Through the years, Harmonix Music Systems) Independent Video Game Developer">Harmonix has established itself as one of the main proponents of the rhythm-based genre of today's video game titles. After conquering the next-gen consoles, one has to wonder what other things are up the company's sleeves.

Well, the published session list for Game Developers Conference 2008 might give us a clue. According to the official site of GDC 2008, Harmonix will hold a session titled "Your Music Is the Game: Designing the OTHER Project at Harmonix" with lead designer Chris Foster as the designated speaker.

Some interesting points of the planned session include:

• Their new title faced unique challenges: beats would not be authored by tech-savvy musicians, but would instead be algorithmically generated, and the game would lack the dedicated peripherals that were critical to the success of the Guitar Hero series
• Special attention is devoted to: the development of procedural gameplay algorithms; unique input mechanics; and triaging unexpected changes in scope and schedule.
  

We highlighted one of the above statements for a reason. We are not certain if you are aware of this, but Harmonix applied for a trademark back in 2002 for Beat Boy. Quite interestingly, the trademark had the description of "an electronic video game software for portable listening devices".

What do you think guys? This could fit well with the Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and other "next-gen" mobile phones. We guess we'll never know for certain until GDC kicks off on February 18. We hope an official announcement will come after that.

 

If you've been keeping tabs on the annual Independent Games Festival (IGF), we're announcing something new for next year. The event organizers have just announced that they're announcing the judges for the IGF Mobile awards, a first-of-its-kind event that will celebrate innovation in games for cellphones, and mobile devices such as the Sony PlayStation Portable, and the Nintendo DS. And just because it's for handhelds doesn't mean the organizers will be spending peanuts either - the event's expected to award nearly US$ 20,000 in prizes. Here's the award's current panel:

• Mike Yuen, Senior Director, Gaming Group, Qualcomm
• David Gosen, CEO, I-play
• Arjan Olsder, Writer, Mobilegamesblog.com
• Darryl Williams, Senior Director of Content, Playphone
• Justin Davis, Editor-in-chief, Modojo
• Demetri G. Detsaridis, Creative Director, Massively Mobile
• Stuart Dredge, Writer, Pocket Gamer
• Neil Trevett, Vice President Mobile Content, NVIDIA
• Monty Munford, Business Development Director, Player X
• Steve Wetherill, President, Uztek Games
• Matthew Hawkins, Writer, zedgeHeadz
• Michael Chang, CEO, Greystripe
• John Walker, Writer, Rock Paper Shotgun

The submission deadline for all IGF Mobile entries will this October 26. Finalists for this event will be featured at their very own pavilion at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) during the month of February next year. The winners will then be announced during the GDC Mobile conference, and will be honored during the IGF Awards on Wednesday, February 20. Guys interested in registering an entry will want to visit the official IGF Mobile site, via the read link below.

CMP Technology, the organizers behind GDC China, has unveiled a few more details about the upcoming developers conference. The event is set to take place in Shanghai this August and will focus on topics such as online gaming, outsourcing, recruitment and mobile gaming. A short list of speakers who have already signed up for GDC China include the following:

• David Coleman (EA Canada)
• Tom Leonard (Valve)
• Mark Ollia (Nokia)
• David Perry (Gameconsultants.com)
• Gordon Walton (Bioware)

According to GamesIndustry.biz, GDC China is being jointly produced with IDG and will be overseen by an advisory board that includes a number of Chinese developers from companies such as Epic Games China, Shanda and JDL International. GDC China will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center on August 27 to 29.

  

Electronic Arts, one of the world's top game developers, has been making efforts to take advantage of the opportunities that the mobile gaming platform brings. EA Mobile has recently expressed its desire to connect mobile players in a sort of mobile gaming community.

We found out in an IGN news that EA Mobile has just announced the debut of EA Sports Link on Cingular. EA Sports Link is a mobile site dedicated to sports fans wanting news, stats, and sports-related site contents such as wallpapers and ringtones. There will also be links on the site to other EA Mobile Sports offerings sites, such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NASCAR 07.

EA's ultimate aim is to create a sports community where fans can interact with each other both inside and outside EA Mobile's sports games. Says Michael Marchetti, EA Mobile's VP and Chief Operating Officer,

We believe that the mobile phone is a perfect platform on which to build sports-themed services and provide content for the ever-growing community of EA Sports fans.

Indeed, the GDC 2007 Mobile Talk's last words hold true: social oriented content is the future of mobile.

Location-based gaming is an untapped resource through which learning may be facilitated, says Nickelodeon bigwig Karen Schrier at the 2007 GDC.

Schrier, an MIT graduate, spoke to the gathering of the game community on just how useful mobile gaming can be for academic advances given the proper treatment, citing her own thesis as an example.

The thesis was a four-character roleplay which featured four characters from the American Revolution time frame. The mission was to find out who fired the first shot in the Battle of Lexington.

A block of seventh-graders were allowed to sample the game and this is how it worked: The avatar selected can be used to interact with the rest of the game's unselected characters. Through interaction, the player gets clues which may or may not help him find the answer he seeks. Schrier emphasized the concept of location-based communication by varying the response received depending on which avatar you chose and who you were talking to.

She also said that no matter what the platform used, interaction often yields learning. What makes remote interaction unique, according to her, is that there's an element of excitement involved, especially with the younger crowd. A more AI-driven online counterpart of her game is in the works.

In line with their campaign to promote N-Gage as the ultimate mobile gaming device, Nokia just announced the list of new mobile games that'll be made available on the handheld system.

We already told you that Glu Mobile will be jumping on the N-Gage bandwagon, and now news have reached our ears that major mobile game publishers, THQ Wireless and Gameloft, will also be joining in on the fun as they bring loads of games to Nokia's device.

Here's a partial list of the new games you can look forward to seeing on the N-Gage:

• Asphalt 3 - Gameloft
• Street Rules - Gameloft
• Brothers in Arms - Gameloft
• Hell's Highway - Gameloft
• Brain Challenge - Gameloft
• Midnight Pool - Gameloft
• FIFA 2008 - EA
  

In addition to all this, Nokia also announced at the GDC the software development tools to be used for the system as well as SNAP Mobile's JavaTM testing program. Gregg Sauter, Director of Games Publishing for Nokia, says,

We are reinforcing our commitment to this industry with two significant initiatives that will help the mobile games industry evolve. Our N-Gage platform will deliver a global games platform that leverages the performance of the tens of millions of S60 converged devices that we are shipping each year. Likewise, our support for Java development continues to evolve with more tools for developers supporting SNAP Mobile.

The first game to be released for the N-Gage by Glu will be World Series of Poker Texas Hold'Em, with more to follow in the months to come. No word yet on when the mentioned games will be released so stay tuned for more updates.

A lot has been said about Nintendo's Wii and DS systems bringing innovative gameplay interfaces to the videogame industry, but at GDC, the idea that mobiles could "out-Wii" the Wii has been put forth.

In his GDC Mobile session, developer and academic Paul Coulton talked about a few of the innovative ways mobiles could be used to play new kinds of games. RFID technology was mentioned, and Coulton demonstrated how game developers could incorporate it into their games to create "fun experiences in the real world."

Coulton also noted that potentially more important is the advent of motion-sensing technology in mobile handsets like the Nokia 5500. Coulton showed a few simple tilt-ball games as well as more sophisticated driving games that use the technology.

"The possibilities are endless with this technology. It's about thinking of new ways to play games, that might be played by very different people than we are used to," he said. "Wii has had an amazing impact but this technology in mobile phones could ultimately be even more dramatic."

While the possibilities are indeed very exciting, Coulton acknowledged that there are "challenges ahead in making use of these technologies." As for mobiles actually managing to out-Wii the Wii, we're not holding our breaths just yet. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

It's only been mere hours since Game Developers Conference 2007 opened its doors and yet news of next year's event are already circulating in, how do you say it, teh intarwebz. It's been a real crazy day here at the QJ quarters, what with all the GDC updates pouring in (in torrents, if I might add). Personally, I'd just like to deal with the ongoing GDC first, but just so you guys are way ahead of everybody else, we'll share with you the details we scored on next year's GDC.

According to DevelopMag, show organiser CMP has already confirmed this early on the dates and venues for GDC 2008. If things go as planned, the Game Developers Conference 2008 will take place on February 18-22, and will be held once again at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's shift the focus back to this year's event. GDC Mobile,the Serious Games Summit, Casual Games Summit and Independent Game Festival are the front acts for GDC 2007, with the main conference and expo scheduled to hit the stage on Wednesday. That said, allow this writer to sneak out and get back to insane GDC news reporting. Stay tuned for more.

UK-based mobile game publisher Glu Mobile announced today that they've inked the deal with Microsoft to bring their hit RTS for the PC, Age of Empires III, to mobile phones as well.

This isn't the first time that the two companies have collaborated on a mobile game, withProject Gotham Racing Mobile being one of the earlier projects they've worked on. Jill Braff, General Manager of Glu North America, says “Age of Empires is one of the highest-rated and best-selling RTS franchises on the PC, and we look forward to working with Microsoft to replicate that success on mobile.”

Age of Empires III is the third installment in the series and has sold 16 million copies worldwide. Whether the mobile version will be able to have download rates comparable to the PC version's sales, we'll have to wait and see. No word yet on the mobile game's launch date, but as the GDC updates keep pouring in, we'll make sure to keep you constantly posted on the latest goings on in the event. Stay tuned!

Even before the sound check could begin, Guitar Hero Mobile had to do a rain check. Over at the GDC, they initially posted a schedule of sessions and discussions, in which the mobile version was to be unveiled by Sonivox. However, the scheduled presentation was pulled out.

It was found later on that it wasn't only the presentation of the game pulled out, but actually, the game itself has been axed. Sources from Sonivox revealed that the Activision deal had a whole lot to do with the collapse of the supposed mobile project for the GH franchise.

Awww...dang. So close, but still no cigar. Oh well, to try and make up for it, Sonivox revealed that they will have a music game on Cingular next month, entitled Guitar Star. Quick to point out that this ain't a clone of the preempted GH mobile, fans will just have to go and see for themselves when it comes out in the market.