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Developing and Adapting Flash Games for Flash Lite 1.1


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Development Considerations
  3. Converting the Game

Development Considerations

Before you even open Flash, you have to consider the type of games that will work on a mobile platform. On the web the most popular and effective Flash games have generally been simple but addictive experiences that play to the strengths of Flash, such as great support for vector graphics and short development time thanks to the flexibility of ActionScript. These factors also hold true for Flash Lite, so simple games are likely to be your best starting point in this new medium.

The next major consideration at this stage is which handset to develop for. This has a big impact on your development strategy because makes and models differ in screen size, as you can see by looking at the device templates provided in Flash MX Professional 2004. In addition, models often have different methods for control inputs. For example, the Series 60 Nokia handsets have either a five-function direction button or joystick. Contrast this to the Sony Ericsson P900 with its touch-screen and five-way jog wheel. Will your game work on both? Will you develop different versions for different handsets or can you have one scalable version that works across a range of devices?

Another vital factor in the development of games for Flash Lite is the processor speed of the target device. All your hard work may be for nothing if the end result is a slow, jerky, frustrating game experience. This factor varies between handsets, of course, so what can you do? The good news is that Macromedia provides a set of test applications as part of the Flash Lite 1.1 content development kit (CDK), including an excellent processor speedometer (see Examples > FPS Speedometer). If you use this item to assess a handset's capabilities at the start of your project, you can avoid frustrations later on.

In short, the watchwords here are planning and testing.

With these considerations in mind, let's look at how to use the new features provided by Flash Lite 1.1 to convert a game authored for the web into one for use on a mobile phone. For this tutorial you will be using a Nokia Series 60 handset as your target device.

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