A summary of mobile game development

I. Background INTRODUCTION

Today's mobile phone is a small computer that has limited processing power compared to the standard processing power of desktops, but is enough to run a small game.

One of the features of today's phones is that they are still networked computers that can send and receive digital data at high speeds. In addition to voice data, they can send and receive other types of data. So online games like "Legends" and "Millennium" can also be implemented on mobile phones.

Of course, in terms of processing power and performance, the current phase of the Java-enabled mobile phone is close to the second-generation console game consoles, the 80-century home computer and early handheld gaming consoles. Memory is usually limited-typically 128KB to 500kb--although some smartphones, such as Nokia 3650, have 4 MB of RAM. Their input and display capabilities are also limited compared to PCs, small screens (many still black and white), small keyboards optimized for phone dialing, not text input, and limited sound processing capabilities.

Second, how to achieve the mobile game

At present, the technology of implementing games in mobile phone mainly includes the following kinds:

1, embedded games

Some games in the factory before the curing in the chip, like Nokia's greedy snake is one of the most famous examples. But because users can't install new games on their own, they are becoming less popular.

2. Short Message service game

Short Message Service (SMS) is used to send brief text messages from one cell phone to another. Users generally pay 1 cents of information for each piece of information. The short message service game is usually played by sending a message to a number that corresponds to the game vendor's server, the server receives the message, performs some operations, and then returns a message with the result to the player's phone. The short message service is not a particularly good technique for implementing mobile games because it relies on user input text, so essentially it is a command-line environment. And it's expensive, and it costs 1 dollars or more to exchange 10 of messages with the server. Although the introduction of multimedia Messaging (MMS) technology makes the message based game more appealing, it is still not an important gaming environment, so we won't delve into it here.

3. Browser game

Almost 1999 years from now, every cell phone that leaves the factory has a wireless Application protocol (WAP) browser. WAP is essentially a static browsing carrier, much like a simplified web, specifically optimized for small features and low bandwidth for mobile phones. To play the WAP game, you can enter the URL of the game provider (usually through a link to the mobile operator portal), download and browse one or more pages, select a menu or enter text, submit data to the server, and then browse more pages. The WAP (1.x) version uses a unique markup language WML, allowing users to download multiple pages, the card group. The new version of WAP (2.x) uses a subset of XHTML, passing one page at a time and allowing better control of the display format. Both versions of WAP offer a more user-friendly interface than SMS, and are cheaper to pay, as long as they are based on usage time instead of information. But it is a static browsing carrier; The phone itself has little to do with the process, and all games must be over the network, and all operations are performed on the remote server. Mobile phones will continue to have WAP browsers, and developers may find that WAP facilitates the delivery of more detailed help information or rules than game applications, since most games are still limited by memory constraints. However, WAP failed to achieve high usage targets (in Europe and North America, only 6% of mobile phones use WAP), and mobile operators and game developers are moving away from WAP technology. Nor will we explore any WAP details here.

4, J2ME and other interpretation languages

Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) is a Java language for small devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. Most mobile phone manufacturers are eager to promote the application of Java mobile phones. Tens of millions of Java phones have been in the hands of consumers. J2ME is still a big limitation compared to Java in desktops, but it has greatly improved the ability of mobile phones to support gaming. It has a better control interface than SMS or WAP, allows the use of child graphics animations, and can be connected to a remote server over a wireless network. Support the popularity of Java mobile phones, so it becomes the best mobile game development environment, we will be here in detail to study the development of J2ME games. J2ME is not the only language of interpretation that is configured on a mobile phone, but it is an industry standard supported by many vendors. Some specialized interpretation languages also perform well in some areas, such as the Qualcomm Brew in North America (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, the binary running environment for wireless applications) And some South Korean mobile operators support the standard named GVM. In this series, we will focus on using J2ME to develop mobile games and introduce ways to develop mobile games on the Nokia platform.

5. C + + applications or other compiled languages

Another way to develop is to use C + + to develop mobile games and compile the program into native machine code. Compiler language programs generally provide a better control of the user interface and faster than the interpretation of the language. C + + developers can locate series 60 platform devices. In addition, Microsoft's. Net CF can also develop games on mobile devices in a compiled format, and in future articles I'll introduce the game development approach on the Pocket PC platform.