Game Development Tips

[kai_buki]

Hi guys,

I want to ask that when developing Java game for large range of devices (brands and resolution) what are the dos and don'ts which I should cater, till now I know that heap size matters from one phone to another phone, that is why to make game more general need to keep its JAR size small.

I want to know more factors which are involved in Java game development for mobile devices which will make game more generalized on many phones.

(I have one game, which I can play on Nokia N70, SE W700 but when I play it on MOTO V3i it hangs, that is why i want to know the factors which one should focus while developing game so that it can run on lower end phones also.)


Thanks

[grahamhughes]

Generally, Series 60 devices do not make a good choice for game development, if you want to target a large range of devices. Series 60s are fast, and have more memory than most other devices.

I'd guess your Motorola is running out of memory. It's probably throwing an exception, which you are catching, but it's leaving your game in a locked-state. In particular, Motorolas need a lot of memory to handle a call to createImage(). Typical heap size on many Motorolas is only 800k, and they are also quite slow. These limitations actually make Motos quite a good choice for development.

(If you can get hold of Motorola's "midway" tool, and activate the "Java App Loader" option on the device, you can load apps via cable (and save your phone bill), and also get System.out.println() sent to your PC. It is, apparently, also possible to get on-device debugging working on Motos, but I've never done it. Even getting System.out output is a great help in debugging.)

Remember that a loaded image costs anything between 2 and 4 bytes per pixel, depending on device. Multiply width by height, and you can quickly get some idea of how much heap an image will require. (Images need even more memory when loading, as you need enough heap to hold the loaded PNG file as well. On Motorolas, you also need at least 32k extra, to hold the decompression buffers.)

Hope that helps some.

Graham.