The development of video games on mobile phones has taken on a new appearance in China as an increasing number of designers seek inspiration from traditional Chinese literature.

With the number of mobile phone users skyrocketing over the past few years, playing games on mobile phones has become fashionable, especially among young people. Having gone through the initial frenzy about imported games, many designers began to create stories, roles or images familiar to Chinese users.

A Shenzhen-based company, DIDDAP Digital Graphic, recently released their award-winning game based on China's fairy tales, Dream God (Meng Fengshen).

The plot of the game comes from a traditional Chinese classic Story of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi) which can be seen as a Chinese equivalent of the Lord of Rings.

Divided into six parts, the game starts with a boy named Aji falling into the dreamland of legends and demons. The users may direct Aji to interact with such heroes of legends as Nezha, Jiang Ziya and Yang Jian.

(China Daily December 29, 2003)