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News in brief - mobile advertising

Gamos Technology Solutions (GTS) has released 'Colomba Wate' ('Colombo Ride'), a free Java mobile game available to mobile users in Sri Lanka on any network. GTS says it is the first mobile game to be launched in Sri Lanka.
The game revolves around a taxi driver who must find passengers to make a living. The twist is that the environment depicted in the game is an almost identical map of Colombo, the business capital of Sri Lanka. This enables businesses in and around Colombo to place ads inside the game. Local audio clips have also been embedded in the game. There

First Sinhala mobile game launched For the first time in Sri Lanka, a unique Sinhala mobile game was introduced. The game revolves around a taxi based in Colombo. What is unique about this game is that the actual gaming environment depicts an almost identical map of Colombo with focus on the main streets. Talking a bit about the game, the gamer plays the character of a taxi driver. His objective is to earn money by taking hires in an around the Colombo area. What adds value is that the game not only shows the Colombo map, but it also has voice clips in Sinhala guiding the gamer. This not only keeps the user interested, but also it keeps the user entertained. Since it has a real environment of Colombo inside the game, companies in and around Colombo are able to place advertisements in the game. This is a revolutionary marketing approach which from the looks of it, has a direct consumer interest. Mobile phones are seen wherever we go in Sri Lanka. With seven million mobile phone users, it

Colomba Wate awards ceremony By. Pasan Fernando The first Sri Lankan mobile game 'Colomba Wate' developed by the Gamos Technology Solutions (GTS) www.gtslk.com company held its awards ceremony at the BMICH last Friday. Colomba Wate is a game where one plays the character of a taxi driver who takes passengers in their journeys around the virtual map of Colombo. The uniqueness of the game is the fact that the in-game map is based closely on Colombo's real-world streets, and consists of advertisements within the game (as opposed to advertisements before and after a game is played). The developer of the game W.G.T Fernando who is the Managing Director of GTS was a former student of Thurstan College and Wycherley International School. He went to UK to obtain his Bachelors Degree at the University of Liverpool and then to Kings College, University of London for his Masters. Both his Degrees at the Universities were in the field of Computing. He was a former lecturer at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa and is also the author of 4 books targeting the O-level and A-level students doing ICT and GIT exams. The awards ceremony was attended by cricket legend Sanath Jayasuriya, Dr. Ajith Madurapperuma, Senior Lecturer and former Dean, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa, Kala Suri Ariesen Ahubudu, Former Language Advisor to the President, world renowned writer, poet, lyricist, artist, Prof Rohan Samarajiva, LIRNEasia, Executive Director, Former Director General Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and Daya Rohana Athukorala, Senior Lecturer, University of Colombo. Speaking at the event Dr Ajith Madurapperuma said: "It was a great loss for us at the University to see Mr. Fernando leave but it is a great gain for the country to see such raw talent being used this way." Kala Suri Arisen Ahubudu said: "Sri Lankan people are very talented and should shine in every field of activity. Such talent is showcased here with the creation of an important national product and I hope more Sri Lankans would emulate the creation of such products in the future that are relevant to our motherland." Prof Rohan Samarajiva enlightened the audience with statistics that point to a trend among mobile users to use the mobile phone not just to make calls but for a number of multi functions. He also said that this game is quite useful for people outside Colombo and people in Colombo to know the roads in Colombo, and hoped that in the future the game would help the people in Colombo as a navigator. Daya Rohana Athukorala praised the game for breaking the barriers and creating such an innovative product to Sri Lanka. He highlighted the importance of keeping pace with new technologies and that GTS had shown the way. Dasun Costa, Janith De Silva and Chamikara Rejinton were chosen as the top three players of the game from the competition held between the 8th and 24th last month. The top three players received Gold, Silver and Bronze medals along with top of the range valuable mobile phones. The medals were given away by the Chief Guest Sanath Jayasuriya. An award was also given out to Lasanka Dias who was chosen as the biggest fan who helped promote and spread the word of the game and was presented with a Sony Ericsson K550i mobile phone. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Mr. Fernando said: "It has been a challenging run, but I am extremely happy to see the game a success. If anyone would like to download the game, they could do so by going to www.games.lk." He further added that the company has already begun work on its next venture, the game based on the popular hit film 'Aba' by Jackson Anthony. http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=25757

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Colomba Wate - interview By. Pasan Fernando The launch of the first ever Sinhala mobile game 'Colomba Wate' took place recently. In this interview the Managing Director of GTS (www.gtslk.com), W.G.T. Fernando talks to the Daily Mirror about the innovative game and its future potential. Q: How did you come up with Colomba Wate? "Colomba Wate" aka "Colombo Ride" was one of my dreams that became a reality. The idea sparked when I wanted to play a mobile game with a local flavour, however there was no such games in the market. Therefore I took the initiative to draft such a game and Colombo Wate was the outcome. Q: What is 'Colomba Wate'? Colomba Wate is a game where the gamer plays the character of a taxi driver. The game's role is to pick and drop passengers in their journeys. The best part about the whole game is that the gaming environment is almost identical to a map of Colombo. We identified the prominent roads that we could use to promote Colombo to the world and focused on the roads that had a high density of commercial properties. There are over 50 roads present in the game. One of the best features of the game would be the fact that it is provided free to anyone who wants to use it. Q: Is there any commercial value in this product? Most Certainly! With the real roads embedded into the game it is possible for the real companies in those roads to place their buildings in the game to promote their business. To be fair, we have also allowed companies that are not present in Colombo to advertise in the game. We had a fair amount of responses from companies in and around Colombo for this version and we already have companies inquiring about advertising placements for the next release of this game in January 2009. Q: When everything is sold at a premium these days, why did your company decide to give this game for free? Bill Gates recently reiterated about 'Creative capitalism' where "it is necessary for corporations that have the skills to make technological innovations work for the masses. An attempt to stretch the reach of market forces so that more companies can benefit from doing work that makes more people better off" I believe that in order to promote this game, we need to make it convenient to the consumer as much as possible and not everyone has the capability to pay for such a game. Our revenue is solely made by the companies that wish to advertise with us in the game. Q: Was it smooth sailing since you started or did you have any obstacles to overcome? With no previous research conducted in this area but with a solid plan, we went about researching the gaming penetration and creating the entertaining game. The first problem we came across was in keeping the game to a minimum size. To comply with this restriction, we had to remove certain features of the game, such as the number of sound clips and the number of roads we could embed into the game. GTS employs a team of highly skilled people (past students of mine from the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa). With dedication and a passion for perfection, we were able to produce this unique game. Q: You mentioned sound clips. What kind of sound clips do yon have and what is the reason behind including them? Sound clips put the icing on our product. Let's say the gamer is playing the game and sees a passenger in Galle Road. When the gamer picks up the passenger a sound clips is played in Sinhala telling where the passenger needs to be dropped. For example, we have one sound clip saying 'Mawa Thurstan Pinum Thatakaya lagin aralawanna' (Please drop me near the Thurstan Swimming pool). This adds value to the game as it gives a sense of added entertainment to the gamer. Q: Can you tell us more about the game and its objectives? The objective of the game is to take the passengers to their destinations, earn their hire, pay for petrol and other day to day activities. We organized a competition to select 10 top gamers with the highest scores. To be eligible for the competition a person should register on our website www.games.lk. In the game there is an option where the gamer can choose to submit their high score to enter the competition. The same username used in registration is needed to be submitted when submitting the score. This way, we are able to contact the person via email since the registration has the authentic email of each user. The top were selected on the 23rd August and had a chance to battle it out for the top 3 places during the Awards ceremony event. Q: You must be thrilled to see your efforts reach its peak? Yes, I am very proud of my team. A lot of dedication went into creating this product. There were times when we would work from 8am till 6am the next day! On the days prior to the launch we had spent 2 days at a stretch but it was all worth it in the end. Special effort and hard work was undertaken by Devinka Andrahamiadi - senior developer, Namal Fernando - creative designer and Amila Mendis - website developer. Q: GTS can be considered the pioneers of mobile gaming in Sri Lanka. What is you view on the future for the mobile gaming industry to expand in Sri Lanka? We honestly cannot predict the future, but we should prepare for it. We have a tremendous pool of talent in our country and must decide what we can do with it. Are we going to sell out our talent to foreign countries or going to use that talent to help our country reach its true potential. I honestly hope that people will use this game as an example and come up with even better ideas for mobile games in Sri Lanka. GTS is already working on the 2nd Sinhala game 'Aba Keliya' for Jackson Anthony's historic film 'Aba' which is creating new records in the film industry. It will also be the first film in Sri Lanka to have a mobile game based on the film. http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=25418

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Sri Lankan Mobile Game to be Ad Supported

Gamos Technology Solutions is releasing a mobile game titled

Sri Lanka gets unique ad-funded mobile game Taxi for Colombo Ride...
by Stuart Dredge

Talking about ad-funded location-based mobile games might sound like one of those futuregazing sessions you get at trade shows, but it's actually something that's happening in Sri Lanka this week.

The game in question is called Colombo Ride, developed by local firm Gamos Technology Solutions.

It's based on a taxi in Sri Lankan city Colombo, with players earning money as a taxi driver