Hey Guys, First off I'll admitantly say I haven't spent a lot of time searching for resources yet. I just want to plant this seed, and see where it goes, as I do my own research. Anyway, I am looking into getting into 2D game development for Cell Phones, and I'm looking for a tutorial series. I have a good amount of PC and Console game development experience, but have never done anything on phones. I have extensive experience in C/C++, and use Action Script on a regular basis for work. I've done a bit of C# too. I don't have any Java experience though, but would like to use it for this project. I feel confident that I can learn it as I go. So can anyone think of any tutorials tailored to someone with this experience? As I said, I'll keep looking on m own, but would love a push in the right direction. Thanks, Matt

Quote:Original post by matthughson
So can anyone think of any tutorials tailored to someone with this experience? As I said, I'll keep looking on m own, but would love a push in the right direction.

Some time ago I was in the same situation as you, Matt. I got a job as a game programmer for mobile phones but I had completly no idea even how to create a midlet. Fortunately, I took a couple of days and read some tutorials on Java and M3G. Thanks to my previous experience in games for PC I have no bigger troubles with Java games development. If you already have the basis, don't worry. Just note that Java is NOT C++ and there are some fundamental differences which can make you feel confused if you stick to your C++ habbits ('references', arrays ...).

In the company, we use mostly M3G and Mascot Capsule v3. You can find lots of good official tutorials on Sony-Ericsson, Nokia and other sites. Also check out these tutorials :
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-mobile1/index.html
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/wireless/library/wi-mobile2/
http://developers.sun.com/techtopics/mobility/apis/articles/3dgraphics/

The biggest problem in game development for mobile phones are limitations. Limitation is a word you have to write on your screen. ;) Thus, mobile programmers has to be really smart and spend a lot of effort on code optimization. Plus, there are lots of compatibilty issues across different phones (emulators don't spot all differences).

Good luck! :)

Thanks for the info guys!

I actually found this article really helpful. I read it last night, and by midnight had a good chunk of a pac-man game running on a cell phone! This is really exciting stuff!

I appretiate your warnings of the limitations of cellphones, and I'm actually looking forward to that. I like squeezing cool stuff out of very limited platforms, so this should be a lot fun.

Feel free to post any additional resources!

Thanks,
Matt

Quote:Original post by shmoove
It's in the sticky thread, so I don't know if you've seen it or not, but if you're in the mood for some reading, have a look at this.

Great resource! The section on sprites, tiled layers, and layer managers, was extremely helpful!

Matt