Games on Symbian OS
A Handbook for Mobile Development
This book shows the potential for creating mobile games for Symbian smartphones such as S60 3rd Edition, UIQ 3 or FOMA devices. It covers various aspects of mobile games on Symbian OS, with 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.
The first part of the book discusses the mobile games industry, including 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. A chapter covering the use of hardware APIs, such as the camera and vibra, is also included.
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 making 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 without using C or C++, using Java ME, DoJa (for Japan) or Flash Lite 2.
Book facts
- Author: Jo Stichbury
- Published by John Wiley & Sons
- Publication date: February 2008
- 376 pages
- ISBN 0470998040
Related resources
Sample chapter Interview and GDC Mobile 2008 ReviewSource codeWiki page