1
Rhodes University
Department of Computer Science
Computer Science Honours Project Proposal
1. Principal Investigator Alex Koller
Computer Science Honours Student at Rhodes University.
27 Ilchester Road, Grahamstown, 6139 082 339 5964
2. Title of Project
A comparison of mobile phone game development with JME vs. Flash Lite.
3. Mentoring
Dr. Greg Foster and Madeleine Wright.
4. Support
The Computer Science department will offer support through Centre of Excellence funding and software. The Flash Special Interest group headed by Dr. Greg Foster will provide support for Flash development.
5. Objective of Research
The main goal of this project is to compare mobile game development on the Java Platform Micro Edition (JME), and the Adobe Flash Lite platform. This will be done by investigating which APIs are available on each platform, and how well suited they are to game
development. We will gain a solid understanding of the capabilities of both platforms, and will then be able to create a game suited to both platforms. We will also investigate the use of WiFi/Bluetooth as a means of networking for multiplayer games, and the possible
implementation of this.
2 6. Background/History of the Study
The popularity of mobile phone games has increased rapidly over the past few years due to the arrival of sophisticated mobile phone handsets equipped with the latest in technology.
JME is currently the most popular platform for developing games on mobile devices. The majority of mobile phones on the market have support for JME. According to Sun
Microsystems, in 2004, the number of Java enabled mobile phones worldwide was over 250 million. In comparison, Flash Lite is a newcomer to the mobile phone industry but is gathering support quickly, and may offer an alternative for mobile game developers. Flash Lite is the mobile version of Adobe Flash, which is known for its short development time and ease of use. These factors, along with others such as vector graphics, make Flash Lite an obvious competitor to JME for mobile game development.
7. Approach to the Study
Initially various development environments will need to be investigated for mobile
development in JME, including NetBeans and IntelliJ IDEA 6.0. We will then select the most appropriate IDE for mobile game development. For Flash Lite development Flash
Professional 8 will be used as an IDE and ActionScript 2.0 as the programming language.
We will continue our research by gaining an understanding of general gaming concepts and various methodologies behind game development. With this background knowledge in mind we will research and compare the appropriate APIs available for game development on both platforms. Depending on which APIs are present in both JME and Flash Lite, we will design and develop a game that is fairly equally suited to both platforms. The performance of the game will be monitored and tested quantitively on each platform and compared by means of total file size, loading time, frames per second, and memory usage.
Once a working game has been produced and tested on both platforms, research will be done into multiplayer gaming over Bluetooth and possibly WiFi. If this research proves viable, a multiplayer system will be implemented in the game.
After the development stage, comprehensive testing on both platforms will need to be
conducted, especially on the multiplayer aspect of the game. This may lead to optimisations, which will be extremely beneficial for a mobile phone application due to the limited resources available. We will look into modifying the game and implementing features based on which
3 APIs are available to the different platforms. This will result in two slightly different games, both better suited than the original to the platform on which they run, consequentially
showing the ways in which each platform is better suited to game development than the other.
8. Information to be Derived/Deliverables
We aim to produce a fully playable game for mobile phones developed in both JME and Flash Lite. In addition to this, a research paper will be produced with a comparison of the APIs available for both platforms and how they are suited to game development. We will draw conclusions from comparing the performance on each platform of both the standard versions, and the extended versions. A detailed explanation of the advantages each platform offers for developing games on mobile phones will be produced.
9. Equipment Requirements
The software required for this project will be: NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA 6.0, Flash Professional 8 and Flash Lite 2.1. Most of this software is available from the Computer Science
department. The hardware required for this project will be a suitable phone (possibly Nokia N93, Nokia N73 or Nokia N80) for installing and testing the game, and preferably an extra, different phone to realistically test the multiplayer aspect and compatibility. A
Bluetooth/WiFi USB dongle will be required for connecting the phones to my desktop PC.
10. Timeline for implementation
Start Date Duration Activity
2007-03-05 1 Week IDE Investigation
2007-03-12 3 Weeks API Research
2007-04-07 8 Weeks Developing the Game
2007-06-11 3 Weeks Testing and Debugging
2007-07-30 1 Week Networking Research
2007-08-06 2 Weeks Networking Implementation
2007-08-20 3 Weeks Game Optimisation and Enhancements
2007-09-24 6 Weeks Thesis Write-Up
4 11. Additional Information
On the Symbian operating system, Flash applications must be launched from within the Flash Lite application. We will develop a Symbian application in C++ that will facilitate the launching of Flash applications. Various methods, such as Over-The-Air (OTA), of deploying the final product will also be investigated.
12. Relevant Publications
The following will be valuable sources of information.
Afshar, R., Jones, C., Banerjee, D., Advergaming Developer's Guide: Using Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Director MX, Hingham, Mass.: Charles River Media, 2004.
Eberly, D. H., Game Physics, Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann, 2004.
Garvey, L., A Mobile Phone Networking Application, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2005.
Nokia, Choosing the Right Development Environment for Series 60 Application Development, 2002
Rhodes, G., Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development, Boston, Mass.: Charles River Media, 2007.
Wells, M. J., J2ME Game Programming, Boston, Mass.: Thomson/Course Technology, 2004.
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-02/sunflash.20040219.1.xml Date accessed: March 2007
