Kotaku
Earlier this week, we reported on the slew of Brain Age knock-offs headed our way. Barry O'Neill, CEO of the Dublin-based Upstart Games, emailed us to let us know his company had been "sitting on" a cell phone brain game that predates Brain Age by about two years. Originally called Right Brain Paradise, the game was released by G-mode in Japan. Upstart's English version is titled IQ Academy and will be on in major US and European carries this July. We sent questions to Mr. O'Neill, regarding the upcoming title, the brain game craze and skiing in Nintendo's wake.
The game was released back in Japan in 2003, making it one of the first brain games. Why was the title developed?
G-mode has a strong casual and female gaming audience, and I know that they conduct extensive research amongst their subscribers to ensure that their product development strategy matches the audience profile. The first game in the series was released as Right Brain Paradise in March 03 on i-Mode.
Why has Upstart waited so long to launch the game?
It's been a matter of timing in relation to what mobile carrier requirements are. We've been securing releases for Japanese games in international markets for almost three years now. Generally the trend (and the devices) in Japan is one to two years ahead of the west. Casual and "one button" games have been big sellers in Japan for the last three or four years, but only in the last six to twelve months have we seen active interest in these titles for western distribution. Some titles that have done well for us in the past have been "classic" titles - these we're actually well out of date in the Japanese market by the time they were peaking in the West.
What's the relationship between G-mode and Upstart?
Upstart has been working with G-mode distributing titles such as Topolon, and their Sudoku title (branded as Vodafone Sudoku) for some time. With G-mode, and with our other Japanese partners such as FromSoftware and SCEJ, the role is deeper that a typical distributor/publisher relationship. There's a significant investment made by us in localizing, culturalizing and then porting the games to Western handsets. Im most cases we have to literally rebuild the entire game from the ground up.
Did G-mode approach Upstart or vice versa?
We'd been aware of each other for some time, and cemented a relationship early last year. Upstart is very active in the Japanese market, and G-mode has had good traction in the west. The very first Vodafone live! handset launched in Europe included a pre-installed G-mode title. Upstart's knowledge of the Japanese market or specifically, transitioning games from the Japanese market to western markets meant that there was good fit between the companies, especially when it came to getting G-mode titles out in the US.
Did G-mode encourage Upstart to hold the game?
As Japan's no.1 mobile games publisher, G-mode has a huge library of titles spanning many genres. We zeroed in on the casual titles at an early stage, Sudoku was an obvious one and we successfully launched that and Topolon in January. Amongst the other titles which we knew were superb, but a little early for Western markets was the "Left Brain Paradise" range, which had sold almost 2M units since launch. This had been put in front of a number of western carriers, but at that time carries seemed to be more focused on replicating the console experience on mobile. The launch of the Nintendo's brian titles in the west coincided with a growing realization amongst carriers that simpler games were needed to break through the "hardcore" market, and extend the reach of mobile games to regular non-gaming consumers.
What are the differences between the original version and IQ Academy?
The first volume of IQ Academy has a range of challenges selected from Volumes one and two of Left Brain Paradise. There's a number of Kanji based challenges in the original LBP titles that clearly wouldn't translate to western markets. IQ Academy is essentially a new game.
How will launching the game around Brain Age improve downloads?
We're expecting strong downloads from the title. Carrier enthusiasm and welcome for the title has been hugely encouraging. We believe we're first to market with mobile title of this type, and leading the market can result in category ownership - look at Jamdat's success with Jamdat Bowling, Gameloft's dominance of the action adventure genre, and to a limited extent our first successes with the US launch of Konami's Frogger on mobile.
Do you find Nintendo's success encouraging?
Yes. Very. Definitely there's a "Halo-effect" resulting from Nintendo's title, and therefore the interest in this type of title has grown significantly from a carrier perspective. Consumer awareness has also increased, especially amongst an older non-gamer audience is much higher.
Do the Brain Age comparisons bother you?
It doesn't bother us too much, the games have different target devices, and we're happy that we can bring this type of game to a very wide mobile audience. It riles me a bit if an assumption is made that we're ripping off an idea - I don't know if anyone can claim a first here. I remember playing shareware IQ games on the Amiga in the 80's.
How can IQ Academy separate itself from the upcoming flood of knock-off brain titles?
Being first to market on mobile will help. We've additional volumes lined up for future release, and we expect that this type of title will come into its own on mobile. After all there's a couple of billion mobile phones out there, so the potential reach is huge. Additionally we'll implementing a feature on Sprint in the US called game lobby, whereby overall scores and also individual scores for each task set will be ranked by player. You'll be able to challenge your friends or compare with the global player list. This adds a wider competitive experience to the game.
In a nutshell, what's cool about the game?
I think the really intuitive control mechanism works very well. Each question or task posed to you has up to four possible answers. Its a simple matter of pressing a direction key to select the answer. It makes for really fast paced play, which is essential to build your IQ score. The challenges range from simple "true/false" scenarios, to counting, time telling, and spatial challenges. I especially like the task in the volume two where you have count how much money you have by adding up the change presented on screen at a glance of the coins.
How are players rated?
Accuracy and speed are the basic measurements for internal scoring, but each challenge is weighted, and an overall score is determined. This is given to the player, along with a level achievement ranking such as "Pre-school", "University", "Professor" etc. Sadly I'm still at kindergarten level...
Are brain games here to stay? Or is this just a fad?
Definitely here to stay but I'd say we'll see a fad phase over the next 12 months and then a stable level of activity. I think we have a critical mass of people who aren't hardcore gamers, but are aware and accepting of video games now, however the content is only just starting to catch up. Look at Sony's successes with titles like SingStar and Buzz. Not everyone wants to play first-person action titles, or RPGs. As gamers have gotten older, and the gender divide more balanced the core games industry hasn't really responded with the breadth of content that other entertainment media such as film would have. The popularity of online game services on Yahoo and MSN largely lies with this casual demographic, and there is a lot to be learned from this example.
Brain games on a console: What do you think?
I think that for the audience which these games will most appeal to, its not really a runner. Consoles often use the main family screen, have a complicated controller and require something of a boot up, so are better suited to longer solitary (online or offline) gaming sessions. One thing that could work though would be a local multiplayer brain game, like Buzz, where players could compete with multiple custom controllers.
Why are brain games popular?
They're accessible to a wide audience, have a gradual learning curve and especially in Nintendo's case with the pen input, but also with the familiarity of the mobile phone, they have an interface known to most people. Of course people love to test themselves too. The appeal is similar to that of an IQ test, or a crossword or Sudoku. In some ways with regular games, it's "How good am I at that?" With brain games, it's more "How good am I?"
More Here [Upstart Games]
