determining phone compatibility list
How does one go about determining the set of phones your game is going to be compatible with? I want to learn the most common screen sizes, processor speeds, amount of memory, and key layouts for the most popular gaming phones. From there I can design my game to be compatible with the greatest number of phones.
What is a typical number of phones that a game such as a side-scroller is compatible with? I was surprised to see that Mophun is only supported on 16 phones (counted them on their site). Therefore I'm thinking it is unlikely I will choose Mophun as my platform. How about J2ME vs BREW? I get the impression that J2ME is more popular, but how big is the difference? Of course I can see the list of BREW-compatible phones on the BREW website, but I don't know how many of those are capable of running a side-scroller.
Your game can only be guaranteed to run on phones you've tested it on. Not any others.
It's likely that you will want to make slightly different "flavours" of the game for different screen sizes, as the graphics layout may vary (example: sprite size, layout of scores etc).
It's also possibly that you will have to make different versions of the game even for phones with the same screensize - although you might be able to avoid that.
On some vendors you may want to use vendor-specific stuff that can't easily be abstracted at runtime (Like Nokia's full screen canvas). On other vendors you might want to optionally use features at runtime, like MMAPI for sound.
In principle you could make the same .jar run differently on different devices - by using runtime checks to determine which tile sets / layout / sound interface to use. But this will make the .jar bigger as it will contain code / data which does not apply to the phone it's currently running on.
I don't develop J2ME games commercially - but if I did, I expect my phone device support would be largely determined by what the publisher / distributor wanted.
Mark
It's likely that you will want to make slightly different "flavours" of the game for different screen sizes, as the graphics layout may vary (example: sprite size, layout of scores etc).
It's also possibly that you will have to make different versions of the game even for phones with the same screensize - although you might be able to avoid that.
On some vendors you may want to use vendor-specific stuff that can't easily be abstracted at runtime (Like Nokia's full screen canvas). On other vendors you might want to optionally use features at runtime, like MMAPI for sound.
In principle you could make the same .jar run differently on different devices - by using runtime checks to determine which tile sets / layout / sound interface to use. But this will make the .jar bigger as it will contain code / data which does not apply to the phone it's currently running on.
I don't develop J2ME games commercially - but if I did, I expect my phone device support would be largely determined by what the publisher / distributor wanted.
Mark
Not only do you develop games according to what the publisher/distributor wants but you should also make sure that you develop for a market of a large enough size to gain you money. Thats what business is all about after all.
Series 60 phones, judging from game sales i know of, have the highest rate of game downloads. Probably making this the best market to develop for.
Series 60 phones, judging from game sales i know of, have the highest rate of game downloads. Probably making this the best market to develop for.
Quote:Original post by kooktroop
Not only do you develop games according to what the publisher/distributor wants but you should also make sure that you develop for a market of a large enough size to gain you money. Thats what business is all about after all.
Series 60 phones, judging from game sales i know of, have the highest rate of game downloads. Probably making this the best market to develop for.
I thought the series 40 phones have the highest rate of downloads?Anyway,where do you get your figures from?Not that i am doubting you,but i need the url to check some other sales figures for other phones and other related information.Will be glad if you can provide the url.
Hi, the series 40 sales are high, you should never disclude them from your ports. Never. The sales information i have can't be disclosed, sorry.
I was also suprised when i heard it, so i understand what you're thinking. It does make sense when you think about it though, series 60 owners tend to have more money and be more aware of their technology and what it can do. Therefore making them more likely to download games.
I was also suprised when i heard it, so i understand what you're thinking. It does make sense when you think about it though, series 60 owners tend to have more money and be more aware of their technology and what it can do. Therefore making them more likely to download games.
Yeah, I would guess that Series 60 sales are high because Series 60 users are more likely to use their phone as something other than a phone, or they would have gotten a cheaper model. So that would mean they are more likely to buy games.
Series 40 on the other hand, would have high sales just based on the market share they have. They are by far the most common Nokia phones around.
shmoove
Series 40 on the other hand, would have high sales just based on the market share they have. They are by far the most common Nokia phones around.
shmoove
Melkiades - I looked at your links and I found our 'climber x' game in the playmobile.ru thread!! great!!..thx for pointing us there :)
Quote:Original post by kooktroop
Hi, the series 40 sales are high, you should never disclude them from your ports. Never. The sales information i have can't be disclosed, sorry.
I was also suprised when i heard it, so i understand what you're thinking. It does make sense when you think about it though, series 60 owners tend to have more money and be more aware of their technology and what it can do. Therefore making them more likely to download games.
It's ok if you can't disclose your sources.I'm just surprised as i thought that most nokias out there belong to the S40 group(me included).Anyway,most games that i intend to work on,i will create 2 versions for the s40 and s60 since these 2 groups seem to have the most game downloads from what i've gathered compared to other phones handsets from other manufacturers.
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