Youssef Boubli

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Few Tips on Mobile Game Programming

Modernization of cell phones came about at the fag end of the 20th century and users started expecting more and more form mobile phones. The change was enough to trigger advancement in development of applications for mobile phones. Video games, now, better known as games for mobile phones was one of the new features of mobile modernization and was being viewed as a lucrative business by software development industry. The enhanced graphic capability of the advanced cell phones made several companies to take up projects on development of games for mobile phones, and reap profits.

Over the years development of games for mobile phones has made steady progress and off late 3D mobile games development has become a primary area of development, especially after the 2010 world cup. Today writing or developing games for mobile phones is a bit better than only playing games. This, however, needs a lot of learning and hands on practice for experience. Some basic tips for developing mobile games are discussed in the subsequent paras for the benefit of all those who are eyeing to enter this industry.

The first important step is to decide the objective of the game and look for the language which will provide all the features required for developing the game. As there are several languages available to choose form, the key is to make the right choice. Selection of the language will also depend upon the type of game to be developed. For example JSR184 is best suited for developing a 3D game. The next important task is to decide the engine architecture of the game or your coding could be a sheer wastage of time because of small issues which are not supported by the architecture of the engine.

Some of the platforms available for programming mobile games include J2ME java Eclipse Net Beans, Symbian C++ Many choices, Python Eclipse with plugins, BREW C, C++ visual Studio and Flash Lite Action Script Macrodedia Flash. Here also making the right choice is essential to ensure that you get good sample codes and a good Emulator for the release of the game. One good suggestion would be J2ME.

Some of the important mobile application development issues requiring attention before the real coding is taken up include deciding the design of the game, gathering the basic date for the game, developing an interesting story line, establishing the different modes of playing the game. Once these parameters are done with the next important task is to explore the given Application Programming Interface (API) because lack of knowledge on this account can lead to coding of unnecessary lines. Subsequently, understanding the mobile devices and their specifications such as screen size, image format support and audio format support are necessary for making mobile games.

This article endeavors to provide the basic tips, as every one of us learns differently, some prefer reading books /articles while others love learning by example. Mobile application development is a vast subject and mastering ever bit is not all that easy. There is so much of information on that one is sure to get confused and might tend to give up at one point of time. But remember perseverance is the key to success in complex fields like programming mobile games development.