those games recommended by your friends (the ones you really trust). Or just take a peak at what your friends are playing for ideas. But remember- you can never know for sure if you’ll like a game until you take it for a spin yourself.

Did miss that report from Parks Associates “The New Frontier: Portable and Mobile Gaming”

- found again at Flavert Media Lab.The chart summarizes the report => On the go users want casual games - on top rank puzzle and card games. Those games should be free and easy to download after all.

Faisal Arbain, from Flavert Media, uploaded a Malaysian game to Playyoo only recently. Will try that one asap.
It perfectly fits that Mariam Dholkawala, from Mumbai, just uploaded her 6 games.