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Develop state-of-the-art mobile games

Trends in mobile games and a survey of related J2ME APIs

By Michael Juntao Yuan, JavaWorld.com, 11/07/03

Throughout the IT industry's history, computer games have been one of the drivers behind technology innovations. Computer gamers are hungry for more hardware computing power; they are eager to push the limits of various software—from compelling graphics to artificial intelligence (AI) to network security. Game developers and players are often the earliest adopters of leading-edge computer technologies. Due to their innovative nature, games are not in danger of becoming technology commodities controlled by big outsourcing corporations—there is always plenty of room for talented individual innovators in this space.

The market for games will continue to grow as the technology enhances the playing experience. As the enterprise IT revolution improves our work life by saving time and money, we spend more time and money on games to improve the general quality of life. Even in today's difficult economic times, gaming remains a fast growing and profitable industry sector. Java developers should not overlook the tremendous opportunities here.

As in the rest of the IT industry, the latest buzz in the game industry is mobility. Mobile games have brought together many unlikely players from traditional enterprise companies (e.g., Sun Microsystems' new game division), equipment manufactures (e.g., Nokia's N-Gage and Qualcomm's Brew devices), and network operators (e.g., Vodafone's content services).

As Java developers, we are well suited to enter this profitable new industry sector because the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) is emerging as one of the most widely supported mobile gaming platforms. In this article, I discuss the opportunities and challenges of mobile gaming from a Java developer's perspective. I also survey state-of-the-art mobile Java technology through important J2ME specifications.

Mobile game characteristics

Mobile games' financial appeal comes from their wide reach. Mobile phones have become tightly integrated into the modern lifestyle. They are second only to keys and wallets as the most commonly carried personal items. Unlike traditional console games that target geeks and teenagers, mobile games are accessible to anyone—anywhere, anytime. Although each mobile game is inexpensive, the projected large volume (e.g., a new game per week per person) will make this market immense and profitable. However, for developers, mobile games present a big paradigm shift from console games due to the vastly different target audience, lifestyle, and distribution models. Let's start with mobile games' requirements.

Requirements

A successful mobile game will likely have one of the following characteristics:

• Easy to learn: Since mobile games target general consumers not computer-savvy techies, they cannot have steep learning curves. Consumers will not spend hours studying an operation manual of a game. The game must be playable the moment it is downloaded. It is essential to keep the game simple.
• Interruptible: Multitasking is a basic characteristic of the mobile lifestyle. A mobile user often has small chunks of free time available between tasks (e.g., while waiting for an email or a taxi to arrive). The same device is used for games, calendar management, messaging, and work data access. A good mobile game should provide entertainment value for short time periods and allow users to switch smoothly between game and work modes.
• Subscription based: Mobile games' financial success depends on their large volume. It is expensive to design and develop each game from scratch. For a mobile game developer to make money, it is important to offer multiple titles from the same game engine along similar basic storylines. Subscription-based games are the best way to generate sustained revenue.
• Rich social interactions: No matter how good a game design is, it quickly becomes boring when the player figures out the underlying pattern or has exhausted all the play routes. For subscription-based games, it is important to incorporate other human players to increase the intelligence and randomness of the game play. Games with rich social interactions have proven successful in many of today's massively multiplayer games.
• Take advantage of mobile innovations: A huge amount of mobile technology research dollars have been spent on improving the usability and reliability of devices and networks. As a result, the mobile device hardware and network protocols are very different from the desktop/console world (e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS) extensions, barcode scanner, and Short Message Service (SMS)/Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messaging). Good mobile games should take advantage of those innovative device features and network infrastructures.
• Nonexplicit content: Since all age/gender groups play mobile games and often in public/work settings, you should avoid explicit violent or sexual content.

Types of mobile games

Based on the above criteria, the most successful future mobile games are casual games that provide entertainment value to a broad range of players in all social settings. In particular, the following types of games are emerging as tomorrow's killer games: