Games on Symbian OS : a handbook for mobile development

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 Notes

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.

Forewords	p. ix
About this Book	p. xiii
About the Authors	p. xvii
Editor's Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
Part 1 A Symbian Perspective on Mobile Games
1 Introduction	p. 1
1.1 Why Games?	p. 1
1.2 What Is Symbian? What Is Symbian OS?	p. 2
1.3 Some Statistics	p. 6
1.4 Games Platforms Compared	p. 10
1.5 Types of Mobile Games	p. 13
1.6 Who Plays Mobile Games?	p. 16
1.7 Who's Who in Mobile Game Creation?	p. 17
1.8 Mobile Game Distribution: Routes to Market	p. 20
1.9 The User Experience	p. 25
1.10 Mobile Game Platforms	p. 27
1.11 Portability and Compatibility	p. 32
1.12 Smartphone Characteristics	p. 37
1.13 The Future for Games on Symbian Smartphones	p. 38
1.14 Summary	p. 40
Part 2 Creating Native Games on Symbian OS v9
2 Symbian OS Game Basics	p. 43
2.1 Introduction	p. 43
2.2 The Game Loop	p. 43
2.3 The Heartbeat Timer	p. 46
2.4 Handling Input from the Keypad	p. 49
2.5 Handling Input from the Screen	p. 52
2.6 System Events	p. 54
2.7 Memory Management and Disk Space	p. 57
2.8 Maths and Floating Point Support	p. 59
2.9 Tools and Further Reading	p. 60
3 Graphics on Symbian OS	p. 61
3.1 Introduction	p. 61
3.2 Overview	p. 62
3.3 On Frame Rate	p. 64
3.4 About Display Memory	p. 67
3.5 A Primer on Drawing on Symbian OS	p. 68
3.6 Direct Screen Access	p. 75
3.7 Double Buffering and Anti-Tearing	p. 83
3.8 Pixel Color Representations	p. 90
3.9 Loading and Manipulating Images	p. 97
3.10 Scaling for Variable Screen Sizes and Resolutions	p. 105
3.11 Rendering Text	p. 111
3.12 Playing Video Clips	p. 115
3.13 Less Useful APIs	p. 121
3.14 Summary	p. 121
4 Adding Audio to Games on Symbian OS	p. 123
4.1 Introduction	p. 123
4.2 Multimedia Framework (MMF)	p. 124
4.3 Sound Effects	p. 128
4.4 Background Music	p. 142
4.5 Best Practice in Mobile Game Audio	p. 150
4.6 What's Next?	p. 151
5 Multiplayer Games	p. 157
5.1 Introduction	p. 157
5.2 Local Multiplayer Games Over a Bluetooth Connection	p. 159
5.3 Online Multiplayer Games	p. 160
5.4 Airplay Online: A Multiplayer SDK and Service Solution	p. 165
5.5 N-Gage Arena	p. 171
5.6 Other Online Multiplayer Solutions	p. 174
5.7 Further Reading	p. 174
6 Exploiting the Phone Hardware	p. 175
6.1 Introduction	p. 175
6.2 Camera	p. 178
6.3 Location	p. 188
6.4 3D Motion Sensors	p. 198
6.5 Vibration	p. 207
6.6 Summary	p. 216
6.7 Acknowledgements	p. 216
Part 3 Porting Games to Symbian OS
7 C/C++ Standards Support for Games Developers on Symbian OS	p. 217
7.1 P.I.P.S. Is POSIX on Symbian OS	p. 217
7.2 Open C	p. 220
7.3 OpenKODE	p. 224
7.4 OpenVG	p. 227
7.5 OpenMAX	p. 228
7.6 OpenSL ES	p. 229
7.7 EGL	p. 230
7.8 OpenGL ES	p. 231
7.9 Get Your Fix	p. 234
7.10 Enough Already!	p. 236
7.11 Further Reading	p. 237
8 The N-Gage Platform	p. 239
8.1 A Brief History of N-Gage	p. 239
8.2 N-Gage Platform: The Next Generation of Mobile Gaming	p. 244
8.3 The N-Gage SDK	p. 248
8.4 The N-Gage Application	p. 256
8.5 Becoming an N-Gage Developer	p. 262
8.6 Summary	p. 264
Part 4 Java ME, DoJa and Flash Lite on Symbian OS
9 MIDP Games on Symbian OS	p. 265
9.1 Introduction	p. 265
9.2 Java ME 101	p. 265
9.3 To Java ME or Not To Java ME?	p. 270
9.4 Tools and SDKs	p. 271
9.5 What About MIDP on Symbian OS?	p. 272
9.6 Pausing for Breath	p. 274
9.7 Living it Up	p. 277
9.8 Game Architecture	p. 280
9.9 Case Study: Third Degree	p. 282
9.10 Did You Hear That SNAP?	p. 289
9.11 And Another Thing...	p. 293
9.12 Further Reading	p. 294
10 Games In Japan	p. 297
10.1 Introduction	p. 297
10.2 The Japanese Market	p. 297
10.3 Enter DoJa!	p. 299
10.4 DoJa 2.5 Overview	p. 302
10.5 Porting MIDP to DoJa	p. 310
10.6 DoJa and Eclipse	p. 313
10.7 Mascot	p. 316
10.8 Tokyo Titles	p. 318
10.9 At The End Of The Day	p. 319
11 Flash Lite Games on Symbian OS	p. 321
11.1 Introduction	p. 321
11.2 Flash Lite on Mobile Phones	p. 323
11.3 Flash Lite Overview	p. 324
11.4 Flash Lite Development Tools	p. 329
11.5 Flash Lite Ecosystem	p. 335
References and Resources	p. 337
Appendix Airplay	p. 341
Index	p. 351

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Author Notes

Table of Contents