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.