Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Although it is not used on today's newest mobile platforms, such as iPhones and
Android-powered smartphones, it is still very popular on low-end devices, such as
the Nokia's Series 40, and in general, on several million devices worldwide that are
Java enabled.
For the first decade of the 21st century, Java has been the most popular choice for
game development, as it was identified as the most convenient and versatile platform
to develop mobile games. It has been considered as a standard and was backed by
all major mobile phones makers, and still most of the present day mobile phones are
Java-enabled.
The reason why Java ME is so popular is that it is a free and open platform that
keeps the development costs low and provides all the necessary flexibility, while sup-
port for developers is freely available.
Its highly portable nature, expressed by the sentence "write once, run anywhere",
ensures that a game written having a specific handset in mind will work with all other
handsets which are Java enabled as well.
Applications and games written with Java ME are stable and robust, allowing deve-
lopers to create the best performing mobile apps.
Its programming environment is especially suitable for developing games, consider-
ing that Java ME apps can run both online and offline. And, in any case, Java ME is
supported by most of today's smartphones.
The usual problems with mobile games development, that relate to screen size,
memory availability, and app download size, can be effectively approached with Java
ME, thanks to specific development frameworks that detect the device characterist-
ics and provide enough flexibility so that the app itself can adjust.
Java ME is an industry-wide technology, with most manufacturers offering a range of
devices that support it. Your Java ME game will not only have the opportunity to run
on over one billion Nokia cell phones in use today, but it can also reach over three
billion devices which are still in use all over the world!
Though Java ME is losing a significant share of the mobile phone market due to the
proliferation of the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry platforms, there are still several
