3D games are one of the growing trends in mobile gaming, and UK-headquartered developer and publisher Micazook is a company that made a commitment to develop 3D games from their entrance into the industry. Micazook are now taking the leap into multiplayer, and Games on Deck talks to Callie Johnson, Micazook's marketing manager.
Games On Deck: Tell us about Micazook.
Callie Johnson: Micazook is a privately held company with over 80 employees and its headquarters situated in the UK. Micazook also has development houses in Poland and Ukraine at the moment, with plans to expand to the USA. The company is part of a group of companies with activities spanning from game development and publishing to software consultancy services within the media, financial and corporate sectors.
We took a keen interest in the mobile gaming sector in 2004 and began to develop a presence in this market initially as a publisher and have since expanded our development teams rapidly. Since 2004 we have built up a strong and extensive publishing presence with relationships with carriers such as Vodafone, Orange, and T-mobile.
Micazook's Publishing reach extends from Europe, Asia and we are extending our commitment to the USA at the moment too.
One of main commitments from the beginning was to develop 3D games. Now I know that sounds crazy and was until very recently, but the shift toward more powerful handsets are making 3D gaming a reality in today's market place. We now see more and more publishers releasing 3D games than ever before which I think is a positive move forward. During the past 3 years we have worked very hard in developing some of the fastest and most advanced 3D engines on the market place in J2me, Symbian and Brew. Our Blade 3D and Neutron 3D engines are our flagship engines designed for indoor and outdoor scenes and we released, amongst others, Covert Ops, 4x4 Monster Trucks and 4x4 Ultimate Power using them.
GOD: Why concentrate on 3D?
CJ: We produce 3D games because this is our strategy. We are a 3D games publishing house and we will continue to publish 3D games as long as the public continues to buy them. I think just like the early PC market the mobile CPUs are becoming more and more powerful and we see a synergy between the late 1980 games industry and today's mobile games industry. The shit from 2D to 3D is getting stronger and although 2D will play a part in the future of mobile gaming, I think 3D will eventually be the stronger force.
4x4 Monster Trucks
GOD: Tell us about recent Micazook titles that you consider particular successes.
CJ: 4x4 Monster Trucks has certainly out performed our expectations on the Vodafone live decks where it was released in July 2007 and we continue to see a strong demand for the game from the public and other carriers.
One of biggest success stories has to be TMNT Power of 4, which topped several chart positions in Asia, USA and Europe and our cooperation with Mocondi and Uclick in the USA to collectively publish the title was very successful. We have just released the next TMNT title TMNT Fast Forward together with Mocondi and it already has hit the number one spot on Vodafone Greece this month.
