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In-Depth Information
performance and reliability - and an infrastructure that features low risk
and minimal or no upfront costs.
Mobile operators and service providers can create and deploy online
gaming communities by using SNAP Mobile's managed solutions, without
any changes to the current infrastructure or additional expenditure on
hardware. Figure B.1 shows how the SNAP Mobile services plug into the
current operator or service provider environment.
Publishers and developers can benefit by not having to write all the
middleware infrastructure for connected games. They can leverage what
they already know, game development in JavaME using standard tools and
IDEs, and just integrate the lightweight SNAP Mobile libraries and tools
into their development process to quickly add connected functionality to
standalone games or to create new, connected, online multiplayer games
from scratch. Note that games developed with SNAP Mobile libraries
can be deployed to a number of Java ME devices, from numerous ven-
dors: the basic requirement is that the device supports MIDP 2.0 and
CLDC 1.1. In order to find out whether a certain device supports the
SNAP Mobile libraries, you can run the SNAP Mobile Device and
Network Test application (see Section B.5.1).
Mobile Operator
SNAP Mobile Engine
IMPS
Services
SNAP Game
Services
Radio Access
Network
Content
Delivery
Other
Application
Servers
SNAP Mobile
Gateway
Core
Network
Web
Services
Billing
Database
Figure B.1
SNAP Mobile hosted solutions in the operator environment
B.2 Game Development and the Publishing Process
To start explaining how game developers and publishers are supported in
creating SNAP Mobile games, one first needs to have an overall picture of
how the SNAP Mobile game development and publishing process works.
B.2.1 Planning
The SNAP Mobile game development process starts just like any other
game: the publisher comes up with a game concept and a business case
for the game. The developer creates a game design matching the concept
and, while creating the design, uses the SNAP Mobile documentation
