Wiley.Games.on.Symbian.OS.A.Handbook.for.Mobile.Development.Apr.2008 (779888), страница 2
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So why areyou here, at the opening pages of a book devoted to the subject of mobilegames on Symbian OS?I don’t have to tell you about the revolution that has happened(and is still happening) in mobile phone hardware. Phones today areunrecognizable from the cumbersome black boxes we see in 1980’svideo clips, proudly displayed as fashion accessories by loud-mouthedstockbrokers. One mobile phone manufacturer today describes theirflagship range as ‘multimedia computers’ – and we can see why. Highresolution, sharp and brightly-lit screens, many megabytes of memory,fast processors, and even hardware graphics acceleration, these all addup to a very powerful piece of computing hardware. Whilst it may betrue that voice communication and text messaging are still the mostpopular services, phones are increasingly being relied upon for email,web browsing, and entertainment such as music, video, mobile TV,and games.Network operators derive revenue by encouraging users to downloadcontent to their phone.
Until recently, the primary drivers for theserevenues were ‘wallpapers’ (images displayed on the phone’s front screen)and ringtones. However, as this book will explain, over the last year manyoperators have seen game revenues overtake other content types. This isdue partly to the increase in the quality and variety of games on offer, butalso to the improved user experience offered by operators to consumerswhen searching for and choosing to download a game.Symbian OS is the leading smartphone operating system in the worldtoday, occupying over 90 % of the European market, large swathes of thexFOREWORDAsian markets and elsewhere. In addition, Symbian OS has evolved overmany, many years and is arguably a more mature and well-understoodplatform than many of its competitors. As such, Symbian OS is an excellentchoice for mobile games developers looking to develop expertise anddeploy to a wide consumer base.Ideaworks3D is a leading developer of advanced mobile games andenabling technologies for cross-platform mobile game development.
OurBAFTA award-winning studio collaborates with the industry’s leadingmobile and video game publishers to mobilize their flagship game franchises, including Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix), Need for Speed andThe Sims 2 Mobile (EA Mobile). We also innovate to create originalgames for handheld and mobile platforms, including such games asSystem Rush: Evolution (Nokia).
We have been developing games forSymbian OS since 2002. We were heavily involved in the launch ofNokia’s N-Gage game decks (a handset designed specifically for playingmobile games, based on Symbian OS 6.1) in 2003. We are now equallyinvolved in the next generation of N-Gage, as a platform that allowshigh-quality games on many of Nokia’s flagship smartphones. We havealso deployed games to all of the open native operating systems in theworld today. As such, we believe we have some valuable insights intomobile game development on all platforms, including Symbian OS.
Wehave passed on some of our experience within this book.Our excitement for mobile games remains undimmed, and we believethe future for the industry is brighter than ever.ForewordAntony Edwards, VP Developer Product Marketing, Symbian LtdGame development has always been at the bleeding edge of technology.In 1984, when IBM first tried to enter the personal computer market withthe IBM PCjr, they ensured Sierra On-Line’s King’s Quest was there forthe launch.
Game consoles were the first multi-processor computers tomake it into most people’s lives, and game developers have used theconnectivity provided by the Internet to revolutionize their games morethan any other software genre. We’ve seen NetHack on more prototypeoperating systems than we can remember. And, though it’s not talkedabout, I’m sure that there was a game hidden away in the accumulatorsof the ENIAC somewhere. . .Mobile devices present the next great adventure for game developers.Mobile devices are always connected, always at hand, and often includefeatures such as location-based services and a camera, which provide acanvas for game developers to create the most engaging experiences yet.This book is dedicated to helping game developers create and definethis new genre of mobile games on Symbian smartphones.
Symbian OS isthe world’s most popular smartphone operating system, having shipped inover 145 million devices across 120 models. Symbian licenses SymbianOS to the world’s leading handset manufacturers and works closely withall leading companies across the mobile industry to help create new andcompelling mobile experiences.Symbian has been an innovator in multimedia and graphics since thebeginning. Symbian OS was the first smartphone OS to support OpenGLES for mobile 3D graphics in 2004.
We recently announced a majornew graphics architecture that supports OpenVG, OpenGL ES 2.0, andOpenWF Composition API. Symbian OS v9.5 is set to deliver higherperformance and richer graphics. What will developers do with all ourxiiFOREWORDnew technology? We’re not entirely sure, but we are sure it’s going tobe exciting.
That’s the great part of being the world’s leading mobileoperating system.Symbian is also making it easier to port existing games to our smartphone platforms. The P.I.P.S. and Open C initiatives for POSIX-compliantC/C++ development, support for standards such as OpenGL ES, and ouropen platform for middleware solutions all make Symbian OS flexible forprofessional developers to migrate games to our smartphones. What better demonstration of this could there be than Olli Hinkka’s open sourceport of Quake for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 smartphones, whichuses the P.I.P.S.
libraries to recreate that pre-eminent shoot ‘em up in allits gory glory?The authors bring a wealth of experience from both the game industryand Symbian OS development to this book. Whether you are new towriting mobile games, or are already an experienced game developer,you will find it invaluable. It covers Symbian OS game developmentusing C, C++, Java ME, DoJa, and Flash Lite. We hope it will spark yourimagination to create games for our next generation of smartphones.About this BookThis book forms part of the Symbian Press Technology series.
It describesthe key aspects of the mobile game market, with particular emphasis oncreating games for smartphones based on Symbian OS v9.x.What Is Covered?This book divides into four parts. The first part introduces the world ofmobile games. It aims to explain what mobile games are, who plays them,who writes and sells them, how they sell them and what the major issuesare in the marketplace.
We’ll look at some statistics for the sales of mobilegames and mobile phones, and make comparisons with game consoles,handheld systems and PC games. The first chapter is not technical andis suitable for anyone interested in finding out more about the mobilegames industry. However, there is an excursion into the differencesbetween BREW, Java ME and native C++ games, a brief foray into issuesof compatibility and portability, and a short introduction to some of theaspects of game development that characterize any mobile platform. Sothere’s something for developers too: topics are introduced gradually,with signposts directing readers where to go for more information withinthe rest of the book – and beyond.The second part of the book covers various technical areas associatedwith creating games in C++ on Symbian OS v9 smartphones (using thenative APIs provided by UIQ 3 or S60 3rd Edition SDKs).
Chapter 2 coversthe basics of writing a game in Symbian C++, Chapter 3 delves deep intothe Symbian OS graphics architecture, Chapter 4 deals with adding audioto games, and Chapter 5 discusses the issues associated with creating amultiplayer game.
The final chapter in this part of the book is Chapter 6,xivABOUT THIS BOOKwhich discusses how to be innovative and create novel and appealinggameplay by using phone functionality, such as motion detection, thecamera, the vibra or location-based services.The third part of the book is for game developers who are interestedin porting games without using just the native Symbian OS C++ APIs.Chapter 7 discusses the various standards support available on SymbianOS, such as POSIX-compliant standard C libraries, OpenKODE andOpenGL ES. Chapter 8 describes the Nokia N-Gage platform, whichis Nokia’s initiative to bring high quality games to S60 3rd Editionsmartphones by providing a platform for professional game developers toport their game code using standard C and C++. N-Gage is more thanan SDK and comprises an end-to-end solution for users to discover, play,and share games, and in Chapter 8, we’ll discuss how developers workwith Nokia to achieve this.The final part of the book is for developers who want to write games forSymbian smartphones without using C or C++ at all.
Chapter 9 describesthe support available for Java ME on Symbian OS, and walks throughan example game. The same author then explores the DoJa standardsavailable for creating Java games for installation to Symbian smartphonesin Japan, where the majority of phones are supplied by NTT DoCoMoand a different set of rules for application creation and distribution apply.The last chapter of this section, and the book, describes game creationusing Flash Lite 2, which is supported on S60 3rd Edition smartphonesand Symbian smartphones in Japan.This book doesn’t present a single example of a game that it buildsfrom scratch throughout the book, because we find that this approachtends to constrain the text, and the reader, to the details of the example.Instead, we’ve used a number of different examples for each chapter;these have been tailored specifically to illustrate the topic in question.Where possible, we have avoided using large chunks of example code inthe technical chapters of the book, and have instead put the code, in full,on the website for this book developer.symbian.com/gamesbook.If you would like to read more about the creation of a full gameexample in C++ on Symbian OS, we highly recommend a paper on theSymbian Developer Network by one of the authors of this book, TwmDavies.
The Roids paper (developer.symbian.com/roidsgame) explainsthe design, implementation and optimization of an Asteroids clone forSymbian OS v9. The example code and installation files for both S60 3rdEdition and UIQ 3 phones can also be downloaded from the website.Recommendations for other papers and code downloads for full gameexamples can be found in the References and Resources section at theend of this book.ABOUT THIS BOOKxvPlease also take a look at the book’s page on the Symbian Developerwiki (developer.symbian.com/wiki/display/academy/Games+on+Symbian+OS) for a set of useful links to other mobile game developerresources, and an errata page for the book. Do feel free to visit it regularlyand to contribute.Who Is this Book for?The typical reader may be:• a C++ or Java ME developer already creating applications or serviceson Symbian OS who wants to take advantage of the growth incommercial mobile games• anyone in the game industry (e.g., a professional or hobbyist developer, game producer or designer) who wants to target games forSymbian OS• a developer new to Symbian OS who wants to learn about the platformand is experimenting by creating a game.But we don’t like to stereotype our readers, and hope that if you don’tfit into these categories, you’ll still find something of interest in this book!The technical chapters assume that you have a working knowledgeof either C++ on Symbian OS or Java ME.
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