The nD (Indie) handheld gaming device is being touted as a gaming system created by indie developers, for indie developers.<\/p>\n
Seemingly fed up with the corporate direction that the games industry has taken, project leader Robert Pelloni has decided to take matters into his own hands. Pelloni once staged a 100 day protest<\/a> outside of Nintendo head offices because they would not give him official developer status. Despite his protest, he was ultimately denied this status.<\/p>\n Coming from the nD mission statement: “We believe that there is a place for a dedicated handheld game console. Especially an inexpensive one.”<\/p>\n “We don’t think that large, fragile phones or expensive high-end devices are appropriate for kids, one of the largest demographics for video games.”<\/p>\n “As developers ourselves, we want a device where players can enjoy total immersion with proper video game controls- without being interrupted by phone calls.”<\/p>\n “We think a handheld game system doesn’t need to have cutting edge graphics- we liked the cartoon look of 2D graphics and pixel-perfect game mechanics as kids, and kids prefer this style today.”<\/p>\n The nD handheld takes advantage of the economies of scale that have lead to the proliferation of smartphones around the globe. Using readily available and affordable technologies, the nD project believes that it can deliver a device that costs US$10 (±R70).<\/p>\n The idea is to not only sell the device cheaply to encourage people to buy the games which can be played on it, but to also bundle the device with all sorts of other entertainment products as a promotional item. The device will also be sold in retail stores preloaded with a selection of the most popular games.<\/p>\n The nD will run a custom Linux OS and indie game developers will be free to develop games for it, with an option to sell via the nD app store. The plan is that developers will receive 90% of the proceeds through the nd app store, and the nD project will take 10% for its troubles of developing and marketing the device.<\/p>\n The nD is currently in the prototyping stage, but news coming from the project hints that it may have up to a 400Mhz CPU and a 320×240 resolution display (in comparison, the Nintendo DS has a 256×192 display). The vision is for a device which can handle some retro-style 16-bit games in high resolution. There is even a hint of 3D capability.<\/p>\n Many indie game developers have already pledged to bring titles to the device when it launches. Check out the selection of nD game pledges<\/a> on the nD website.<\/p>\n