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Mariam Dholkawala

Mariam Dholkawala

IGameStudio

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The Art of Storyboarding
  3. The Game Body
  4. Optimizing the Code
  5. Dressing Up Your Game
  6. Where's That Bug?
Created:
22 August, 2005
User Level:
Intermediate, Advanced
Products:
Devices

Cryptic Capers: Best Practices for Mobile Game Development

Developing games based on Macromedia Flash technology has always been a great delight, because the possibilities for innovation are endless. With Flash, you can create great-looking scalable graphics that are easy to edit and write complex code that is simple to debug and test.

I've been working with Flash for more than four years now. I got my first taste of ActionScript with Flash 4. Since then I have developed numerous games for Indiagames for the Internet, CD-ROMs, and now for handheld devices (using Macromedia Flash Lite technology). It was a lot easier for me to adapt to and create Flash Lite games, because Indiagames already has a very strong mobile games portfolio of J2ME, BREW, and Symbian games. Flash Lite is a perfect fit for our business strategy.

Looking at our Flash Lite game portfolio so far, you may find it hard to believe that we only started developing games with Flash Lite 1.1 last year: We developed Cryptic Capers—a game that won the Best Game award in the Macromedia Flash Lite Content Contest in Fall 2004 (see Figure 1). At the time, we made the strategic decision to learn the ins and outs of Flash Lite by developing an application instead of approaching the technology by learning to use its syntax first and then applying our knowledge to a product.

Figure 1. Cryptic Capers won Best Game award at the first Macromedia Flash Lite Content Contest.

Figure 1. Cryptic Capers won the Best Game award at the first Macromedia Flash Lite Content Contest.

In this article, I share some of my knowledge and experience of developing complex games like Cryptic Capers within a restricted Flash/ActionScript environment with Flash Lite. Along the way, I will provide optimization tips that will be useful to everyone who wants to create complex games.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software and files:

Flash MX Professional 2004 with the 7.2 update

Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1 CDK

A Flash Lite–enabled device

Tutorials and sample files:

Prerequisite knowledge:

This article is for experienced Flash developers with some Flash Lite experience and a working knowledge of Flash 4 syntax.

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About the author

Mariam Dholkawala is heading the game development studio IGameStudio, where she caters to developing Flash content on various platforms with a focus on mobile phones. Mariam is also the manager of IndiMaD—The Indian Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group. With more than seven years' experience working with Flash and other Adobe products such as Director, she has been the project lead on numerous games and applications, including two award-winning games on the Flash Lite platform. When not working on Flash games, Mariam likes traveling to new countries and learning about new cultures and languages.