Description
Do you have a great idea for a JavaME game? Do you want to show your skills? Do you want to be a part of the cell phone game crowd?!?!Creat your own JavaME game. Use the very latest in tools to do this. Post your application and see how many users you can get to try it out!
Basic Steps
Here is what you do if you are new to mobile game development:
- Go to netbeans.org, download/install NetBeans (make sure you download one of the bundles that includes Java ME)
- Run NetBeans
- Go to File > New Project > Samples > Java ME (MIDP) > Simple Game Created with Game Builder
- Fill out the Wizard (it's very simple)
- Do "Build Main Project"
- Do "Run Main Project", the cell phone emulator should start. Click on the button under the word "Launch" (just like a real cell phone), and the game should start running in the emulator.
- Follow the instructions at the Java ME Game Builder Tutorial to add a new level to the demo game. This will give you experience with NetBeans graphical Mobile Game Builder.
- Examine the new DemoGameCanvas.java file that you got from the tutorial, this is where the code is that manages moving of the user's character and the level switching. These are the basic building blocks of writing a simple sprite-based Java ME game.
After exploring the sample, if you want to investigate a more complete game, there is a mobile game project (zip file) available from the 2008 JavaOne. Download the zip file, unzip it, and point your browser at the index.html file included in the zip bundle. The tutorial was written for an older version of NetBeans, so some of the instructions are slightly incorrect as things have been renamed. But it's possible to work through the entire lab, possibly with a few mistakes and some backtracking. This example includes a more realistic game, with a real goal and score keeping. The source code is commented and should provide a good reference if you want to write your own game.
Once you have completed this, or if you already know what you are doing ...
- Invtite friends to join your project
- Come up with a bunch of Java ME game ideas. The web is always a good place to start.
- Start with the simple game from above OR start from scratch
- Enhance or build your application
- Keep the project updated with staus, use the discussions and upload work in progress
- When you are done - upload the results so that others can see.
Have fun!