[casual_games] C to J2ME tools

[Lennard Feddersen]

Thanks for the thoughts Allan.  I'll only do a mobile version if the PC 
SKU is doing well so it would be a port of a finalized game where 
performance is a non-issue.  Last I looked at the cellphones they were 
getting pretty capable - is 64K really an important commercial threshold?

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7



Allan Simonsen wrote:

>One project we were involved in used some form of C++
>-> J2ME tool to convert between BREW and J2ME. It
>kinda works, but you'll need to continously hand-tweak
>it around the things that DIDN'T. For us it was almost
>worth it, since we were developing in parallell for
>both platforms, but...
>
>- If you're ONLY doing the mobile platform, go
>straight to J2ME, do not pass C++.
>
>- You'd need to hand-code a low-level abstraction API,
>since the converter only understands how to change
>syntactic sugar and basic types, not how to blit a
>sprite or load a sound.
>
>- Handphone games have totally different restrictions
>than casual games for the PC; especially the sub 64kb
>platforms (S40 J2ME), where you'll end up harcoding
>everything in 3-5 classes to avoid the per-class
>overhead. NOT the way you want to think when coding
>for the PC.
>
>- Handphone games spend a lot of energy abstracting
>screensize and phone capabilites so it will run nicely
>on the hundreds of different platforms. This is a pain
>when you're prototyping a design idea. It also
>involves making a significant investment in your
>art-pipeline (to handle somewhere between 3-10
>different base-SKUs at coding-time). 
>
>My personal recommendation would be to ignore
>handphones during development, and then spend the time
>after the PC game shipped on developing the mobile
>game, once gameplay and look is nailed down. 
>
>Alternatively, there are a bunch of low-cost porting
>houses that will take your PC game and churn out a
>J2ME + BREW multi-SKU product; that might be more of a
>plan if your game is a success.
>
>Allan
>
>
>
>--- Lennard Feddersen <Lennard at RustyAxe.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Does anybody have any experience with automated C to
>>J2ME style tools? 
>>I'm in the early days of my next project and think
>>it would fit well on 
>>cell phones but would prefer to do my PC coding in
>>C.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>Allan Simonsen                    simonsen at rocketmail.com
>ICQ# 16606984
>
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