Gaming on Mobiles 

Talk of mobile games and the first thing that comes to mind is “Snake” on Nokia cellphones. But, as mobile phones have moved from being the bulky 200 grams black bricks with monochrome displays to the sleek and lightweight sets with 16-bit color screens we see today, the games have also followed suit. 

Though the mobile phone is primarily a communication device, it is predicted that the number of people who are using the mobile phones for gaming will increase tremendously in the near future. The slated launch of the Nokia n-gage gaming phone (www.n-gage.com)
is a step in this direction. Owing to this, there’s a lot of buzz happening in the mobile phone game development market. Here, we’ll talk about some of these development platforms, namely J2ME, ExEn and Mophun and X-forge.

J2ME

J2ME is a platform used not only for mobile phones but also for a large number of other embedded systems like PDAs, TV-Set top boxes, in-vehicle telematics, etc. J2ME offers the same portability and platform independence as offered by its larger counterparts, namely J2SE and J2EE. It is actually a subset of J2SE. More details at
http://java.sun.com/j2me/.

Though J2ME is the most commonly used gaming platform, it is neither the fastest nor the most developer friendly. That’s because it’s not really customized for game development or gaming. That’s why, it’s been noticed that gaming performance experienced by game developers using J2ME is not as much as with other platforms. 

In fact, version 1.0 of the Java runtime environment for mobile devices, called the Mobile Information Device Profile did not have many game specific features, not even sound. The new MIDP, version 2.0, does include a gaming API but it still lacks basic gaming features like animation etc. Plus, a majority of handsets in the market support only MIDP 1.0 that makes development on this platform very difficult. Another problem that developers face in developing for this platform is that there is no game distribution model in place for this. The only saving grace is that the install base is large and it is relatively easy to find buyers for the developer himself.

ExEn 

The In-Fusio SDK is a Java based GUI game development environment on ExEn. ExEn, short for Execution Engine
(www.in-fusio.com) is a gaming engine that has been developed by In-Fusio. They have tied up with various operators across Europe to provide their services on the mobile phones supplied by them. They have two kinds of engines on the client side mobile phone, basic and advanced. The basic features of the same are:

ExEn basic (v2.1): 256-color or black and white, 2D, client side game engine, with a memory footprint of 140k on the mobile device.

ExEn advanced (v2.2): 65k color, polyphonic sound, 3D, in-game Macromedia Flash, client side engine, with a memory footprint of 240k.

In-fusio plans to launch its MIDP 2.0 (Mobile Information Device Profile of J2ME) compliant “ExEn Java Extensions” by the end of 2003. Most of the development platforms that we mention here are free unlike the restricted SDKs of console games.

This platform is no different. The SDK and documentation can be downloaded from the in-fusio website by filling a simple form. 

The In-fusio SDK is available both as a command line version, as well as GUI. 

The API is based on Java and is very similar to J2ME, but is optimized for game development and deployment instead. Even the programming style is almost the same. The ExEn API has various gaming specific classes that are absent from J2ME.

Some of the game related classes are: Gamelet, Playfield, Raycast, FX, Vector 3D, Texture Map etc. A developer can develop the game using this API and distribute it through In-fusio directly. But this service is only available to premium members. Since In-fusio has tie ups with a lot of mobile operators, it acts as a distributor for these games trough Gamezilla, its game distribution platform. That enables games downloads on mobile phones by the users themselves.

Mophun 

This is one of the latest entrants in the mobile gaming market (see www.mophun.com). Though the development of the engine started as early as 1998, the first Mophun enabled handsets were seen only towards the end of 2002. Then also, Mophun was coming only on 3 mobile handsets by Sony Ericsson. But recently they have announced the release of their game engine for Symbian based Series 60/UIQ phones. These sets of phones include Sony Ericsson P800, Nokia 3650, Nokia 7650 and the Nokia n-gage. 

The Mophun Platform basically consists of four modules: 

Mophun RTE (Run-Time Engine) resides embedded on the mobile phone.

Mophun API (Application Programming Interface) enables access to the functions supported by the RTE.

Mophun SDK (Software Development Kit) is the tool available for the programmer for controlling the API.

Mophun VST (Vendor Signing Tool) is the tool used by Mophun to sign and lock the game for a particular device. Basically used for distribution purposes.

The API includes game development specific features like Sound, Sprite Collision, Background Mapping, Animation, SMS Check, Infra red/ Blue Tooth, TCP/IP etc. Unlike the platforms discussed above, Mophun is based on C++ rather than Java and the user can use Visual Studio to develop games for the same.

In terms of the processing speed, Mophun is the fastest among the lot. But it is not just the technology that is important in game development. The business is also important, though like In-fusio, Mophun also has a business model, but the sheer fact that there is very little support from the market for the same, it is generating less interest among the developers.

X-Forge 

Found in the year 2000, Fathammer (www.fathammer.com) announced the X-Forge 3D game engine in mid 2001 and finally released it commercially in October 2002. X-Forge is focused towards all the mobile devices and not only mobile phones. 

On mobile phones it supports Symbian based Series 60/UIQ models by Nokia ( 3650, 7650, n-gage) and Sony Ericsson P800. Other supported devices/ applications include Pocket PC, Orange SPV smartphone, Windows CE, Mobile Linux on the Sharp Zaurus and so on.

It is fully optimized for the Nokia N-Gage and is the only platform certified by them for N-gage development.

The X-Forge SDK consists of six parts: X-Forge Core, X-Forge Game Engine, Utility Library, Tools, Example Code and Documentation. Though the SDK is comprehensive and offers more features than any other of the development platforms, it is not free. The developer can download the SDK on a 45-day trial version upon evaluation by the X-Forge team. The X-Forge license can be obtained on a per game basis by paying a flat licensing fee and a royalty on the sales of the games by the publisher. There is a separate OEM licensing agreement. 

Though the platform is good, the number of games available is very less. The primary reason for this is that the platform is very new and the tight licensing being followed by the parent company.

Geetaj Channana