RP in top 9 of Nokia Mobile Flash Hunt

Nokia, in collaboration with Macromedia, has announced the winners of Forum Nokia’s Mobile Flash Hunt.

Chosen from the 30 entries that were submitted during the competition period, the top nine-winning entries came from India, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

The winning developers’ submissions featured high-quality, flash-based applications and games that were not only creative, but were also judged to be potentially highly useful or entertaining to general mobile phone users.

Kicking off in June 2005, the Mobile Flash Hunt competition was designed to accelerate the development of high-quality flash applications in the region.

Over 100 Forum Nokia PRO developers in the Asia-Pacific region were invited to participate in the competition, which was announced at the Forum Nokia Mobile Application Summit earlier this year.

The winning entries were selected based on their creativity, usability, usefulness to consumers, functionality and presentation.

"The competition was not only designed to showcase new talent among the developer community, but more importantly, unearth applications that will be useful and entertaining to consumers," said Brad Brockhaug, senior director for business development and channels of Forum Nokia.

"With consumers increasingly depending on their mobile phones to manage their personal and professional lives, there is an increased urgency to provide them with high-quality applications that use rich software such as Macromedia Flash," Brockhaug said.

Daniel Brongiel, vice president for mobile and devices of Macromedia Asia-Pacific, was pleased with the results of the Mobile Flash Hunt.

"We are excited that many quality and innovative applications were received from across the region. With the immense business opportunity around mobile Flash content, we’re expecting the amount of mobile content to grow exponentially over the next year," he said.

"We are confident that operators will be keen on bringing Flash applications to their subscribers, and many consumers in the Asia-Pacific will soon get to enjoy a richer experience on their mobile phones," he added.

The winning entries will be made available to mobile phone operators globally.

Out of the participating field, the 30 Forum Nokia PRO developers who submitted entries will receive technical support and Macromedia Flash tools to develop flash contents.

The top nine winners will also enjoy a combination of prizes, including sponsored trips to Nokia Customer events (top five winners only), Macromedia Flash Professional software, which can be used to develop a full version of the flash application for mobile devices, Nokia Series 60 devices, and also marketing and promotional support from Nokia and Macromedia.

The winning entries will also be showcased at the next Forum Nokia Mobile Applications Summit, which will take place this October in Taipei. More information about the Forum Nokia Flash Hunt winners can be found at www.fnprotraining.com/nokia.

The Nokia Macromedia Mobile Flash Hunt’s top entries (in descending order):

• Acorn Mafia by Indiagames (India)

Acorn Mafia is a game surrounding the Squirelletto families. As winter approaches, the Joe and Don Squirelletto families start hoarding nuts while trying to steal each other’s acorns as they are moved from source to safehouse. Players will take control of any one of Squirelletto families and protect the precious cargo from theft at every step of the delivery chain. The delivery chain consists of baskets placed vertically, from the bottom to the top of a tree. The player must transfer the acorns all the way to the top without losing his acorns, while facing obstacles such as moving baskets, paratroopers and acorn-snatching bees.

• Air Pacific Flight Planner by Hungama Mobile (India)

Users will be able to use this application to retrieve flight information in real time. When the flight details are entered, the user will be shown where the plane is currently located, in a flash graphical format (instead of current text info available with other applications). Delays, changes and flight details can also be featured in the application graphically using flash technology. In addition to this, it can also be used to check the availability of a flight or book an airline ticket.

• Golf Sunshine by m-internet (Hong Kong)

This is an exciting nine-hole golf game purposely built for the mobile phone. The player strikes the ball in the direction of the hole, and tries to finish the course with the least number of strokes. Each hole is unique and of a different shape, and the different slopes add an extra challenge for the player. Other obstacles include stones on the course and water to obstruct the game.

• Piazza by J3T (Australia)

Piazza is an application that can be used at events and conferences. By using flash technology to create a complete event information guide on the mobile device, an interactive and multimedia interface is now possible. Event attendees can use the application to view presentations, check agenda, maps, venue information, speakers’ information, and even fill in evaluation forms – all using the mobile phone. Organizers can also update event information online or send updates to their delegates using MMS.

• The Little Prince Mobile Desktop Game by Vaka (Hong Kong)

This application is a game that also functions as a mobile desktop on the device when it’s not being played. The player’s mission is to help the Little Prince take care of his many daily routines on the planet B612 – including the rose, the volcanoes and the baobabs, by controlling the rotation of the planet. In the idle mode, the application works as an animated mobile desktop with features such as alarm clock, camera, browser, and messaging. Users can experience a flash and animated look-and-feel on their mobile devices.

• Are You Funny? by ANXA Digital Entertainment (Philippines)

This is an extremely entertaining application that tests consumers’ humor level using a quiz-based game. There are 20 multiple choice questions that the player has to enter on his mobile device, and the application will evaluate his level of humor, if any, and match his sense of humor to his personality. The test and results are presented using Flash technology.

• Battle Tank by Activate Interactive (Singapore)

An exciting war and strategy game where players are required to protect their fortress and destroy the enemies’ tanks to win the war. Both action and tactical planning are required as players also need to monitor their enemy and ammunition level to last through the war. To win the ultimate war, players must destroy all the enemies within the shortest time and with the least energy and ammunition consumption. Three different levels of game play are available. Game score boards and Top Score competition are additional features that are used to enhance the game play.

• Celebrity Horoscope by MNC (Malaysia)

Flash technology on the mobile phone allows the typically static horoscope to be presented with lots more fun. The daily horoscope is packaged with interesting bits of hot gossip about celebrities on the mobile device. The new information will automatically be sent to users’ mobile phones upon request. Once the user’s horoscope sign has been entered, the virtual celebrity physic character, Ginnie Mae, will read out the daily horoscope.

• The Inventor’s Workshop by Cube Interactive (Philippines)

This free-form puzzle game puts the player into the secret studio of a famed but absent-minded inventor, and challenges him to accomplish various tasks that were ordered by the king. The player must assist the inventor in identifying the parts needed to complete the creations in the bid to become a famous inventor himself. In the secret studio, missing pieces of objects are presented to the player, who then needs to construct machines to accomplish tasks such as waking the cat, popping the balloon and launching the gyrocopter, while filling the gaps of the main puzzle. The ultimate aim is to get the innovation to work. There are different levels of difficulty for gameplay.