Mobile Games Development

Mobile Games Development using Java ME (Netbeans)

2011-03-02T17:08:00.001-08:00

These series of tutorial are intended to teach beginners (with some programming background in Java) on how to use Netbeans IDE 6.9.x to develop Java ME games.

(1) Revisions on Java SE:

o MGD01_Lab 01: My First App for Java Application
o MGD01_Lab 02: Data Types and Conversions
o MGD01_Lab 03: Conditions and Loops

Mgd01 lab01to03

(2) Introduction to Java ME:

o MGD01_Lab 04: My First MIDlet for Java ME Application
o MGD01_Lab 05: Packaging and Deployment

Mgd01 lab04to05

(3) Part 1 to 5 Java ME Game Tutorial Series

The game will be completed after going through the following series of lab sheets:

Part 1	MIDlet Mgd02 lab01
Part 2	UI Mgd04 lab03
Part 3	GameAPI Mgd05 lab02
Part 4	Storage Mgd06 lab01
Part 5	MMAPI Mgd07 lab01
Extra	Modify the above game from Pong to Breakout style Mgd07 lab02

(4) Other Java ME tutorials

o MGD04_Lab 01: High level UI

Mgd04 lab01

o MGD04_Lab 02: Low level UI

Mgd04 lab02

o MGD05_Lab 01: Game API

Mgd05 lab01

o MGD08_Lab 01: Optimization

Mgd08 lab01

(5) Using Netbeans Visual Mobile Designer and Game Builder to Build Tiled-Based Game Tutorial Series

Series 1:

o MGD09_Lab 01: Using Visual Mobile Designer to create the main form and result form

Mgd09 lab01

o MGD09_Lab02: Using game builder to create the sprites, tiled layers and game scene

Mgd09 lab02

o MGD09_Lab03: Add the game logic and complete the tiled game

Mgd09 lab03

Series 2:

o MGD10_Lab 01: Using Visual Mobile Designer to create the splash screens and main menu

Mgd10 lab01

o MGD10_Lab02: Using game builder to create the sprites, tiled layers and game scene

Mgd10 lab02

o MGD10_Lab03: Add the game logic and complete the tiled game

Mgd10 lab03

Let me know if the above tutorials are useful to you.

Android Programming using Netbeans 6.9.x

2011-01-31T23:06:00.001-08:00

Step 1: Download and Install Java JDK & Netbeans IDE

First of all, make sure you have downloaded and installed Java JDK and Netbeans IDE 6.9.x:

Download and install Java JDK: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Download and install Netbeans IDE: http://netbeans.org/downloads/

Now you should have a functional Netbeans for Java ME development:

Step 2: Install Google Android SDK

Download and install Google Android SDK from: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Step 3: Netbeans - Add Android plugin

3.1: Open Netbeans IDE

3.2: Tools > Plugins

3.3: Select “Settings” tab and click “Add”

3.4: Name: Android

URL: http://kenai.com/downloads/nbandroid/updatecenter/updates.xml

Click “OK”

Confirm that Android update centre is added:

3.5: Select “Available Plugins”, type in “android” and search

(If there is no result, click on “Reload Catalog”)

3.6: Check on “Android” and click “Install”

Click “Next”

Check “I accept the terms ..” and click “Install”

Click “Continue”

Click “Finish”

Click “Close”

That’s it for installing the android plugin.

Step 4: Netbeans – Add a new Java Platform

We need to add a new Java Plaform using the Google Android SDK installed in step 2.

4.1: Open Netbeans IDE

4.2: Tools > Java Platform

4.3: Click “Add Platform”

4.4: Select “ Google Android Open Handheld Platform” and click on “Next”

4.5: Use the explorer to navigate to the google android sdk folder.

Eg C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk-windows

Click “Next”

4.6: Select the platform and click “Finish”

Confirm that a new platform “ANDROID” is added. Click “Close”

That’s it.

Netbeans 6.9.x: Enable Storage between Sessions

2011-01-29T01:00:00.001-08:00

To enable storage (record store) between sessions, you need to have already installed Sun Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2.

Step 1: Add the storage size in the Java Platform Manager

1.1: Open Netbeans IDE

1.2: Tools > Java Platform

1.3: Select “Sun Java(TM) Wireless Toolkit” and click on “Tools & Extensions” tab

1.4: Click on “Open Preferences”

1.5: Select “Storage” and set the “Storage size” to say “100” KB

1.6: Click “OK” and then “Close” the Java Platform Manager.

Step 2: Update the Properties setting for your project

2.1: Right-click on your project and select “Properties”

2.2: Change the “Emulator Platform” to Sun Java (TM) Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2”

2.3: Click “OK” to exit the Properties window

Run your project that uses Record Store.

Exit and re-run your Midlet to confirm that the Record Store is working.

Java ME SDK 3.0 not working => switch back to Sun Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2

2011-01-29T00:57:00.001-08:00

After using the Java ME SDK 3.0 for a few months, I have found the following features not working:

1. Optimization tools:

Profiler (need to switch to Java ME SDK to test the project)
Memory tracking (not working even in Java ME SDK)
Network tracking

2. Storage between sessions (make it very difficult to test Record Store and need to deploy to actual phone to test)

The solution: switch back to Sun Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2

Step 1 : Download Sun Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2

It only support Windows XP and Linux-x86

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/download-135801.html

Page down and click on the Download button

Step 2: Install Sun Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2

Click on the exe file and follow the instruction for the installation.

Step 3: In Netbeans, add a new Java Platform

3.1: Open Netbeans IDE

3.2: Tools > Java Platform

3.3: Select J2ME and Click on “Add Platform …”

3.4: Select “Java ME MIDP Platform Emulator” and Click on “Next >”

3.5: Make sure WTK2.5.2_01 is selected and click “Next >”

3.6: Click “Finish”

Confirm that the new Java Platform has been added:

That’s all.

Netbeans IDE: Adjust the default emulator memory size

2011-01-27T19:20:00.001-08:00

Locate the Netbeans setting folder.

Example: C:\Program Files\NetBeans 6.9.1\etc

Look for a file named 'netbeans.conf'

Edit the property named 'netbeans_default_options'. Change the -Xms and -Xmx options will increase the amount of RAM available to the JVM that NetBeans will be running inside of.

Example: netbeans_default_options="-J-Xms384m -J-Xmx512m -J-XX:PermSize=32m -J-XX:MaxPermSize=96m -J-Xverify:none"

The above example will allow NetBeans to run with a minimum of 384 megabytes of RAM and a maximum of 512 megabytes of RAM.

Programming Windows Phone 7 Free ebook

2011-01-27T18:59:00.001-08:00

A free ebook on how to develop games on Phone 7 – it covers silverlight and xna.

Microsoft Press ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 (Microsoft_Press_ebook_Programming_Windows_Phone_7_PDF.pdf)