Revision as of 21:24, 8 September 2011

Welcome to the Games category of the Nokia Developer wiki. Here you will find not only a list of the wiki articles on games development for Nokia phones, but also links to examples of games in Nokia Developer Projects, recordings of presentations about games development, and much more.

So what do you need to know to get started with games development for Nokia phones?

Future smartphones

Nokia’s forthcoming Windows Phone smartphones will enable you to create rich games using the Silverlight/XNA Framework application model.

Latest smartphones

When creating games with Qt or (where possible) native Symbian C++, Symbian^3 and Symbian Anna smartphones and the Nokia N9 smartphone offer you industry standard graphics APIs, with 2D and 3D graphics acceleration for optimum user experiences. You will create games using OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 as well as with the OpenVG 1.1 APIs on Symbian phones. You can create games with the easy-to-use Qt SDK as well as in native Symbian C++ using Symbian^3 SDK for Nokia devices.

The 2D/3D graphics accelerator in S^3 phones is a little different compared to other commonly used 2D/3D accelerators. If you want to get the most from the accelerator features, the webinars provide details of the special optimisation hints you can use.

Not all graphics in Adobe Flash Lite and Java™ apps take full advantage of the acceleration features. For example, while graphics created with the Mobile 3D Graphics API for J2ME™ (JSR-184) are hardware accelerated, those created with the Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API for J2ME™ (JSR-226) API are rendered in software. For more information, see Graphics hardware acceleration in the Java Developer’s Library. As a result, you should review the use of Flash or Java code for your apps, and consider using Qt or native C/C++ where these technologies may offer better performance.

Earlier smartphones

For phones built on S60 5th Edition and earlier you can use many of the same APIs as the latest smartphones and create your games using Qt SDK or native Symbian C++. However, be aware that most of these early smartphones don’t have 2D/3D graphics acceleration (with the exception of the Nokia N95 mobile computer and its variants, which provides acceleration with OpenGL ES 1.1.)

You can create Java technology and Adobe Flash Lite games for these phones too.

Series 40 phones

Your primary options for developing games for Series 40 phones is Java technology. However, the range of hardware in Series 40 phones varies and can affect the performance of games: the two key items to be aware of are differences in CPU performance and the variation in screen resolutions. While Adobe Flash Lite is available on many Series 40 devices, the implementation isn’t up to date and you may find it unsuitable for anything except the simplest of games.

Articles

• How to utilise OpenGL ES 2.0 on Symbian^3 and Maemo

Projects

Series 40 games examples

• Sudokumaster, JavaME, multiple resolution support and input methods.
• Battletank, JavaME, sprites, tiles and audio playback.
• Drumkit, JavaME, touch input and audio playback.
• Racer, JavaME, sprites, gesture input and audio playback.

Symbian games examples

• EPONG, Qt, S^3 C++
• Qt GameEnabler Framework
• Quickhit, Qt/QML
• GoatOfTheHill, Qt, S^3
• DJ TurnTable
• Solitaire, Qt
• QMLBox2D, Qt/QML

Windows Phone games examples

• Angry Monsters, C#/XNA/Box2D
• Moto Trial Racer, C#/XNA/Box2D
• Solitaire, C#/XNA/Box2D

Webinars

Developing Games for Series 40 with Java™ Technology

• Recording
• Presentation File:FuturiceS40GamesWebinar.pdf

Developing a Casual Game with Qt Quick

• Recording
• Presentation File:ICSCasualGamesWithQml.pdf

Developing Games for Symbian^3 Devices with Qt

• Recording
• Presentation File:QtGames.pdf

Developing Games for Symbian^3 Devices with Symbian C++

• Recording
• Presentation File:SymbianNativeGames.pdf

Learning Materials

Nokia Developer landing page for all learing content.

• Mobile Hands-on Labs: learning tutorial with IDE walkthroughs and hands-on exercises for Qt, Web Runtime widgets, Flash Lite, and Mobile Java
• Java ME Games and Graphics Training Course

• Java ME Multimedia Training Course