Unkasoft, a leading provider of advergaming and mobile marketing, today announced that it is offering free games via the Gamespace Portal that are also compatible with the popular Zeemote JS1 Wireless Controller. The Zeemote JS1 is the award winning Bluetooth gaming controller, which creates the world’s best mobile gaming experience.

GameSpace (http://unkasoft.mobi/) provides media companies with an effective way to promote digital content or products and brands to vital segments of the market through games delivered on user’s mobile phones. GameSpace provides a host of benefits to the mobile operator, including an increase in income from content, the potential to widen the number of users by offering content for free, or for preview, and a new income source for back catalogue games. All games on the GameSpace Portal are now compatible with the Zeemote JS1 Controller, enhancing the overall mobile gaming experience for the user.

The GameSpace portal also leverages Microsoft’s ad server, Atlas, that is able to configure several campaigns for the GameSpace mobile portal, which will be presented in an adapted form for every device in the market. Also, Unkasoft Advergaming On the Fly technology injects advertisements at several places within games and applications.

“Today’s announcement will change the way users interact with mobile games,” said Juan Antonio Muñoz-Gallego, Co-founder Unkasoft. “GameSpace allows advertising agencies to insert ads into any interactive mobile game without development tasks and now that the games are Zeemote compatible, users can use the JS1 Controller to enhance their player experience.”

“The Zeemote JS1 coupled with Advergaming offers a unique way to deliver a mobile marketing message to a user through immersive game play,” said Ernie Cormier, Zeemote CEO and President. “I am pleased that Unkasoft will enable the Zeemote users to take advantage of a compelling new frontier in mobile gaming.”

Labels: free games, mobile games

This week I have had the opportunity to meet people from Zeemote in London, -I only breeze through it-. Anyhow my partner, Jaime, had already spoken deeply. Zeemote is a peripheral for our mobile, focused on enhancing the player experience, perhaps in the future also for applications -I guess that they already thought about it-.
Initially I was a little sceptical, but they arrived to the Spaniard market promoted by Movistar, and after talking to them, I feel they have clear ideas.

In fact, Unkasoft its one of Zeemote partners, as always from the developer side. From the point of developer we have always had to 'struggle' with an uncomfortable keyboard. Now with motion sensors and / or touch screens in our handsets, has increased the player's experience. And surely the players with the Zeemote will be in the same way satisfied.

Labels: mobile games

Today I have something in my email inbox that has surprised me. The American magazine "Forbes" has LABoral Centro de Arte and its exposure Homo Ludens Ludens among the eight sites essential that the lovers and video game fans should visit. It’s also the only one in the European area, and so so close from us.

And I’m sure all of you have the same question in mind, what are the others:
• E for All, Los Angeles, California. The exhibition will take place in October between 3 and 5th.
• Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, "Players shopping paradise."
• ZEUM, San Francisco, California, "a museum of art and technology, bringing near young and older people to the world media."
• The Nintendo World Store in New York, with two floors devoted to the Wii and DS consoles.
• Downtown Disney, Orlando, "an interactive theme park offering games that combine virtual reality with experience in three dimensions."
• Penny Arcade Expo, Seattle, Wash., which will run between 29 and August 31.
• Montreal International Games Summit, Montreal, Canada, "an event focus on the industry that includes a large sample for consumers." The conference will be held in November between 18 and 19.

I have many places to visit yet.

Labels: mobile games

Our next Mobile Monday Madrid on May 26, 2008 will dive into the wonders of Mobile Entertainment. MoMo invited, Pablo González, Grupo Zed B2B Manager; Ricardo Mena Muñoz, Digital Jokers & Mayhem Studio Marketing Director; Jaime Lanchares, Unkasoft CEO and, for sure, Luís Esteban, Arvato Mobile Director.

I mean it’s an event really interesting to see at what point this world of mobile entertainment is. Also it’s a good chance to meet all of us and chat a while.

Labels: events, mobile games, mobilemonday

Every day we read news about the effect of videogames, one day tell us that because of them, people become crazy and kill their mates at the high school. And a few days after that, thanks to them children who use game consoles have a eagle view and get better marks.

The last study published by the Centre for International Optometry, 25% of Spanish children between 10 and 12 years surf the Internet regularly, and 76% of adolescents has a games console. One newspaper reflected the results of the study: "video games help improve visual attention. So, thanks to encourage them skills such as visual perception, peripheral vision, visual memory, coordination or ocular motility. They also help to reduce the reaction time, improve communication when playing in a group, to familiarize children with the use of computers and taught to solve technical problems. They are visual and coordination skills we need for everyday situations such as studying, driving, working, reading or doing sports. "

And if we associate that to 34% of cases of school failure is caused by visual problems, they conclude that children do not play suspended because of the games. It obeys a generalized transivity law.

I mean we will continue seeing any study concludes that something unusual will remain news.
Well, I think we lack a little common sense; children do not pass exams only playing videogames, even with the new peripheral vision. Neither becomes murderers.
Moreover, if 76% of adolescents have a console, rather than in the past, Why is going worse the education level?

Labels: educational, mobile games

This week w’ve received some very interesting data from whatjapanthinks.com. Mainly, it’s a survey gather in Japan by the end of 2007. The first key point is about how people jump into Internet from the mobile. The top-3 is:

1. Bookmark
2. Homepage
3. QR Codes
And the following positions we find the access by introduction of this URL and searchers. It surprises me greatly the level of use of QR codes, which are used rather than the searchers.
I mean soon we’ll have a quickly way to access to URLs on mobile in Spain, or at least I heard whisper of war, I will not say anymore until next week.

Another thing that I call the attention is enormously effective in finding what you are looking on the mobile Internet. The 95.7% find easily what are looking for, or at least find it. I believe we’re changing the “I look for it in google when I’m at home" with a "let me look for it on the mobile." Only the lacks of good data fees are stopping the future.

In any case, I think QR codes are going to have a good future here, and we can download games or access sites easily from the mobile. I already have in mind to buy shirts with QR codes for the whole team, at least for Javier who is the most freak.

Labels: mobile games

If anything can go wrong, it Will

Corollary:

1. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong
2. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway
3. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop

A new a 'serious game' reaches the market, in this case it is an action launched by the Galician government, through the Ministry of Labour. The aim is to promote the prevention of risks at work. The "Movemento Against the Murphy's Law" is trying to save us.

Today, three people die every day in accidents at work in Spain. It seems a simple fact, but today again three people are going to die at work. If the Xunta rescue one of these people, all this action will be worth.

As you could see in our friend’s site, imagame, the mobile game was produced by Loroestudio and also can be played through a web emulator. The game is powered by Unkasoft Platform, so let me another medal to the team that we have.

I encourage you to participate in this initiative, and I hope the game can avoid Murphy’s law.

Labels: advergaming, mobile games, serious game

Kaixo!, I have to improve my euskera. Today we have to mention a new launch in the advergaming market. Elebila, the first euskera searcher on the Internet. The project launched by BlueXare, a mobile marketing agency, has focused the campaign to promote the euskera language. Once again we observe how to use games to move an idea; you can download the game from: http://www.elebila.eu/game/.

The game has another peculiarity; Elebila Game was produced using Unkasoft Platform, something crucial for us. I hope that our partner Bluexare continue promoting the mobile marketing and advergaming.

Congratulations to Elebila and Bluexare.

Labels: advergaming, j2me, mobile games

It seems that this new media are gaining importance and its regulation is going to be fundamental to success. The Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce is going to standardize the use of SMS using the same regulation we have for email, based on the consent of the user - they are not make life difficult for their self-.
It seems that the regulations always go slower than the market. Not only that, but that the norms seem that they have been elaborated without understanding the technology and its use. The annoyance of a SMS nonasked is far from the annoyance of an email. The immediacy or the impossibility to introduce filters anti-Spam, lets to the exposed consumer to suffer intrusive ads. Also it’s not regulated the publicity in formats different than SMS, once again is left all ambiguous.
For example, something that usually requests in any form of a game ours to send information to an advertiser, the email info. The email it’s considers personal data, if it indicates full name, company, etc. Juan_Antonio_muñoz@miservidor.com, would consider personal data. If the data is wow@hotmail.com, no longer personal data is considered. Who knows what kind of email use their customer? .

Let us cross the fingers, I hope they will do their best to regulate a new media with a 102% of penetration, and avoid the copy-paste from the regulation referring to Internet.

Labels: advergaming, mobile games

Step by step, we continued ourselves detecting errors in the mobile games industry. One of them was commented of an interesting form by Toby Lewis, the quality of music - to say something of the strange noises made-. The producers have many allegations to say, the size available for games, the impossibility to use something better than a MIDI, impossibility to turn the volume down, the users set it off, etc.

I agree in the opinion that always has been considered something low priority. It’s sad to forget this important sense which can introduce so much to our player in the game. The mobile games magazines have even left without valuing this concept. I believe that the moment has arrived to face the challenge, have music to the best level in our new generation handsets. It’s time to don’t penalizing handsets like series N of Nokia or Walkman from SonyEricsson, in which the quality is fantastic and you have volume control. It is spoken of the duration of the musical cycle, recommend 5 minutes for mobile games. I mean it is possible to make very good things with less than 5 minutes.

Not only for the ‘commercial’ games, also for advergames. The experience will improve a lot of a user, just listening the brand sound. It seems something trivial, but he is something that few companies have defined. When these are animated to make an advertising game and it’s commented, they take into account of that is nothing defined that identifies to them. The company logo is important like brand sound is.

Labels: advergaming, j2me, mobile games

Since you see in our Website, we have launch a new game to the market. We do it in cooperation with the most important Spanish TV channel, channel that is surprising by the speed to renew itself. That channel is TVE, It has seen the following step that is going to give the industry and has taken a very interesting position.
Until recently, It used to ask for brands to the conten producer that later, were offered to the operators through an agregator. It was due to the complexity to produce mobile content, invoicing problems, etc. Today, thanks to off-portals - site outside of the operator- the possibility of invoicing that content is something Real & Easy.

About the project, just download it:) , it is a fast and fun game based on platform style. Who will be the protagonist? if you are not in Spain will be hard to answer.
A day the forest of the hearts was invaded by the dangerous wolves, beehives and other animals. With many secrets to discover, gather the hearts with one of the most well-known and charismatic personages of the tales stories.

Now already you know the new project… only avalaible in Spain, but soon for all of you.
Next, lay eggs… our new license knows of that.

Labels: j2me, mobile games

It seems that we do not learn, last year a small Spanish company as we are, tried to present ideas about how the games can improve the learning. Of course, governmental institutions and companies that are already working in the sector of education said to us that they did not see it suitable. Worse even if we took advantage of a device within reach of anyone, as it is the cell phone.

Once again it arrives a big international company, decides to do the same, in this case EA with the University of Alcala de Henares. The denominated project “Learns and plays with EA”, has obtained optimistic results, the children have managed to understand better the language of the sounds and the images. At the same time it has improve clearly the relation between the parents and children. I ask myself, what can we make to convince the Spanish industry of the companies that they have? We’re not in Redwood City but in Salamanca we know to make it even better. I recommend you to know the EA experience, which has got what we couldn’t... http://www.aprendeyjuegaconea.net/uah/htm/experiencias.htm

Labels: educational, j2me, mobile games

It’s the title of an article that has called me the attention in the number of April of the Economic Present time. They mention the concept of “exergaming” and according to a study as Wii consumes the double of calories that other players (Clinical May of Rochester, Minnesota). As any analysis has their opposite, who is of the State University of San Francisco that says that a console does not replace the physical exercise that we required. What to say to this? I believe that they would have to follow with the advice, to learn to drive an airplane in the console does not replace to have to give classes, or to play in SIMS does not replace the real life. Or still more Brain Training does not replace having to go to class guys- although with logse I have my doubts-.

Sincerely, the idea to make exercise with game is not new and or it goes back to 1989, with the Power Pad or Mr. Patrick Ferrer. So that the market has been revolutionized now? The answer is without a doubt the marketing campaign in which, something considered a peripheral one, now is the main crux - in addition to many million in advertising -. The following war Sony versus Nintendo will be the conquest of the world online.

Labels: exergaming, mobile games

The advergaming industry grows and numbers are even better, growth rate of nearly 23%. That’s something we know in first person. And I’m sure the rest of my friends, Omepet and Exelweiss confirms too.

Analysing the eMarketer article the main points are:

• “Increasing realization among advertisers that games are a viable way to reach their targets.” Basically they trust in the idea.
• “Broadening of the gaming demographic to include older gamers and women“
• More games massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) and online advertising. Online capability will move this market
• “Proven success of the advergaming model”. Our customers corroborate that.

Something is clear this market will be impressive:

Just one advice, same as other people in the marketing market will do: devalue your advertising quality is devaluing your company … Don’t invest money to devalue the thing you love the most.

Labels: advergaming, j2me, mobile games

Yesterday, I went to one of my favourite blogs (errror500) as I used to. Then I was shock reading the post, we could suffer 300 the Movie ads in the game Crackdown.

Sometimes we must to remind the commandments for ideas like Advergaming. The 5 commandments are:

1. You shall not send ads before opt-in.
2. You shall not send intrusive ads.
3. Honor your product. If your neighbour bought your product as other without advertising.
4. You shall not have inappropriate or useless ads before neighbour ask for it.
5. You shall your neighbour to send you a STOP command. If you could send information(ads) in one way, you could receive your neighbour feedback.

In Matthew 19:16-21, a rich man approaches Christ and asks "What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Jesus gave the answer: "Keep the commandments."( Matthew 19)

Labels: advergaming, j2me, mobile games

Reading the latest stats, 70% of game buyers don't buy a second game. That information came to me from IGDA, exactly the data source is

http://digital-lifestyles.info/ and http://www.telephia.com/html/GDC07_press_release_template.html

That inquiry corroborates what we heard from the mobile operators.

Anyhow, some press mediums are publishing the good health of the mobile games market.

The main reasons for that bad news:

· Mobile games based on a license, but poor quality

· Installation troubles, due to lack of memory, problems with GPRS configuration, and so on.

· Expensive. The cost of the game is always increased by the price of data traffic.

· Handsets fragmentation, there is no way to produce games for all.

Today I’m very pessimistic but the future is not either… the bill of that is on many or this blog’s readers, because the user cannot identify who’s doing good jobs and who’s not.

Labels: igda, j2me, mobile games

They cross minefields to reach a refugee camp threatened by the guerilla. They search for food and water in a foreign country to avoid the death of their children. These are just some of the challenges which millions of women all over the world come across and which Aissa must overcome. The heroine of a new humanitarian videogame for mobiles with a cause presented today by Intermón Oxfam in the Nuevos Ministerios underground station, in Madrid.

“With this videogame we intend to inform the population on a reality which is often forgotten, and when it takes place in the real life it is not a game at all. The refugees require protection and assistance in order to survive as they have had to flee from their homes and have lost all they possessed. We see situations like these every day in places like Chad, where there are more than 230.000 refugees from Darfur, in Sudan, which depends completely on international aid in order to survive in a semi-desert landscape”, as Irene Milleiro, responsible for the area of Conflicts and Humanitarian Action in Intermón Oxfam, explains.

If you play, refugees win

After three years under refuge in camps of up to 30.000 people – to which they fled due to the violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur–, the refugees in Chad must face not only poverty but also the violence which has extended to the entire region. The funds raised with the downloads of the videogame – which costs 2.40 Euros – will go to humanitarian aid programs of Intermón Oxfam in the southeast of the country, concretely to the refugee camps of Djabal and Goz Amer.

“When you become a refugee you no longer have a home, a job and, on many occasions, you lose your family and community. We must be aware that this is taking place all over the world and that it is necessary that the governments act rapidly against armed conflicts and natural disasters in order to avoid people from losing all they have. New technologies allow us to bring these realities to many people, especially to the younger ones, as it is very important to be aware of them and to act”, Irene Millerio adds.

“Videogames and mobile telephones represent at present one of the most direct forms of introduction to the youth sector. Therefore a product has been developed in which the technological characteristics are not innovating; but the use it is intended for is, to help resolve a forgotten situation, the conflicts which still exist in Africa. What we value the most is the interactivity it offers the player to lend a hand directly in this problem together with IO.” according to Juan Antonio Muñoz-Gallego, Unkasoft partner.

Labels: advergaming, mobile games, NGO