Transcript Lecture 11
COIT23003 Games Development Mobile Phone Platforms References • Meigs, T., 2003. Ultimate Game Design: Building Game Worlds, McGraw Hill. • Wikipedia, 2008 • http://www.forum.nokia.com, 2008 • http://www.developer.symbian.com, 2008 Game Platforms • • • • Game Consoles PCs Game servers Mobile phones Platform Issues – Hardware varies quite dramatically (eg memory, cpu, graphics, screen size, i/o devices) – Consoles/mobile phones require specialist software development environments (cross compilers, emulators, vendor-specific libraries etc) – PC environments vary (OS, graphics cards, graphics software, …) Disclaimer • In what follows, we use Nokia only as an illustration of the typical mobile game development process … • There are of course other suitable platforms and development environments to those that we mention here, eg – Java ME (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_ME) – BREW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREW) – Windows Mobile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile) Nokia N79 (announced 26/08/08) – Operating System: Symbian OS v9.3 – CPU: ARM 11 (369 MHz) – Maximum User Storage: 50 Mb – Maximum memory card size: 8 Gb – Display resolution: 240x320 – Colour Depth: 24 bit – Developer platform: S60 3rd edition http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N79 A Low-end Desktop (circa 2008) – – – – – – – – – Operating System: Windows XP CPU: Intel xxxx (2.5 GHz) Memory: 2 Gb Hard Drive: 320 Gb Display : 22” wide screen Colour Depth: 24 bit Graphics Card: 256 Mb ATI Radeon HD 3450 Developer platform: Large range …. Class Exercise • What are the key differences between the platforms? What will be the impact in terms of games development? Software Development using S60 – S60 provides – runtime support for user applications developed using Java ME, C++, Flash Lite, Python – Access to APIs for messaging, communications, personal information management, browsing, web services, User Interface development, multimedia – Access to OS functionality and OS extensions – Applications are developed on a PC using a suitable IDE and supporting tools (cross compilers, emulators, etc) Further Reading (non-examinable) • Symbian http://developer.symbian.com/main/documentation/books/books_files/pdf/Getting_Started_final.pdf • Java ME http://developer.symbian.com/main/documentation/books/books_files/pdf/JavaME.pdf • S60 http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/c5a37690-f5c0-42f5-95bc8e31dad39040/S60_Platform_FAQ_v1_12_en.pdf.html Further Reading (non-examinable) Alternative development platforms for Nokia devices include – Series 40 (uses proprietary OS) http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/276d04a9-4c53-424f-801a3f7492c6937e/Series_40_Platform_FAQ_v3_2_en.pdf.html – Maemo (uses Linux) http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/platforms/maemo/#documentation Games Development (Nokia) • Develop using the SDKs supported by S60/Series 40/Maemo • Develop using the SNAP Mobile SDK, enabling you to add connected-game-playing features to your games for devices that support Java™ ME or Java™ SE technology. What is Connected Gaming? • Basically, its online gaming with mobile phone clients. Refer to http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/60e6d152-ceba-4ba2-b13cf4caf5695818/SNAP_Mobile_White_Paper_v2_0_en.pdf.html Class Discussion • At http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/technologies/snap_mobile/, Nokia state that “Connected game-playing is the future of games”. Do you agree or disagree with this assertion? Design issues for Mobile Phone Games • Platform weaknesses (relative to consoles/PCs) include (Meigs, 220-221) – Limited processing power – Limited screen size – Low frame rates – Limited memory configurations – Slow data transfer speeds – Poor audio – Limited user interaction • Platform strengths include – Physical portability – Ubiquity – Inherent connectivity Design issues for Mobile Phone Games • Avoid designing games that are – – – – Processor intensive Require large amounts of memory Require high resolution graphics Sophisticated user interaction • Note that while these attributes for mobile phones are continually improving, there will always be a performance gap between phones and game consoles/PCs • Focus on the platform strengths What Works? – Low-intensity shooters – Arcade games – Sports games – Puzzles – Trivia games – Multiplayer online games (Meigs, pp. 223-226)