Games on Symbian OS : A Handbook for Mobile Development

by Chehimi, Fadi; Clarke, Leon; Coffey, Michael; Coulton, Paul; Davies, Twm; Geisler, Roland; Hietala, Nigel; Mason, Sam; Nielsen, Peter Lykke; Pamir, Aleks Garo; Stichbury, Jo

• ISBN13: 9780470998045
• ISBN10: 0470998040
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-29
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The first part of this book discusses the mobile games industry, and includes analysis of why the mobile industry differs from other sectors of the games market, a discussion of the sales of mobile games, their types, the gamers who play them, and how the games are sold. The second part describes key aspects of writing games for Symbian smartphones using Symbian C++ and native APIs. The chapters cover the use of graphics and audio, multiplayer game design, the basics of writing a game loop using Symbian OS active objects, and general good practice. There is also a chapter covering the use of hardware APIs, such as the camera and vibra. Part Three covers porting games to Symbian OS using C or C++, and discusses the standards support that Symbian OS provides,and some of the middleware solutions available. A chapter about the N-Gage platform discusses how Nokia is pioneering the next generation of mobile games, by providing a platform SDK for professional games developers to port games rapidly and effectively. The final part of the book discusses how to create mobile games for Symbian smartphones using java ME, Doja (for Japan) or Flash Lite 2. This book will help you if you are: * a C++ developer familiar with mobile development but new to the games market * a professional games developer wishing to port your games to run on Symbian OS platforms such as S60 and UIQ * someone who is interested in creating C++, Java ME or Flash Lite games for Symbian smartphones. This book shows how to create mobile games for Symbian smartphones such as S60 3rd Edition, UIQ3 or FOMA devices. It includes contributions from a number of experts in the mobile games industry, including Nokia's N-gage team, Ideaworks3D, and ZingMagic, as well as academics leading the field of innovative mobile experiences.

Author Biography

Jo Stichbury has worked within the Symbian ecosystem since 1997, in the Base, Connectivity, and Security teams of Symbian, as well as for Advansys, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. At Nokia, she worked in the N-Gage team, providing technical support to game developers worldwide, and while there, she discovered that it is possible to play games at work legitimately. there's been no going back, and she's now trying to think up an excuse for playing Spore professionally for Symbian Press, whilst eagerly awaiting the game's release.

Jo is author of Symbian OS Explained: Effective C++ Programming for Smartphones, which was published by Symbian Press in 2004. She co-authored the Accredited Symbian Developer Primer: Fundamentals of Symbian OS, with her partner, Mark Jacobs, published by Symbian Press in 2006.

Jo became an Accredited Symbian Developer in 2005 and a Forum Nokia Champion in 2006 and 2007.

Table of Contents

Forewords	p. ix
About this Book	p. xiii
About the Authors	p. xvii
Editor's Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
A Symbian Perspective on Mobile Games
Introduction	p. 1
Why Games?	p. 1
What Is Symbian? What Is Symbian OS?	p. 2
Some Statistics	p. 6
Games Platforms Compared	p. 10
Types of Mobile Games	p. 13
Who Plays Mobile Games?	p. 16
Who's Who in Mobile Game Creation?	p. 17
Mobile Game Distribution: Routes to Market	p. 20
The User Experience	p. 25
Mobile Game Platforms	p. 27
Portability and Compatibility	p. 32
Smartphone Characteristics	p. 37
The Future for Games on Symbian Smartphones	p. 38
Summary	p. 40
Creating Native Games on Symbian OS v9
Symbian OS Game Basics	p. 43
Introduction	p. 43
The Game Loop	p. 43
The Heartbeat Timer	p. 46
Handling Input from the Keypad	p. 49
Handling Input from the Screen	p. 52
System Events	p. 54
Memory Management and Disk Space	p. 57
Maths and Floating Point Support	p. 59
Tools and Further Reading	p. 60
Graphics on Symbian OS	p. 61
Introduction	p. 61
Overview	p. 62
On Frame Rate	p. 64
About Display Memory	p. 67
A Primer on Drawing on Symbian OS	p. 68
Direct Screen Access	p. 75
Double Buffering and Anti-Tearing	p. 83
Pixel Color Representations	p. 90
Loading and Manipulating Images	p. 97
Scaling for Variable Screen Sizes and Resolutions	p. 105
Rendering Text	p. 111
Playing Video Clips	p. 115
Less Useful APIs	p. 121
Summary	p. 121
Adding Audio to Games on Symbian OS	p. 123
Introduction	p. 123
Multimedia Framework (MMF)	p. 124
Sound Effects	p. 128
Background Music	p. 142
Best Practice in Mobile Game Audio	p. 150
What's Next?	p. 151
Multiplayer Games	p. 157
Introduction	p. 157
Local Multiplayer Games Over a Bluetooth Connection	p. 159
Online Multiplayer Games	p. 160
Airplay Online: A Multiplayer SDK and Service Solution	p. 165
N-Gage Arena	p. 171
Other Online Multiplayer Solutions	p. 174
Further Reading	p. 174
Exploiting the Phone Hardware	p. 175
Introduction	p. 175
Camera	p. 178
Location	p. 188
3D Motion Sensors	p. 198
Vibration	p. 207
Summary	p. 216
Acknowledgements	p. 216
Porting Games to Symbian OS
C/C++ Standards Support for Games Developers on Symbian OS	p. 217
P.I.P.S. Is POSIX on Symbian OS	p. 217
Open C	p. 220
OpenKODE	p. 224
OpenVG	p. 227
OpenMAX	p. 228
OpenSL ES	p. 229
EGL	p. 230
OpenGL ES	p. 231
Get Your Fix	p. 234
Enough Already!	p. 236
Further Reading	p. 237
The N-Gage Platform	p. 239
A Brief History of N-Gage	p. 239
N-Gage Platform: The Next Generation of Mobile Gaming	p. 244
The N-Gage SDK	p. 248
The N-Gage Application	p. 256
Becoming an N-Gage Developer	p. 262
Summary	p. 264
Java ME, DoJa and Flash Lite on Symbian OS
MIDP Games on Symbian OS	p. 265
Introduction	p. 265
Java ME 101	p. 265
To Java ME or Not To Java ME?	p. 270
Tools and SDKs	p. 271
What About MIDP on Symbian OS?	p. 272
Pausing for Breath	p. 274
Living it Up	p. 277
Game Architecture	p. 280
Case Study: Third Degree	p. 282
Did You Hear That SNAP?	p. 289
And Another Thing...	p. 293
Further Reading	p. 294
Games In Japan	p. 297
Introduction	p. 297
The Japanese Market	p. 297
Enter DoJa!	p. 299
DoJa 2.5 Overview	p. 302
Porting MIDP to DoJa	p. 310
DoJa and Eclipse	p. 313
Mascot	p. 316
Tokyo Titles	p. 318
At The End Of The Day	p. 319
Flash Lite Games on Symbian OS	p. 321
Introduction	p. 321
Flash Lite on Mobile Phones	p. 323
Flash Lite Overview	p. 324
Flash Lite Development Tools	p. 329
Flash Lite Ecosystem	p. 335
References and Resources	p. 337
Airplay	p. 341
Index	p. 351
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